Hear What People have to Say About Skatterbrane

Check out this review of the Waterbrane pickups!

First impressions - and that's all I've got right now -are good. I haven't mucked around with height or pole heads because, to my surprise Perry Ormsby (who installed them for me the other day) not only put 'em in, he set the poles to the correct heights and seemed to have the pickup height set for balanced output across both, which is how I like it. I didn't pay him to set em up, only to install them. He gave me a new switch tip, too. Nice fella. I shall fine tune later, no doubt.

At the macro level, both pickups are very 'open' sounding, with nice separation between strings. There's plenty of highs there. Lots of bite, crackle and snarl with the tone up. They both retain their clarity with the volume down. They're better than the Toneriders in these respects.

Individually, the bridge is a nice pickup. The fact that I'm mentioning this at all is significant because I don't usually have much to say about the bridge. This one is 'interesting' to listen to. It's a very agressive sounding pickup, in the Jimmy Page Since I've Been Loving You sense. It gets very interesting and warm with the tone backed off, giving a wide range of different sounds depending on vol and tone controls and where I strike the strings. As I said, it's an 'interesting' pickup, which is good because that's what I wanted.

I didn't explore the neck much, except to note that it's got a nice 'woman tone' and a nice range of vocal sounds with the tone low. It's got plenty of clarity for the neck solos.

However, what impressed me most (and where I spent most of the half hour or so that I've played these so far) were the middle position sounds. The pickups interact slightly differently to the Toneriders or the SD '59s. I like to use a setting with my bridge vol at about 75-80% and the neck at ~ 50% or slightly lower. This sound is biting and sounds like the bridge but fuller (call it sound A). And then for boosts I roll up either vol to 100%. I'll come back to this in a tick. A preset combo I like to play with is the bridge with vol at 50% and tone 100% (bright and nearly clean), and then flick to neck or middle posi with the neck at 100% vol and 0-20% tone. The middle sound is for solos ala 'woman tone' and the bridge is for funky clean rhythms.

Well...I was mucking around with this latter setting when I decided to go to 'sound A'. I went to middle, pushed the bridge up to 80%, and rolled the neck down and was getting ready to roll up the neck tone when I heard all this top end come through. I still had the neck tone backed off to 10%. What I found was that there was a region on the neck vol control where if I got below about 50% the overall middle sound brightened up a lot while still keeping the fullness of the neck, and if I went above that 50-60% mark it filled out and the tone rolled off.

Interesting. Neither the SD '59s or the Toneriders behave this way. They both went muddy in this middle setting if either tone was down. I don't understand how this is happening, and I don't know whether it's the pickups or whether Perry has wired them differently. I shall have to ask him. Either way it's an interesting development. There's hours of fun to had in there...

But the overall sonority of the middle position was really nice. It has a slight 'quacky' quality to it that hasn't been there since I took out the original bridge T-Top (which sadly went microphonic).

But to be honest, I want to hear these through my Super Reverb and Bassman with their volumes up around 50-60%. I've not got anywhere near that, yet. Perhaps this weekend.

But first impressions are positive. Very nice, Rod.

Hi, I just had the pickups installed. To say I like them would be an unjust understatement. In my 20+ years of playing I have never been so impressed with an upgrade. I'll be saving my pennies to put a set in my stage back up as well. I will leave 5 star +ve feedback. Cheers

- dajp1974

Check out the Metalbranes demo

Skatterbrane Yinbranes (A2) guitar pickup demo

Ladies and Gentlemen, Roger Butterley
 (lead starts with the middle position, then neck, then then bridge)

Just wanted to let you know I installed the Raw Nickel set in the ES 333 I recently picked up. I've been messing around with them all day and all I can say is...WOW!! Love them! The tone is incredible...very airy with a nice ping to single notes, great chord definition, and a beautiful midrange when pushed. Oh, and that middle position...has that open almost single coil thing, love it! They are also incredibly dynamic, VERY touch sensitive.

Really a joy to play. I recorded a quick little blues to listen back to... lead starts with the middle position, then neck, then the bridge. The rhythm gtr track is the ES 333 before the pickup swap with the stock 490 and 498T pickups. Doesn't sound bad, just missing that sparkle that the Skatterbrane's have.

I am really looking forward to playing this guitar on Phoebe's upcoming Live Record now, it has really come to life with these pickups! Thanks again, and we'll talk soon.

