Sunday Handwound Pickups - PRS Starla

[GavQuinn]

Recently I decided to take the plunge and have my Starla's pickups replaced to exactly what I wanted. It's a 2008, and it's been the main studio and session guitar for 9 years. The coil tap, laid back sounds, bigsby, bright pickups meant that it had a real friendly voice. Everything short of real heavy rock was done perfectly.

I did try lots of different pickups in this guitar, just for variation. The stock pickups are good, they're lauded. However, I did find the bridge pickup too compressed and not really having enough push. The neck pickup was nicer to me than a PAF in the same place, but was too boomy, and not quite trebly enough.

I set out looking for an Alnico V PAF type for a snarly tone, known from another well known mahogany guitar with a black pickguard. I wanted a lower output to get the sharp attack and just enough power to have more beef than the Starla. For the neck, I wanted an early 60s strat neck pickup. Not a HB P90, not a this/that, I wanted a strat pickup, made in this size. Alnico 5, 6.3k ish. Nice bright treble, firm but present bass, forthright voice.

The strat pickup was a challenge, the amount of people that said it couldn't be done. I asked 10/12 custom makes all around the world. Enter Sunday Handwound Pickups.

https://reverb.com/ie/shop/sunday-handwired-amps-and-effects

I told Timothy there what I wanted, 'no problem'. Great, no fuss, he said it can be done.

The neck pickup is perfect. It's exactly what I was looking for. The bright, slightly brittle treble, nice and round, plenty of output. It's perfect.

The bridge pickup however, that's a different story. This pickup is amazing. It was kind of unchartered territory for me, but this thing is so sweet. It easily goes into harmonic feedback, but controlled. The treble is solid but present. The mids are perfect - there, just there, no hump, no scoop. There's a nice amount of bass too. It's an Alnico IV PAF, 7.9K.

Honestly, the neck pickup; we knew what we were doing, it's perfect, but this bridge pickup, he's onto something there. I gotta get another one. I don't know, if it's potted less, is it the partial cover, but it's really something. It's low output but it retains that 'fatness', it's not lacking in bottom end like I thought it might have done. The output is perfect for anything if you've enough gain from the rig, my rig is pretty hot in output.

It's basically a PAF, but it's lively and jangly, the feedback and bloom is better than anything from the UK's winders I've tried. It snarls, but the treble is controlled enough, no icepick. Perfect.

Mind blown, I thought they'd be good, the set, but this bridge humbucker has just surpassed my expectations.

This is the bridge humbucker I've been looking for in my head for over 10 years.

Tim is based in Eatonton GA, check him out.

 

[bodia]

Very cool!

 

[garrett]

Really cool, man. Doesn't seem like it should be that hard to put a Strat bobbin in a humbucker size format. But maybe I'm oversimplifying it in my head.

Sunday seems like a cool winder and reasonably priced. AND in my neck of the woods, too! I hadn't heard of him before, so thanks.

 

[GavQuinn]

Really cool, man. Doesn't seem like it should be that hard to put a Strat bobbin in a humbucker size format. But maybe I'm oversimplifying it in my head.

Sunday seems like a cool winder and reasonably priced. AND in my neck of the woods, too! I hadn't heard of him before, so thanks.

Yeah man, he makes good stuff, his prices are very good, depending on what you get, some cost more than others but they’re all below the usual you’d expect: good to help your local traders too, although I live in Ireland; nobody closer agreed to take this on. I guess for some they’d have to go through a whole load of R & D etc, I understand that but I applaud Tim’s attitude. ‘Yeah, why not!’