Installing Oil City pickups

Megii

Just ordered a set of humbuckers from Ash at Oil City Pickups, to go in my Ibanez AS103 semi-acoustic. Over the last few years I've tried various brands/makers of pickups, of various types, in various guitars - it has to be said with mostly at least decent results, but occasionally not so brilliant though - it can be a bit of a maze buying pickups, and you know when it hasn't worked out.

But I have a very good feeling indeed about this one - stupidly excited to be honest. Ash is a lovely chap to deal with, it's going to be good I know. I've gone for zebra coils and gold slugs/screws to tie in with the guitar's gold hardware, but still look non-stock and a bit different. Alnico II Blitz Spirit neck and Alnico IV Nightfighter bridge, overwound to 14.5K to give a bit more mid/bass bias to things.

Just wanted to tell the world really!

blueskunk

You won't be disappointed. Iv had some cowtrons a while back. Excellent quality and sounding pickups. 

sawyer

I've  got a p90 dogear. Sounds awesome!

Megii

blueskunk said:

You won't be disappointed. Iv had some cowtrons a while back. Excellent quality and sounding pickups. 

sawyer said:

I've  got a p90 dogear. Sounds awesome!

Good to hear about, cheers chaps! I think I'll move this thread to Making & Modding and post pics of the fitting process in due course. I guess not a lot to say at this stage, but it is nice to be joining the ranks of Oil City Pickups users.

markj

Ash has made me some superb pickups. He made me a set of Masterwound 59 Pafs for my es335 they are absolutely sublime, far better than my past experience I've had with bareknuckle pickups. He listen to what you want.

Megii

markj said:

Ash has made me some superb pickups. He made me a set of Masterwound 59 Pafs for my es335 they are absolutely sublime, far better than my past experience I've had with bareknuckle pickups. He listen to what you want.

Yes - I felt that as well @markj - by the time I decided to message Ash about the pickups, I'd been thinking about what I would like for a fair while, and he largely agreed with my choice (he suggested just one slight adjustment to the spec for the bridge pickup, which advice I gladly follow). But I got the feeling I was being listened to, by someone who understands and is on the same wavelength.

Occasionally, with some other pickup makers (who I won't mention) I've felt they were erring a bit too much on the side of telling me what I wanted, and not listening or understanding what I was saying enough (Some have been good though, to be fair). I did consider Bare Knuckles too - I'm sure they'd have been nice - but the cost is a bit high for me, and I suspect the Oil City's will be second to none.

Alegree

Megii said:

markj said:

Ash has made me some superb pickups. He made me a set of Masterwound 59 Pafs for my es335 they are absolutely sublime, far better than my past experience I've had with bareknuckle pickups. He listen to what you want.

Yes - I felt that as well @markj - by the time I decided to message Ash about the pickups, I'd been thinking about what I would like for a fair while, and he largely agreed with my choice (he suggested just one slight adjustment to the spec for the bridge pickup, which advice I gladly follow). But I got the feeling I was being listened to, by someone who understands and is on the same wavelength.

Occasionally, with some other pickup makers (who I won't mention) I've felt they were erring a bit too much on the side of telling me what I wanted, and not listening or understanding what I was saying enough (Some have been good though, to be fair). I did consider Bare Knuckles too - I'm sure they'd have been nice - but the cost is a bit high for me, and I suspect the Oil City's will be second to none.

Let me just be devils advocate here (not that I feel like I'm the target of this, I haven't spoken customs with any prospectives for a while).

Some customers can come to me with an idea of what sound they want, and a design they think will achieve it. Occasionally they're way off the mark (for example 'I want an alnico 2 neck humbucker of 20k resistance that is clear and chimey under 5150 gain'). For the sake of preserving reputation, we've got to draw a line somewhere and say that we're just not able to make something that'll achieve what you're after in the required specs.

