Another custom maker using Oil City Masterwound Blackbirds

OilCityPickups

French Guitar makers Frenzy Machine with a pretty amazing beast called the 'Sloani' fitted with my clear bobbin Blackbirds ... 

I'm freshly returned from holiday in Finland ... and also parts of the former Soviet Union, and getting back into the swing of things :-) 
Lots more cool stuff to follow soon. 

DefaultM

I really like that. It looks like a hubble telescope photograph or something.

OilCityPickups

The Blackbird is turning into the runaway success story of the Oil City range. Today I'm working on Blackbird orders for the US and Japan, with sales to Australia and all over Europe a regular thing. 

webrthomson

TheGuitarWeasel said:

The Blackbird is turning into the runaway success story of the Oil City range. Today I'm working on Blackbird orders for the US and Japan, with sales to Australia and all over Europe a regular thing.

Good for you sir - it's an immense pickup - it's the only passive pickup that's survived in my gigging guitars

webrthomson

@TheGuitarWeasel how / what are the differences in the ceramic version of these? I was thinking about a pickup swap in one of my Jacksons and thought that might be the one to go for?

Also can I get the covered and splitable?

Thanks!

Ross

OilCityPickups

The ceramic version has a bridge pickup wound a touch hotter and gives a more DJENT bottom end tone. 
And these are all splitable four conductor as standard, and being Masterwound you can have any cover you like ... all options are customisable. :-)

webrthomson

TheGuitarWeasel said:

The ceramic version has a bridge pickup wound a touch hotter and gives a more DJENT bottom end tone. 
And these are all splitable four conductor as standard, and being Masterwound you can have any cover you like ... all options are customisable. :-)

Nice - thanks Ash!

Ross

guitarfishbay

That is a very cool looking guitar.  Congrats, great to hear of a UK manufacturer doing well 

earwighoney

TheGuitarWeasel said:

French Guitar makers Frenzy Machine with a pretty amazing beast called the 'Sloani' fitted with my clear bobbin Blackbirds ... 

Le Machine du Noir

OilCityPickups

earwighoney said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

French Guitar makers Frenzy Machine with a pretty amazing beast called the 'Sloani' fitted with my clear bobbin Blackbirds ... 

Le Machine du Noir

It's been pointed out in other quarters that this guitar has a striking resemblance to a certain UK custom makers products, that I also supply pickups for. To be honest I really didn't check this out closely till after posting the image.

Let me say very firmly that I don't condone any form of plagiarism, (it has been done to me in the past and is totally infuriating) but equally I don't have much control over what customers put my pickups in.  
I hope the maker will perhaps adjust his design ... and even his company name so as not to 'cross the line'. I fully appreciate the skill and craftsmanship that went into building this instrument, but I shall be posting no more images of this brand until the design is a little less contentious.   

webrthomson

TheGuitarWeasel said:

earwighoney said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

French Guitar makers Frenzy Machine with a pretty amazing beast called the 'Sloani' fitted with my clear bobbin Blackbirds ... 

Le Machine du Noir

It's been pointed out in other quarters that this guitar has a striking resemblance to a certain UK custom makers products, that I also supply pickups for. To be honest I really didn't check this out closely till after posting the image.

Let me say very firmly that I don't condone any form of plagiarism, (it has been done to me in the past and is totally infuriating) but equally I don't have much control over what customers put my pickups in.  
I hope the maker will perhaps adjust his design ... and even his company name so as not to 'cross the line'. I fully appreciate the skill and craftsmanship that went into building this instrument, but I shall be posting no more images of this brand until the design is a little less contentious.   

Rightly or wrongly I think that horse has already bolted with Skervesen. Blackmachine created a market for that type of guitar and are not fulfilling its demands, others will. Shame I'd love a B2 as well as my B6

Evilmags

That's a seriously pretty guitar. It would be nice if Blackmachine could fill market demand. Mind you, Jaden Rose is basically a grown up Ibanez RG, which in turn is a Vai'd start.  

OilCityPickups

This is always an awkward issue for a small maker ... lord knows I have problems satisfying demand for my own products these days ... and if one has the 'it has to be right' ethos, then cutting corners to get products out the door won't fly. 

webrthomson

TheGuitarWeasel said:

This is always an awkward issue for a small maker ... lord knows I have problems satisfying demand for my own products these days ... and if one has the 'it has to be right' ethos, then cutting corners to get products out the door won't fly. 

