Description
Humbucker Guitar Pickups Alnico V
These humbucker guitar pickups, like the Ironstone Stratocaster & Telecaster range, are based on Alnico V magnet Pole Pieces.
But add to that a stunning 15.5K winding resistance, full 4 wire connectivity and adjustable pole pieces for a classic vintage tone. Pole piece spacing is 50mm (Neck) and 51.5mm (an F spacing Bridge).
Unlike many on the market these are standardly supplied complete with black mounting rings as well as all required springs and mounting screws.
The 4 wire connection means that they are hugely versatile, and detailed support pages can be found on this website. Connecting wire lengths; Bridge 18cm, Neck 26cm approx.
Mark Hancocks –
I’ve got 2 gold single coils in the neck and middle and a humbucker in the bridge on my Squire Affinity Strat and after a bit of adjustment they sound just great. Fantastic pups for the price. I really like the typical strat ‘quack’ in position 4. The service was great and ironstone are a delight to deal with.
Great product, affordable and great service, does it get any better!
Anthony Partridge –
Thanks for all the praise Mark. Much appreciated of course.
Ad Kooij (verified owner) –
Hi Tony, I installed the humbuckers in my LP (copy) and man what a beautiful sound. I especially like the warm fat sound that the pup in the neck position gives. As before, I was never dissapointed in the quality and the service! Thanks a lot! Best regards, Ad Kooij
Anthony Partridge –
As I often say, customer service is as important at Ironstone as tone.
Cocotte67 –
I recently recommissioned my faithful 1981 Ibanez Musician MC-150, that came with Ibanez Super 88 humbuckers. To my todays’ taste, those original pickups, while not bad, sound much too treble-heavy, so I decided to swap them for Ironstone humbuckers, looking for more warmth while keeping a vintage tone for that vintage guitar. That was a good idea! The twangy sound of the MC-150 (due to its neck-through-body build, I guess) is still there, but with much more warmth and roundness than before, and more power, too. These Ironstone humbuckers pickups have the perfect vintage rock tone, and they are an incredible value for their price.
Anthony Partridge –
Vintage tone at a great price is what the Ironstone range is all about!
Ad Kooij (verified owner) –
Hi Anthony, I installed my HSH set finally in my partscaster, and I must say they sound impressive, especially the humbuckers. The output of the singlecoil is much lower than the humbuckers, is that normal? All in all I am very pleased with them. I hope brexit (if there will be one) will not raise the shipping and customs costs too much. That would be a shame. Thanks again for wonderful affordable pickups!! Best regards, Ad Kooij
Anthony Partridge –
Hi Ad,
Thanks for the positive comments. You are comparing here mighty 15.5 KOhm humbuckers to an 8.5KOhm single coil, there is definitely going to be a difference in output levels! But what you can do is play with pickup height adjustments (i.e. raise the single coil / lower the humbuckers) to adjust the volume balance when switching between them. See https://ironstone-guitar-pickups.co.uk/guitar-pickup-adjustment/
Cheers,
Tony
Dean Suminski (verified owner) –
Finally finished an Iceman style guitar with a set of humbuckers. After figuring out that I had the plug in wired backwards i turned the guitar on and what a difference! Beautiful tones and notes came forth. I took the guitar to a local shop where there was a person who could really play. He was impressed with the pickups and I enjoyed the sounds coming from the guitar!
Anthony Partridge –
Always something very satisfying (and at the same time slightly annoying) about handing over your guitar and having another player making it sing! But it happens to us all, and now you have maybe heard more of what the Ironstone’s can do.
John Morgan-Evans –
I have used both the humbucker sets and one of the stratocaster sets in my own guitars and found them both to be excellent. There is absolutely no reason to spend three or four times as much to get big name pickups when these are available. My bandmates love the sound of them and have suggested I put them in all my guitars. They knock the socks off the stock Gibson SG pickups in my Tribute and the Burstbuckers in my Epiphone Custom Shop SG. I run a business repairing guitars (String King Guitar Works) and it’s great to be able to recommend these to my clients.
Anthony Partridge –
There is, of course, nothing more satisfying than to have folks who really know their guitars, both players and techies recommend pups from the Ironstone range. And I think I am at least unusual, if not unique at these sort of prices, to be offering a high resistance humbucker driven by Alnico V as opposed to ceramic magnets. Its a winning tone combo to my ears at least!
Dean Suminski (verified owner) –
Put some humbuckers in my Iceman copy that I made. I’m like Leo Fender. I can make them but I do not play guitars. I have a three way switch and was really impressed with the three distinct sounds. I had a professional play the guitar and he liked it so much, took pictures of it and asked me if I was going to make him one! I love the sounds.
Anthony Partridge –
Well I have to say I’m not the greatest player either! But you don’t need to be Kirk Hammett to appreciate great Humbucker tone, so I’m glad the ironstone’s are appreciated. Tony
Aaron (again!) (verified owner) –
I’ve had the HH set in my Frankenstein Jazzmaster for 2 years now. The only thing I would add to my original review is that I’ve changed the volume pot on the bridge pickup from a 500k to a 1 Meg with great results (neck is still 500k). Depending on what style your playing, that might be a useful suggestion.