I'd rather send someone away than make them a disappointing pickup - most of my sales come from word of mouth and repeat customers (which account for about 60% of my sales), so getting things right first time is very important.

markj

Ash has just wound me a P90 for my Les Paul junior, he listened to what I wanted and suggested Alnico 2 magnets to soften the highs and slightly overwound to just drive my amp. He also made me a handwired wiring harness to fit my junior. Full report on this forum when I get the chance.

Megii

Alegree said:

Megii said:

markj said:

Ash has made me some superb pickups. He made me a set of Masterwound 59 Pafs for my es335 they are absolutely sublime, far better than my past experience I've had with bareknuckle pickups. He listen to what you want.

Yes - I felt that as well @markj - by the time I decided to message Ash about the pickups, I'd been thinking about what I would like for a fair while, and he largely agreed with my choice (he suggested just one slight adjustment to the spec for the bridge pickup, which advice I gladly follow). But I got the feeling I was being listened to, by someone who understands and is on the same wavelength.

Occasionally, with some other pickup makers (who I won't mention) I've felt they were erring a bit too much on the side of telling me what I wanted, and not listening or understanding what I was saying enough (Some have been good though, to be fair). I did consider Bare Knuckles too - I'm sure they'd have been nice - but the cost is a bit high for me, and I suspect the Oil City's will be second to none.

Let me just be devils advocate here (not that I feel like I'm the target of this, I haven't spoken customs with any prospectives for a while).

Some customers can come to me with an idea of what sound they want, and a design they think will achieve it. Occasionally they're way off the mark (for example 'I want an alnico 2 neck humbucker of 20k resistance that is clear and chimey under 5150 gain'). For the sake of preserving reputation, we've got to draw a line somewhere and say that we're just not able to make something that'll achieve what you're after in the required specs.

I'd rather send someone away than make them a disappointing pickup - most of my sales come from word of mouth and repeat customers (which account for about 60% of my sales), so getting things right first time is very important.

Fair point! and you're certainly not in any way a target of my comment (I've never bought pickups from you, and who knows maybe in the future). I don't know a huge amount about pickup making, but I have taken some interest in the subject for some years, and tried a fair few different specs, so I like to think I had at least a vaguely reasonable idea about what might be sensible.

Megii

markj said:

Ash has just wound me a P90 for my Les Paul junior, he listened to what I wanted and suggested Alnico 2 magnets to soften the highs and slightly overwound to just drive my amp. He also made me a handwired wiring harness to fit my junior. Full report on this forum when I get the chance.

Will look forward to that one @markj

Alegree

Fair point! and you're certainly not in any way a target of my comment (I've never bought pickups from you, and who knows maybe in the future). I don't know a huge amount about pickup making, but I have taken some interest in the subject for some years, and tried a fair few different specs, so I like to think I had at least a vaguely reasonable idea about what might be sensible.

Most customers come with reasonable requests - but you get some that leave you wondering whether you should laugh or cry.

Megii

Alegree said:

Fair point! and you're certainly not in any way a target of my comment (I've never bought pickups from you, and who knows maybe in the future). I don't know a huge amount about pickup making, but I have taken some interest in the subject for some years, and tried a fair few different specs, so I like to think I had at least a vaguely reasonable idea about what might be sensible.

Most customers come with reasonable requests - but you get some that leave you wondering whether you should laugh or cry.

I can well imagine!  

AuldReekie

Have an Oil City Brass Knuckle in the bridge of my Levinson Blade RH4.  Its the 6th p/up that I have tried ( original + 4 SDs) as I tried to find a p/up that matched the quality off the guitar and gave me a combination of Strat and Tele sounds in the bridge.  Ash nailed it.  Will be my first port of call in the future for any p/ups. As others have remarked, Ash is great to deal with as well

OilCityPickups

Alegree said:

Megii said:

markj said:

Ash has made me some superb pickups. He made me a set of Masterwound 59 Pafs for my es335 they are absolutely sublime, far better than my past experience I've had with bareknuckle pickups. He listen to what you want.

Yes - I felt that as well @markj - by the time I decided to message Ash about the pickups, I'd been thinking about what I would like for a fair while, and he largely agreed with my choice (he suggested just one slight adjustment to the spec for the bridge pickup, which advice I gladly follow). But I got the feeling I was being listened to, by someone who understands and is on the same wavelength.