That is an excellent point and I think you're right keeping the quality up is better that scaling up and dropping the quality.

I think that we under appreciate how good some of the stuff the UK are making in terms of guitars and the like are these days easily some of the finest in the world.

In any business its a nice problem to have that demand is high

earwighoney

TheGuitarWeasel said:

earwighoney said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

French Guitar makers Frenzy Machine with a pretty amazing beast called the 'Sloani' fitted with my clear bobbin Blackbirds ... 

Le Machine du Noir

It's been pointed out in other quarters that this guitar has a striking resemblance to a certain UK custom makers products, that I also supply pickups for. To be honest I really didn't check this out closely till after posting the image.

Let me say very firmly that I don't condone any form of plagiarism, (it has been done to me in the past and is totally infuriating) but equally I don't have much control over what customers put my pickups in.  
I hope the maker will perhaps adjust his design ... and even his company name so as not to 'cross the line'. I fully appreciate the skill and craftsmanship that went into building this instrument, but I shall be posting no more images of this brand until the design is a little less contentious.   

Hello Ash, I had no intention to diss the maker - the quality of his work looks exceptional, just a small joke on the name of his brand when his influences are so clear to see.  

FWIW, I'd like to see more pictures of his work - irrespective of one's perspectives of his influences one has to be impressed by his abilities as a luthier. 

OilCityPickups

earwighoney said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

earwighoney said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

French Guitar makers Frenzy Machine with a pretty amazing beast called the 'Sloani' fitted with my clear bobbin Blackbirds ... 

Le Machine du Noir

It's been pointed out in other quarters that this guitar has a striking resemblance to a certain UK custom makers products, that I also supply pickups for. To be honest I really didn't check this out closely till after posting the image.

Let me say very firmly that I don't condone any form of plagiarism, (it has been done to me in the past and is totally infuriating) but equally I don't have much control over what customers put my pickups in.  
I hope the maker will perhaps adjust his design ... and even his company name so as not to 'cross the line'. I fully appreciate the skill and craftsmanship that went into building this instrument, but I shall be posting no more images of this brand until the design is a little less contentious.   

Hello Ash, I had no intention to diss the maker - the quality of his work looks exceptional, just a small joke on the name of his brand when his influences are so clear to see.  

FWIW, I'd like to see more pictures of his work - irrespective of one's perspectives of his influences one has to be impressed by his abilities as a luthier. 

I understand that ... it's rather the similarity of two instruments that both use my pickups that is a slightly difficult issue for me lol

Bond123

 

Well done Oil City, I think it's great that you can compete in a world market against the likes of Seymour Duncan, Bare Knuckles, plus a host of American winders.

I believe this pickup was a joint venture come design between Oil City, Black Machine and Feline. Therefore I'm quite surprised to see it being sold to other manufacturers when it is clearly the heart and soul of the B6 and the guitars that Dougie makes himself, (although they do use other pickups as well). I would have thought there would have been some kind of commercial agreement not to sell to other manufacturers if it was a joint design, especially ones ripping off Black Machine guitars. I mean it's bad enough them ripping the design off but now using Dougie's pickup design just opens the floodgates for more rip-off Black Machines with a bit of authenticity.

Please don't think I'm having a go at Oil City for selling these pickups to other manufacturers. If there is no restriction on who Oil City can sell it to then great, sell as many as you can! Hope you got made in the UK and the Union Jack on the packaging.

I know the subject has been mentioned before several times on the forum about rip-off copies of the Black Machine design, but I think Black Machine and Feline kind of shot themselves in the foot by restricting the amount of these guitars being available. Surely this has just opened up the market for anyone to copy and fill the gap left by them. I don't know the reason why Black Machine restricts the flow of these guitars to the marketplace, could well be he just wants to make a few each year and that keeps him happy.

Whereas Feline could be so busy making his Lion and Lion Cub Les Paul type guitars that he prefers to do that, than make B6 guitars, who knows, or it might be that Graham down in Eastbourne who is the dusty wood side part of Feline guitars is now semi-retired.

To me it seems such a shame that we have an English design guitar with English pickups that’s a world beater, but you can't buy them for love nor money most of the time.You can easily buy rip off copies, some horrible ones, but some appear to be of the same quality as a real Black Machine or Feline. My opinion golden opportunity missed. 

