Brandonwound 1959 Clone Humbucker
Who else thinks that it’s great to have a well-rounded perspective? Yep, I thought so! Jared at Brandonwound Pickup does an excellent job of staying out of the echo chamber and hits the mean streets. And it’s there that Jared keeps his skills fresh and his hands hot.
It’s common to see Jared out on the floors at guitar shows as an attendee. Kind of like how Al Pacino rode the subway in The Devil’s Advocate to stay connected with what people are looking for.
To that end, Jared focuses on the meat and potatoes of pickup options. The veritable building blocks of the tone we grew up listening to on the radio. From Strat and Tele singlecoils from the 50s and 60s to PAF, PAT, and T-Top style humbuckers.
Today we are going to be talking about the Brandonwound 1959 Clone humbucker set. If you caught my article on the Brandonwound JP#1 humbucker set, it’s essentially the same neck pickup.
The 1959 Clone bridge is clear and a little full. Responsive to pick attack enough to let you cover a lot of ground without needing a lot of tweaks at the amp or at the pedals. I’m able to get into some mean riffing without knocking in more gain at the amp, but I can also clean up with the guitar volume pot. The unpotted coils are much more receptive to subtleties and produce all the nuance you’re going to want.
For a neck humbucker, the 1959 Clone has a bit of presence and a touch of authority. This is what you’re looking for if you’re playing blues and blues rock or the commanding voice of a Slash-inspired neck tone. Going with both pickups combined in a split or parallel configuration and you’ve got the cookbook to any tone you’d want from a clean amp setting.
To hear what we’re talking about, take a peek at this video from the Brandwound site of Zach Oswald ripping it up on a Les Paul Traditional:
Let’s peek at some specs:
1959 Clone Bridge
Series – 8.965 K
Inductance – 5.136 H
Screw – 4.532 K
Slug – 4.423 K
Parallel – 2.238 K
Magnet – Alnico 4
1959 Clone Neck
Series – 7.825
Inductance – 3.924 H
Screw – 4.079 K
Slug – 3.739 K
Parallel – 1.9493
Magnet – Alnico 4
Jared is also one of the hosts of The Guitar Knobs Podcast where they converse with, and about, guitars, amps, pedals, cables, artists, techs, and of course, pickups. I’d venture to say that Jared is one of the more well-rounded people in the boutique pickup realm. And why does that matter to you? Well… do you want someone insulated within a subgenre of Grandpa Rock or do you want a guy that studies all aspects of guitar and tone?
Keep your eyes and ears on the podcast, as they are known to throw out a discount code here and there for use on the Brandonwound website.
For reference, this Brandonwound 1959 Clone humbucker pickup set evaluation was conducted with a Fractal Axe-Fx II XL+ featuring Celestion Impluse Responses and Fractal MFC-101 MIDI Foot Controller. Real cabs used were Marshall 1960B cabs loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s and G12M Greenbacks.
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