Occasionally, with some other pickup makers (who I won't mention) I've felt they were erring a bit too much on the side of telling me what I wanted, and not listening or understanding what I was saying enough (Some have been good though, to be fair). I did consider Bare Knuckles too - I'm sure they'd have been nice - but the cost is a bit high for me, and I suspect the Oil City's will be second to none.

Let me just be devils advocate here (not that I feel like I'm the target of this, I haven't spoken customs with any prospectives for a while).

Some customers can come to me with an idea of what sound they want, and a design they think will achieve it. Occasionally they're way off the mark (for example 'I want an alnico 2 neck humbucker of 20k resistance that is clear and chimey under 5150 gain'). For the sake of preserving reputation, we've got to draw a line somewhere and say that we're just not able to make something that'll achieve what you're after in the required specs.

I'd rather send someone away than make them a disappointing pickup - most of my sales come from word of mouth and repeat customers (which account for about 60% of my sales), so getting things right first time is very important.

All reputable pickup winders should (and mostly in my experience do) steer customers away from poor choices of magnet, wind level etc, it's what needs to be done in order to both generate and preserve a reputation, personally I can spend up to an hour on the phone discussing a customers guitar, amplification, influences, even string choice, its part of the service I've been giving for the last six years. 

We are all in the business of keeping customers happy, and we all have to make business choices about how far we are able to go to accommodate the customers wishes. Larger manufacturers by definition are less able to spend time discussing a guitarist's needs than smaller ones, that's a simple fact of doing business. Often however, they can offer better prices due to mass production, so the customer pays his money and takes his choice.

As a clarification: @Megii 's pickups are not 'customs' they are both Nightfighters from my standard range (with a slight tweak to the bridge unit), I simply gave him the help he needed to chose which of my range would suit him, and then make a small modification that should help him get the sound he hears in his head. 

Sometimes we get frustrating customers, that's all part of the business, I could write a book about the odd requests I've had over the years, but they all add colour to what I consider to be the most rewarding way I know to make a living.
 

Megii

Blitz Spirit in the neck position actually @TheGuitarWeasel - just checking! - but yes, both from the standard range, and your help, and advice re the tweak to the bridge Nightfighter very much appreciated.

thomasross20

Does he do single coil size humbuckers?  

OilCityPickups

thomasross20 said:

Does he do single coil size humbuckers?  

Yes :-) and humbucker sized single coils.

Megii said:

Blitz Spirit in the neck position actually @TheGuitarWeasel - just checking! - but yes, both from the standard range, and your help, and advice re the tweak to the bridge Nightfighter very much appreciated.

Ha ... I'm so bloody busy at the moment I can't remember orders unless I look at the order sheets Lol. Too much for a fifty plus geezer to hold in his brain at one time, and you did catch me at gin-o-clock yesterday evening :-)

thomasross20

Right, I'll have to check your website again then. Not only would I like a single coil sized humbucker to give me that "sweet child" liquid tone in the neck, when split I'd like to retain the quack which the existing pups give and get info on what components to change (in fact suhr gave me a diagram so if I dig that out, I'll have an idea). 

I'll check today/tomorrow - interesting!! 

OilCityPickups

thomasross20 said:

Right, I'll have to check your website again then. Not only would I like a single coil sized humbucker to give me that "sweet child" liquid tone in the neck, when split I'd like to retain the quack which the existing pups give and get info on what components to change (in fact suhr gave me a diagram so if I dig that out, I'll have an idea). 

I'll check today/tomorrow - interesting!! 

My single coil size humbuckers are not up on my site as I only do them to special order. As a matter of fact I do one with alnico 2 especially for a mini Slash tone lol. Now I'm giggling at the thought of a mini Slash with just a pair of feet sticking out from under a top hat...

thomasross20

I'll pm you..

imalrightjack

I loved my Nightfighters. Excellent pickups.