Kent Armstrong pickups

Stevepage

I've got a Warmoth neck and body on the way and I'm going for all black hardware. One thing I'm struggling to find is pickups with black covers (don't really want actives and bareknuckle are out of my budget).

I've come across Kent Armstrong pickups but I have no experience with them. Has any one here used them or have them? Worth the cash?

Kittyfrisk

In my experience, USA made Kent Armstrongs are very good, licenced versions not quite as good (just like with Seymour Duncans/Duncan designed).

I'm presuming you mean humbuckers?  These might be an option.

https://www.allparts.uk.com/collections/plastic-pickup-covers

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dilwe-Guitar-Humbucker-Electric-Replacement/dp/B07J2J5SPW/ref=pd_sbs_21_t_0/261-2495251-9866058?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07J2HQKTT&pd_rd_r=20fed070-6633-45a9-9092-33b3c11aa524&pd_rd_w=htvDd&pd_rd_wg=15h1g&pf_rd_p=e44592b5-e56d-44c2-a4f9-dbdc09b29395&pf_rd_r=G6DTC969ACZMVT1BHTEJ&psc=1&refRID=G6DTC969ACZMVT1BHTEJ

Cols

I’ve had a pair of Kent Armstrong Rockers on my Les Paul for ages.  They’re really good.

ICBM

Stevepage said:

I've got a Warmoth neck and body on the way and I'm going for all black hardware. One thing I'm struggling to find is pickups with black covers (don't really want actives and bareknuckle are out of my budget).

If it's of interest, I have one of these I would sell... Lindy Fralin P-92, basically a hum-cancelling P90-sounding pickup in a humbucker-size casing. It's in good used condition, not perfect.

ArchtopDave

His son, Aaron Armstrong, who's in Kent also makes pickups.

saltyseadog

Kent Armstrong is the son of Dan Armstrong who has made many good guitars including the plexi glass one for Keith Richards. His has been making pickups since at least the mid 90's. He made highly rated budget brand pickups for guitar makers like Hohner etc. He then signed up with WD music and started making top quality pickups in comparison with Seymour Duncan, Di-Marzio etc, Rory Gallagher used them at one time. When I built my partscaster around 1999 I put in a set of his Tweedtone single coils and found they were excellent pickups and still going strong 20yrs later. I liked the vintage tone of them so much that when I put new pickups in my ES335 I used his '59 humbuckers from the same range. Wired it together with 50's wiring and it really captures that vintage sound very well. I personally highly recommend his pickups and feel that most peoples reticence is because he started off making the cheap starter guitar pickups but I found that his high end pickups are the equal of any of the others. Go ahead and buy them you won't be dosappointed.

Stevepage

https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/electronics-c17/kent-armstrong-guitar-pickups-c100/kent-armstrong-humbucker-guitar-pickups-c109/kent-armstrong-rocker-hot-rod-vintage-alnico-humbucker-pickup-p772

Its this model I was interested in. Not handwound but sounds like something I'm after. Plus you get the clean black look of the resin covers.

Dominic

I won't mention a very famous name but I think you will find that Kent Armstrong actually taught them how to make pickups
and they are are a prime British brand

Fez

I have a couple of single coils in a bitsa strat and they are reasonable. I have had a couple of the humbuckers as well similar to what is shown on your link though I think they were called something else. They were really good. You could also look at the Iron Gear stuff from Axetech.

Stratavarious

My old Patrick Eggle had Kent Armstrong rails. 

The Seymour Duncan rails in it now don't have the lovely grit and character they had.

ICBM

Stratavarious said:

My old Patrick Eggle had Kent Armstrong rails. 

The Seymour Duncan rails in it now don't have the lovely grit and character they had.

I have a Kent Armstrong Firebird-type pickup that was the original neck pickup in an Eggle New York Broadway a friend owned, and had me replace with a TV Jones... the old pickup (which wouldn’t then fit back in the Eggle) remained in my box of random spares for years until one day I acquired an old Rickenbacker 4001 bass with the bridge pickup missing, and while I was looking for a proper Rick pickup I stuck the Kent Armstrong in for no other reason than because it fitted.

Many years later it’s still in there, and I quickly stopped bothering looking for an old Rick pickup. It sounds fantastic, and actually very like a hum-cancelling version of a Rick bass pickup - ‘grit and character’ is a perfect description.

Funkfingers

@ICBM How closely is the Fralin P-92 related to the "Domino" pickups he created for PRS.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

@ICBM How closely is the Fralin P-92 related to the "Domino" pickups he created for PRS.

Not sure - I've never actually seen inside a Domino. It wouldn't surprise me if they're very similar though.

axisus

I had them in my old Patrick Eggle Vienna many years ago. I don't think that PE would have installed them in his guitars unless they were decent.

impmann

I have a few proper handwound KA pickups - I seem to have amassed a collection.
Kent was winding pickups as a ‘boutique’ winder before pretty much everyone else. His resin cast units (to stop microphony) are amazing. 

I’m currently building a guitar around a stereo humbucker I bought last year. The best way to consider it is four coils in one casing - so you can have one humbucker under the wound strings and another under the plain ones. I got Kent to make a replica of it to match for the bridge position. Wiring it all up is going to be a head fuck but it’s a very cool concept.
The downside to the resin casting means repairs are troublesome - Ash at Oil City Pickups has one of my other pickups in for repair right now. Neither of us are sure it can be saved but here’s hoping... Kent himself told me to bin it!!!

Philly_Q

Remember when he made those enclosed pickups with ridged/corrugated tops, in loads of different colours?  I guess it was back in the 1980s, UK made, before they launched the Sky range.  I've got a catalogue somewhere but I can't find a picture of them.

ICBM

impmann said:

I have a few proper handwound KA pickups - I seem to have amassed a collection.
Kent was winding pickups as a ‘boutique’ winder before pretty much everyone else. His resin cast units (to stop microphony) are amazing. 

I’m currently building a guitar around a stereo humbucker I bought last year. The best way to consider it is four coils in one casing - so you can have one humbucker under the wound strings and another under the plain ones. I got Kent to make a replica of it to match for the bridge position. Wiring it all up is going to be a head fuck but it’s a very cool concept.
The downside to the resin casting means repairs are troublesome - Ash at Oil City Pickups has one of my other pickups in for repair right now. Neither of us are sure it can be saved but here’s hoping... Kent himself told me to bin it!!!

I seem to have developed a bad habit of liking resin-potted pickups, which is then a massive pain if they ever die. My Kent humbucker, the ones in Aria SB basses, Rickenbacker HB1s...

impmann

Philly_Q said:

Remember when he made those enclosed pickups with ridged/corrugated tops, in loads of different colours?  I guess it was back in the 1980s, UK made, before they launched the Sky range.  I've got a catalogue somewhere but I can't find a picture of them.

Yup - I have a pair of those somewhere.

Id like a set of Strat pickups from the same range (pref hss) in black for another project.

impmann

I found a pic of them... excuse the splattering, it was a particularly rough gig... 

Philly_Q

impmann said:

I found a pic of them... excuse the splattering, it was a particularly rough gig... 

Yes, they're the ones.

normula1

Wow, they're a blast from the past.