Anthony Partridge –
Hi Aaron, and thanks for the update. 1MOhm pots are a great way to preserve every ounce of treble. No need with a Strat, but high output / resistance humbuckers respond well to this (relatively unusual) value. Thanks for the tip.
Graham Horsham (verified owner) –
I have just finished my latest scratch project (my take on the chambered Gretch Billybo). I installed these pickups into the guitar on the strength of my earlier experiences using the Ironstone strat (silver and platinum ) sets and also the tele set. Once again I am delighted with the quality of the Ironstone products, The pickups produce a fantastic range of powerful sweet tones, I also coil split them to give a wider choice of sounds and this has worked out great, its nice to have this option with the pickups.They also look great to boot.so all in all a brilliant set of pickups at a great price. Highly recommend Ironstone pickups. Cheers.
Tony Partridge –
Always good to see returning customers Graham!
Keith Evans (verified owner) –
These pick ups are excellent. The difference they’ve made to my Les Paul in looks and sound is top notch. Can we have an extra 2 inches of wire on the neck pick up though ? I’m rebuilding my Telecaster soon, so I’ll be contacting you guys again.
Tony Partridge –
Thanks for the compliments Keith and your cable length comment noted for future batches.
Look forward to hearing from you re the Tele build, and check out the Ironstone 5 way Tele set too. Cheers, Tony
Aaron –
Very pleased with the HH set. Purchased them on the strength of the neck pickup sound in the site demos, but it’s the middle position sound that stands out for me as being worthy of the 5 star rating – it almost has a kind of sweet, vinyl-like character to it.
Tony Partridge –
Many thanks for the comment; its not often the ‘both humbuckers together’ position gets a mention, so glad its appreciated! Tony
Roddy McKenzie –
I am a convert. Had the new pickup from Ironstone for quite a while before I fitted it to the Les Paul. Because of strange string spacing I have a neck hummie in the bridge position. Its a combination problem as I like roller bridges and the spacing on the one I got was a bit narrow. Its a 60’s neck so that isn’t a problem but it is with pickups. Tony suggested the neck spacing and it fits!
As for the sound…well its pretty amazing really. From the old gibbo ‘zebra’ pickup which must have been badly made and dull and thin sounding I now have all the fatness and woody tones that I should have had to start with. Without set up, that is fit and play it was fantastic. After proper set up its amazing. Try the ‘ah’ position on mid toggle with the volume down a fraction till you hear that ‘ah’ sound…sort of open up with a vowel sound…wonderful in fact the best I have heard. Really sings and holds for ages. Out of phase with the neck pickup is lovely. That eerie Peter Green sound, sort of hollow and yet singing. Very nice. Now ordered a push/pull pot to keep that and get the ‘normal’ sound as well.
I rate this pick up highly. I was very impressed and it takes a lot to impress me. Compared to the Gibson for quality and price there really is no comparison there. Here you have quality and a really ‘workman’ price tag for all of us working musicians.
Thanks Tony…but it might take me the same length of time to do a neck swap though.
ChrisAdmin –
“Prompt delivery, well packaged, an absolute bargain price”
ChrisAdmin –
“very good item at a very reasonable price and fast service, thanks”
ChrisAdmin –
“arrived today well packed, fantastic value, will definitely save (ebay) seller. cheers”
ChrisAdmin –
“pickup just arrived, the sound is exactly what I’ve heard on expensive PAF pups”
ChrisAdmin –
“just installed the humbucker on the bridge… nice sounding pick up, dark and loud.
it matches well with an old Duncan design on the neck. and the clean sound impressed me a lot… thank you….”
ChrisAdmin –
“…the humbucker in the treble position giving a truly amazing account for itself, the pup height had not been adjusted prior to cutting loose but was duly done once we stopped the blood flowing from our ears. A really amazing sounding pup and eventually balanced really nice with the single coils. Tony and Ironstone many thanks for an amazing sound….”
ChrisAdmin –
“..I’ve had your hummies in my LP for a week now and love the sound !!…..one adjustment I have had to make to my amp for sure, is to turn the master volume down, these guy’s are hot !!!……these pups have also given better scope to adjustment of string and pickup height/angle….so like my Strat, I am still very much experimenting with the sound/tone before deciding on which settings I prefer…. in fact the problem I have now is which guitar I want to pick up first as I am enjoying playing both at the moment…..maybe soon I will be ordering new pups for my Telecaster (the forgotten guitar !!)….all in all I am delighted with both the Platinum single coils and the Humbuckers….brilliant sound/tone and great value for money……so glad I found Ironstone Pickups when searching the web !!!! “
ChrisAdmin –
“They have become my favourite pick up, I’ve never used a pick up that suits not only my playing but to get the exact sound I’ve always wanted from a guitar, my band has just recorded our first ep I used the first ironstone on it:) it sounds so big!
Thank you for making such an awesome pick up”