ThorpyFX

That's cos they are awesome pickups.

DefaultM

It doesn't particularly look like a black machine, other than the arm rest cutaway type thing on the bottom left, but as far as I'm aware that isn't a black machine original idea anyway?

Other manufacturers blatantly rip off the design, even including the metal logo on the back. I don't agree with that at all.
I was on the waiting list for a black machine a very long time ago, and then suddenly it was closed and we were all told that Doug was now only building for select people that he knew and enjoyed their music.

I was pretty pissed off about it because at the time he price was something like £1500 maybe less, and now I believe its over £2k. That doesn't make it ok for other companies to rip him off though.

FelineGuitars

DefaultM said:

It doesn't particularly look like a black machine, other than the arm rest cutaway type thing on the bottom left, but as far as I'm aware that isn't a black machine original idea anyway?
Other manufacturers blatantly rip off the design, even including the metal logo on the back. I don't agree with that at all.

I'll just leave these here for more perspective of the Frenzy Machine

DefaultM said:

I was on the waiting list for a black machine a very long time ago, and then suddenly it was closed and we were all told that Doug was now only building for select people that he knew and enjoyed their music.

I was pretty pissed off about it because at the time he price was something like £1500 maybe less, and now I believe its over £2k. That doesn't make it ok for other companies to rip him off though.

I think a lot of people were on a list and what people don't realise about these lists is the amount of correspondence that becomes involved when the list becomes too large. 

I know because I have hundreds of people in a list but it's hard to tell how serious most of them are because of the calibre of their emails (almost just a text message from a phone with no personal info), and often on replying you don't get any info back - almost like they just want the bragging rights to being on a list. 

It's hard to tell if it's a serious player with funds saved for a new guitar or a someone killing time during a school/work lunch break 

This is a cut and paste of a genuine enquiry (no name, no idea of what country, how soon if ever they will be ready for a guitar)

Can you add me to the waitlist for a b6

Sent from my iPhone

I once spent what seemed like a month just answering emails and doing no guitar work at all and it became overwhelming, but in most cases no closer to a sale or deposit. The number of times I have been able to offer a guitar and had no reply or if I do it's "I can't afford one now."

Now in the last 4 years, I have made 60 B6s on top of all the guitar repairs, and Feline builds, serving customers, answering the phone, dealing with all the paperwork and all that goes with running a business. That isn't too bad for such a small workshop.

I have a simple rule about limiting the number of guitars I build: the limit is set by how many guitars I am building where I actually care deeply about each one and how it comes out. 

I need to feel passionate about each build, both for my own personal job satisfaction and for the fact that I think people want guitars that the builder has poured some love and passion into.

Yes I know people say take on more staff, set up a production line, crank out more guitars.

If I am going to be on a production line or simply a wage slave I may as well be working for somebody else and be able to hang up my apron at 5pm and not have to think about work until the next morning, and I'd probably be better off than I am now.

No - I want to make each guitar be the best we can make them and know that the customer is getting something worth cherishing. 

I know that sounds like a bunch of hippy bullshit, and that I should get with the program, but I see no point in being self-employed and ending up hating your job.

DefaultM said:

I was pretty pissed off about it because at the time he price was something like £1500 maybe less, and now I believe its over £2k. That doesn't make it ok for other companies to rip him off though.

Yes - Doug was building in a room in his family home with no commercial overheads and his guitars from maybe 10-15 years ago were priced much lower- in fact, Doug probably only took enough money to keep existing and to build the next project he fancied

The pricing on the B6 had to change when Doug handed over the line to me:

I have substantial business overheads and the hours I may spend building instead of doing refrets or whatever has to make sense financially to a degree or there is simply no reason for building guitars other than for my own vanity.

I also pay a VERY HEFTY license to Doug for each one that I build (enough to buy a Chinese copy for each B6 I sell ) - maybe that is why I get annoyed at people building knock-offs.

My business is VAT registered so a hefty slice goes to HMRC too.

Material costs have gone up too, both timbers hardware and pickups

The B6 spec also got raised and the newer spec was higher and more expensive too

But if you want a B6 I actually have a completed one here at the moment - it will cost you £2500

Casper777

Hello Ash! Great pickups indeed. Have them on my B6 (Thanks Jon at Feline) and love them.

I also plan to put them in a new custom build. Is there any recap of covers available on the website? just curious, as I may go with the clear bobbins.