Humbucker - This is a classic '59 style alnico pickup with med high output. The tone is a smooth with even balance between the lows, mids, and highs and a good full response. The bridge pickup has enough bite without being too bright and the neck has good warmth. These pickups perform well for a large variety of styles.

Single Coil - This is the choice if you are looking for the chime, jangle, and bluesy tone associated with the classic single coil. This pickup style has been around for ages because they simply sound very good and unless you have a specific pickup in mind or need to go to noiseless these are a good choice. This pickup has the standard flange and can be used with our pickguard models, but not our non-pickguard models.

Humbucker - The V2 is designed to keep the smooth response of a '59 style pickup with an increase in string definition, a bit more bite in the upper mid, a big low end, and high output. The V2 has a very good percussive attack, which we feel is often overlooked, so you can get a good "pop" by picking style when you want it. The V2 can also lay back when you pick soft for a very warm tone without loosing its high end. Furthermore, the V2 reacts with the tone control in a manner most pickups don't. The V2 does not go "dead" with the tone control rolled back. Instead the toned down settings give you a whole set of useful tones. This is a custom pickup we designed with Kent Armstrong. It is made to the highest standards and is one of the finest pickups available. Both sides of the coils are adjustable which allows more single string adjustment.
Read about the V2 pickups in-depth

Keep in mind that the dual adjustable row of pole pieces changes the look of the pickup. As an uncovered pickup it is not much of a difference, they look great. However, as chrome or gold covered the two rows showing through the cover is objectionable by some. For this reason we have a version of the V2 that is chrome or gold covered and is single row adjustable.

Single Coil - The V2's keep the chime, jangle, and high end of the classic V1 single coil but increases the fullness and low end. The V2's deliver an excellent bluesy tone and the shimmering highs players love with a bigness to the sound. The V2 is a high end picup made with the finest means and materials. This pickup does not have the flange so it looks great in our LeGrand Custom that does not have a pickguard.

Scorpion Humbucker - DiMarzio makes some of the finest pickups in the world. We worked with them on this custom design to create a pickup with high output to drive an amp hard yet keep good string definition and punch with excellent high end and low end response. The Scorpion is a success and one of our favorite pickups and we have tried countless pickups. The Scorpion is a high output, strong pickup. It has excellent low end and a strong upper mid and high end response. It also has very good string definition so it screams with distortion settings without getting muddy. The Scorpion cleans up nicely with good warmth in the neck and a very pleasing bridge sound. The pickup has good percussive attack and responds well to picking style so it is a good all around pickup. This is a custom pickup so it is not a commercially available pickup from DiMarzio and is not listed on their site so please contact us if you have further questions. Like many of the best pickups this is more expensive but a pickup that can drive an amp hard and give you a good clean sound. The reason we wanted this pickup is to have an alternative to the custom Armstrong V2 pickup with a look of single row adjustment pole pieces. Compared to the V2 it has a bit more high end cut. This is a classic single row adjustable pickup and looks great as chrome or gold covered or uncovered.d clean sound and good power definition for crunch or distortions settings. Uncovered or covered this has the classic look of a single row of adjustable pole pieces.. This pickup matches up well with the DiMarzio Area noiseless pickups.

Area Noiseless single coils - DiMarzio is at the forefront of pickup technology and was successful in keeping the classic single coil sound, all the jangle, chime and bluesy tones, yet remove the noise and hum of a single coil. The Area 67/61 pickups are simply great sounding. If you want the classic sound without noise and hum the 67/61 are for you. These have the standard flange footprint so they are for use in our pickguard model guitars.

The P-90s we use are a classic design from Kent Armstrong. We've spent a lot of time with Kent on pickup design and can count on his pickups being very well made with a knowledge to understand the sound a player wants and attaining it. The Armstrong P-90 is a fat, rich single coil tone that thrives on settings from clean to heavy distortion. An excellent choid for a P90.

The EMG 81/85 is an active (battery required) low impedance pickup. The EMG's have a well known and well respected unique sound that certainly has a niche in the rock market. The 81/85 set is one of their most desired sets and sounds great in our guitars.
EMG Website

Other Pickups
We do not deal with every pickup company. However, some of you have a pickup set that is your favorite and simply do not want a guitar that is not loaded with them. If this is the case call us. In some cases where the pickups fit our routs you can supply us with the pickups. Please call us for more information.

J Pickup - The J pickup we have made for us is a very good pickup with extended response and a good low end where most J's fall off. This has the cut and growl associated with the J pickup with added low end. Good for fretted and especially for fretless to attain that J fretless growl.

P Pickup - We went through many renditions of this pickup till we got it right. The result is a top end that can be bright, but remains smooth without the nasty peaks, and a good strong bottom end.

USM Soapbar - This is a passive alnico magnet design that has a full, big sound. An excellent all around pickup that has plenty of brightness for slap, plenty of low end and a good strong mid. We chose this pickup because it sounds great as a passive set up or with active electronics. And this soapbar is the same size as some EMG pickups, and some others, which gives you options down the road. Definitely a pickup we recommend.

USM Pro Soapbar - Similar to our regular soapbar this is another design we worked on with Kent Armstrong. This is an excellent passive full response pickup that exhibits deep, strong, low end properties with extended high end, brightness, mid presence, and excellent punch and pop. We worked on this design with Armstrong to develop a pickup that sounds great as a simple passive set up yet fits with extensive active electronics and extensive wiring setups such as our MVP (mulitvoice passive) that utilizes tone chokes and our more extensive active setups.