Highorder Pickups

[Bloozcat]

I don't know if any of you have had the pleasure of trying some of Jeff Gay's Highorder humbuckers, but let me give you a little idea about what a class act Jeff is.

About 8 months ago, I ordered a pair of humbuckers from Jeff. After numerous e-mails back and forth, I decided on a neck pickup with an A-2 magnet in 7.8k-ohms and a bridge pickup with an A-2 magnet in 8.5k-ohms. I ordered both pickups with double cream bobbins. I knew that it would take Jeff about 4 weeks to get to my order, so I sat back and waited. Right in the middle of the 4th week I got an e-mail from Jeff informing me that he had shipped my pickups. When they arrive, they were carefully wrapped, and came complete with a data/spec sheet. When I opened the wrapping I found two beautifully constructed pickups. The workmanship was neat, clean, and extremely professional. On the back of each pickup was hand written my name, the k-ohm spec., and the pickup position. I installed the pickups in my recently re-wired and re-worked original Agile 2800 DLX with the correct LP horn. The wire leads which consisted of a single conductor center surrounded by a heavy wire braid ground, were of very high quality... and were more than long enough for proper installation. After installing them I marveled at how beautiful they looked with their cream bobbins against my Cherry Sunburst Flame finished guitar. All the pole adjustment screws were perfectly aligned, and the guitar just screamed...."Play me."

Well, what came next was nothing short of the fulfillment of a years long quest for the perfect humbucker tone. All those tones that I'd heard coming from older Les Pauls that were either in the hands of professionals or out of my financial reach, were suddenly coming out of my Agile?!? I couldn't believe it! I know that the term "PAF" is often abused and unclearly defined by many, but what I heard coming from my guitar was pure, vintage, old Gibson tone. PAF? As close as any I've heard. My guitar now sounds like something Dickie Betts played with the Allman Brothers. Pure LP character.

Now here's the part that really defines Jeff's character. Recently, I have noticed that the tone of the neck pickup is a bit too 'boomy" in certain situations, especially at high gain. This not something that wasn't there in the beginning, but as with many things, the longer you have them, the more you notice. And this is something that Jeff had brought up as a concern with an A-2 neck pickup, so it wasn't as though I didn't know that this might be a possibility. So, I e-mailed Jeff a few days ago to discuss the problem with him. He agreed that an A-3 magnet would probably cure the problem, but that perhaps an A-4 or A-5 may be called for. So, I e-mailed him back and asked if he could send me an A-3 magnet. He responed that he would....at no additional cost to me. Wow, great guy, I thought. Well, Jeff's shipment arrived yesterday as neatly packaged as the pickups had been. When I opened it I found a nicely diagramed instruction sheet for changing out the magnet, and a folded piece of stiff cardboard with tape holding it firmly closed. When I removed the tape and unfolded the cardboard, there was an A-2, an A-3, and an A-4 German Alnico magnet taped to the inside of the cardboard. Each was clearly marked with it's magnet designation, and with the north side of each pole marked. I was astonished. If this isn't service after the sale, I don't know what is.

So, this weekend will be magnet swap time for my Highorder neck humbucker. I'm even more sure that after this swap is done, that I'll enjoy my Highorders more than ever. I can't sing Jeff's praises loudly enough. He's a real pro. And...these humbuckers only cost $55.00 a piece plus $5.00 shipping! Who says that quality has to cost a fortune?

http://highorderpickups.com/