Sincerely-
Roger Butterley

PS- Please feel free to use any of my comments or the track for promotional purposes, you have my ringing endorsement!

http://www.fallenangelthemusical.com/

Rod,
  
Good to hear from you. My Dad is doing great and loves his guitar more and more everyday. As the wood and neck settle in he is slowly finding his tone. He literally talks about the sounds he gets and your pickups on a daily basis (that is not an exaggeration). I am probably your biggest fan, as this guitar was the culimation of 6 years of planning and anticipation and you pickups are absolutely the keystone to the sound I was looking to achieve. They are definitely the difference between a good sounding guitar and one that is incredible. My dad doesn't know much about the physics of guitars but can sure play them; I am the exact opposite so I guess he was lucky.

I am putting together another guitar and it will definitely have Skatterbranes in it as well...in addition I preach the word to all that will listen so I hope to send you some business at some point.

I wish you great success in all you do, you have a great product and you should be proud.

Ken

Morning Rod.

       Just got your emails as they were on my work computer. I got the pups on Saturday, thanks for such a speedy turnaround. I installed them later that day and man was I impressed!! You have really nailed it. As your other customers have said I've tried other custom pups in my search for a real paf sound but none compare to these. They really do have this creamy kind of voice and excellent attack. The neck pickup is right on the money and the bridge has a great tone without a thin piercing sound. I've never had the pleasure of playing real paf's but I grew up with all the bands that used the old Les Paul's and that sound has been with be ever since. You Raw set couldn't get any closer. So as others have said my search is over. I'll be ordering another set from you soon.

Thanks, Steve

Short clip comparing a vintage 1957 Les Paul with real PAFs, to a Historic R9 Les Paul, with Yangbranes:

Hi Rod!Hi Rod!

I was just thinking about you & your magic ears and superb winding skills. I wired the pickups in last night {with my old pots I just couldn't wait!} and - HOLY MOTHER! I could not believe the difference over the stock Gibson Burstbuckers. I’m probably not unique in my praise, as my buddy who suggested your pickups gave me a big, "Told Ya!". I sold my last Strat a few months ago and decided to give the Les Paul another go because I love the big tone I hear on vinyl. However, most Humbuckers I’ve heard are too thick, too harsh, too squashed and wound too damn hot! Your pickups nail the sound I never knew existed in present day Humbuckers! I was convinced the old school sounds warranted manning up ridiculous prices for PAF’s. I’m so happy to learn - with my own ears - that $300 gets me all those holy grail tones. And quickly! I payed you on a Sunday morning and I had the pickups on Wednesday night of the same week! That kind of honesty and customer service means so much to me. Thank you so much. I am very excited about my R8 which is made so well, with such great woods but whose true voice was stifled by the marginal stock pickups. This guitar sings with tremendous clarity and sweetness and the most unbelievable blues & rock tones I have ever heard. I am SO HAPPY! THANK YOU, ROD! You have shown a bright light on my heart & ears and I will sing the praises of your pickups to every body I know.

Many, Many Thanks!

Joe

Jeff, journeyman, with Yinbranes (A2s):

Rod;
Well. I got them installed. If the lead on the neck pickup would have been an eighth of an inch shorter it would not have made it. I went down to sam ash about 20 miles away and got some screws for 4 bucks. Well I have to say....... YOU ARE THE MAN. Seriously wicked shit you have in your fingers there my man. I am extremely impressed and see why they were so hard to find used. I was really torn about buying them. I only paid 550 for an old 80's Yamaha Lord Player (One of the true Lawsuit guitars from the era) I was 90 percent happy with the stock Pickups. So did I want to pay 345 for the remaining 5 or so percent? I didn't figure I would ever be 100 percent happy and to be honest these are a little bit noiser at extreme gain than the stock ones were. But the guitar literally sounds alive now. I am going to measure the guitar every night before I go to bed just to make sure she's not actually growing! LOL anyway just add me to a list of converts. I really truly thank you for making such a fantastic product. I take that back.... thank you for crafting such a beautiful piece of art. I feel like the guitar is finally one now. .... A completed instrument, not some combination of components pieced together.

My only two suggestions would be to include some screws as I am sure many are like me and can't afford or justify spending 2 to 3 grand on a decent les paul and then still adding your pickups to get the tone they are searching for and adding another 2 or 3 inches of lead to the neck pickup.

I'll be getting more in the future although I can't promise I will recommend your pickups to others..... I'm not sure if I want to share my ultimate secret weapon!

