Gold Foil pickups in a Strat and a Palir examples sounding good.

[Vorocnan]

Hi after quizzing Chuck about his guitar on AM which had a Lollar Chicago steel in the bridge and a Novak Gold foil in the neck and was inspired by the guitar shown in the last video I have looked at other videos and the Lollar Gold foils in the first video below sound real good wide frequency range lows deep and warm and acoustic like guitar resonance in the highs as Tonefiend says.
One drawnback he explains in another video is you cannot use the volume knob to go from clean to dirty it doesn’t work with the magnets in the Gold Foils some appear to use alnico and others rubberised so worth checking out if your interested.

The Fralin Big Singles pickup a humbucker that sounds like a single coil also sounded good in Tonefiend video.

Tonefiend

Palir Guitar

Lance

Lollar do a strat Chicago steel see website
Product Details
Intended for use as a bridge pickup — though it sounds more like a neck pickup — the Chicago Steel is specially designed for slide players. Based on specific 1940s era Oahu, Valco, and Supro lap steel pickups, you get that classic Hound Dog Taylor sound with touch sensitive, over the top output. The tone remains distinct even with heavy amp distortion with none of the sharp treble usually associated with Strat bridge pickups. Installation usually requires minor routing and slight pickguard modification. String spacing outside-to-outside of strings is 2.062″ (5.23 cm).
DC: Bridge 7.0K.
Gold Foil pickups in a strat and a Palir examples

[sunburst]

This is awesome,, still watching first video! Wish to play like that ,,those pickups and they sure sound incredible so does the amp and whatever filters effects he is using for the demo..,What a great picker.finger style,, and be only three hundred or so materials but what about the work and skill needed! The labor can’t be inexpensive and once guitar is customized/compromised , it won’t resale as a factory built original. great listen and watch, ty for sharing!

[Vorocnan]

Hi sunburst if you go to his wesite tonefiend.com he has had about six of what he calls mongrel strat project where he has routed and played about with guitars.

[Chuck H]

I have a 1961 Harmony Rocket with its original goldfoil. Very nice tone out of a hollowbody.

[Vorocnan]

The gold foil pickups are popular with the slide players Ry Cooder had one as well and Sonny Landreth has a blue resonator with one I think however they do sound quite good played normally. Nice looking Harmony Rocket saw some on YouTube but not with a single cut out.

[Chuck H]

Vorocnan wrote:

The gold foil pickups are popular with the slide players Ry Cooder had one as well and Sonny Landreth has a blue resonator with one I think however they do sound quite good played normally. Nice looking Harmony Rocket saw some on YouTube but not with a single cut out.

I was originally going to use the Rocket for slide but it has turned into a pretty neat finger style guitar. It is usually tuned to DADGAD and sometimes open D. Played quietly through a clean amp it has really nice acoustic tones.

Joe Gore is a great source for those of us who chase tone around.

[Chuck H]

The first time I watched the Palir guitars video all I could think of was “That’s $600 worth of pickups!”

[Vorocnan]

Joe Gore is a bit unusual only saw that video recently, appears he plays in a band, also produces guitar pedals and works as an editor on a guitar magazine as well as butchering strats 🙂

[Author]

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