If you are serious about tone, you won’t settle for mass produced pickups. Serious players don’t trust their tone to eBay winders or random guys they meet in chat rooms. Pickups of this caliber are not cheap, most of these guys have a waiting list & they typical refuse to disclose specs.
Strat Pickups Poll – Which are the Best? Live
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Virgil Arlo52% 761 / 1.4k
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Ron Ellis19% 286 / 1.4k
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Dave Stephens11% 160 / 1.4k
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Joe Barden9% 131 / 1.4k
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Bill Lawrence6% 99 / 1.4k
Listed Below in Alphabetical Order. Watch & VOTE.
Virgil Arlo
The winder known as Virgil Arlo is a bit mysterious but session players seem to really favor his pickups. You see guys posting video’s on Youtube talking about how they replaced their vintage pickups with the Arlo Pickups. The Pro’s using his pickups seem genuinely blown away by the tone in the clips we’ve seen. Like a lot of these high end winders, he doesn’t disclose his specs. We’ve seen speculation that he could be a former Fender or Gibson employee. Some forum posts have said he might be the alter ego of Jason Lollar or Don Mair, doubtful. Others have claimed that he is actually Alan Hamel working under a trade name. His website says that he is private guy that doesn’t care much for the spotlight & that the guys at Tone Specific help him out. He’s in Southern California and has 2 month wait. Are they worth the wait & expense? How do they stack up to the Ron Ellis & Dave Stephens pickups?
Joe Barden
Mainly known for Tele Pickups due to Bruce Stringsteen & Danny Gatton. Mr. Barden hasn’t worked for this company since the 1990’s but the pickups are still being made. This company is on the east coast but we are not sure where the pickups are made but people that own them swear by them. They are a unique design and don’t really have that vintage tone most guys are chasing but they are noiseless. They don’t disclose the specs of these designs. Like all noiseless pickups people either love them or hate them. Unlike most winders, there is no wait time and the pickups are readily available on eBay and Reverb. How do they stack up to vintage pickups? Watch the video to find out.
Ron Ellis
If you can wait 2 years, Ron Ellis will make you an amazing set of pickups. He started in the business working for the great winder Alan Hamel (formerly of Fender Custom Shop). Ron Ellis makes his own designs in Southern California and judging by the forums, players love them. He doesn’t have a website and is difficult to track down, you might try Facebook. He doesn’t disclose the specs of his pickups but players on the forums say they sound great, Surprisingly, there are not too many video’s on Youtube but we found one above.
Bill Lawrence (Wilde Bill Pickups)
There’s has been a lot of confusion around the Bill Lawrence brand. At one time there were two companies going by “Bill Lawrence” due to what appeared to be a messy break-up of business partners. The designer of these pickups is the late Willi Stich. Mr. Stich used the professional name Bill Lawrence. During the split with a one time business partner, it appeared that he lost the right to do business under that name. As a result he started calling his pickups “Wilde Bill” Pickups. They are a unique design and don’t really have that vintage tone most guys are chasing but they are noiseless. We’ve heard that he might have been the man behind the Fender Hot Noiseless pickups during his time working with Fender. We had a hard time finding specs for his pickups. Like all noiseless pickups, people either love them or hate them. These are the cheapest pickups on the list and the wait is quoted at only 1 to 4 weeks. His family runs the business these days. Check the video, how to they stack up to the rest?
Dave Stephens (Stephen Designs)
Dave Stephens is pretty well respected by guys that know tone. He is a one-man show and takes a little while to make pickups but by most accounts they are worth the wait and the expense. He doesn’t disclose specs but people rave about his pickups. He makes a few different Strat designs and most people would say they all sound good. How to they stack up to the rest of these fine pickup winders?