Please feel free to use the email. I will happily stand by your pickups. great point about the last 10 percent. Having heard them now I feel the 350 I spent on the pickups was by far and away the single best value for tone I have ever invested in ANY musical gear which is really strange because it was the one I was having the hardest time committing to. ( I've been looking at them for about 8 months now) I was having a really hard time because of the risk of being stuck with some pickups that were only marginally better because of your no return policy. I liked the soundclips but there is no way they can ever come close to the actual listening experience. When you are in the same room you can hear all the space between the windings. the soundclips are 2D pencil sketch and playing your pickups is a 3D quadraphonic acid trip kaleidoscope magic carpet ride. I got them all wired in about 7:00 PM and shut everything down about 1:00 AM and then only cause the wife made me and was back up and at it a 7:00 AM. I'd be willing to bet if you offered a place to put any returned pickups on consignment it would be empty 98 percent of the time. The deciding factor for me was ebay..... I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for some used ones. But they never came up. Finally it dawned on me... If they were getting them they were keeping them and I swear I knew in the first 30 seconds these pickups were going to be mine till the day I die. I might get rid of the guitar on day, doubtful but I might but the pickups ARE MINE! The Only other humbucker pickups I might ever get would be maybe some EMG's and only If I want a lifeless, colorless, flat signal to use a a base point to achieve some imagined noise ( I can't [bring] myself to use the word tone in the same sentence)

Thanks again I got the day off so guess what I'm doing

Joe

Hi Rod! I hope you've had a blessed holiday. Well my friend, after a great exercise in patience involving much tribulation, the Tennessean is finished and she is beyond awesome!!! The versatility of this guitar is extraordinary, and your pickups are simply the best post PAF pups that I have ever heard. The Jazzbrane neck is especially sweet and it's combination with the Woodbrane bridge is just the perfect middle position, both in and out of phase. (Adding the second tone control for individual vol./tone circuits in lieu of the stock single master tone and wiring everything in the 50's LP scheme created an entirely new guitar that is just phenomenal and I really appreciate your input on this. What was Gibson thinking!)

The Jazzbrane is, I think, possibly the most responsive pickup that I have ever played and the Waterbrane is just classic PAF, you've really nailed it. I've been blessed to be able to play a good number of PAF equipped guitars (I've been around a long time :) and I think that the quality that they have that is just plain missing today is individual personality. They were all a bit different and, if this makes sense, you could relate to them on an individual basis. (Probably why players used to name their instruments and keep them for life.) A company like Gibson cannot possibly make pickups of that individual quality because they have to make so many and because profit drives everything; it's all about the bottom line. You've got something really special here, but the biggest part of that is you. If you were to expand and put your pickups on an assembly line, it would be lost. These pickups have that certain special quality that you can relate to, as I am already beginning to do. There is a warmth and a life to them that the stock Gibson's, though I am sure that they are perfectly mechanically sound, just don't have. These pickups are individuals, Gibson's are shipped out in crates. I haven't got them fully tweaked yet, that will take many hours of playing, but I'm enjoying getting to know them and helping them find their best and sweetest voice.

One other great plus that I discovered, is that the master volume knob on this guitar turned out to be a great plus in that, not only did I have another push/pull option for series/parallel between the two pups, it allows me a way to quickly compensate for any volume disparity due to phase, series/parallel, and coil cut functions without disrupting the balance set between the treble and rhythm circuits. I much prefer this to a volume pedal as it is more precise, quicker and less cumbersome in that I'm not tied to the location of a pedal.

As to the pickups themselves, I am amazed at how little volume drop there is in the OOP position and also in the coil cut mode. To my ear, a humbucker utilizing a coil cut function usually sounds harsh, weak and...well, like a humbucker in coil cut mode instead of like a true single coil, but not these! I was blown away at the smooth adaptation and dead on singing single coil tone, and the series/parallel function is also excellent, very P90ish.

One more amazing thing that I noticed was that, in using a strobe tuner, which I always do and have for many years to set intonation, when a note is tuned to pitch, every bar of the tuner came into dead perfect alignment, even on the G string, and I have never seen that before! There is always some fluctuation, at least in the outer range. This guitar is also dead silent, and that is amazing considering all of the unshielded wire that makes up the harness. All of this is a tribute to the high build quality of your pickups. Also, kudos on being able to make an unpotted pup that exhibits absolutely no microphonics whatsoever- even in a hollow body. So much of the harmonic richness of an unpotted humbucker is ultimately lost in the process of wax potting and, in my opinion, it is too costly a compromise as concerns tone, which is what it is all about. You have really done an outstanding job here.

Thanks again for everything! Jay

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