Gr8Scott
Wookieologist
I thought I'd submit a slightly different review of this series of pickup.
My Hamer Archtop was in bad need of a pickup replacement. The Duncan Designed pickups were very muddy and nothing could clear them up enough to make them usable. After seeing so many rave reviews of the VVPAF, I decided to get a couple myself. I got the VVPAF in the neck and the VHPAF in the bridge for a little heat.
Both pickups are really good. The neck VVPAF is by far the best sounding neck humbucker I've heard. The reviews that mention the combined les paul/strat sound are dead on accurate for the neck VVPAF. This thing sounds like a really good PAF pickup and there is a subtle strat overtone that sounds like someone with a strat is quietly doubling your lines when you play. It's sweet and not icepicky at all. I HIGHLY recommend this pickup to anyone looking for a low output pickup that isn't icepicky.
The bridge VHPAF sounds more or less exactly the same as the neck VVPAF. The strat-like tones are far more subtle and harder to pick out. The humbucker sound is much more prevalent. That being said, the EQ at the bridge is 95% the same as the neck bucker. For this reason alone, I recommend that you don't try to use these two pickups together. It's not a good idea if you like a little variety from your guitar. There are slight differences, but you have to be playing clean to hear them for the most part. The bridge model has a little more spank clean than the neck. The neck is bell-toned and more smoothed out when played clean. The volume differences are pretty staggering between positions as well, so you have to severely drop your neck pup and raise the bridge to almost touch the strings before the volume is balanced between the two pups. It would be good to run a hotter pickup at the bridge for more equal volume distribution.
I'm gonna swap out the bridge pickup for a bluesbucker (P90 sound) and I'll let you know how this works out. This should give me a bit more grind on the bridge. Grind is what I'm looking for...
edited to add pic
My Hamer Archtop was in bad need of a pickup replacement. The Duncan Designed pickups were very muddy and nothing could clear them up enough to make them usable. After seeing so many rave reviews of the VVPAF, I decided to get a couple myself. I got the VVPAF in the neck and the VHPAF in the bridge for a little heat.
Both pickups are really good. The neck VVPAF is by far the best sounding neck humbucker I've heard. The reviews that mention the combined les paul/strat sound are dead on accurate for the neck VVPAF. This thing sounds like a really good PAF pickup and there is a subtle strat overtone that sounds like someone with a strat is quietly doubling your lines when you play. It's sweet and not icepicky at all. I HIGHLY recommend this pickup to anyone looking for a low output pickup that isn't icepicky.
The bridge VHPAF sounds more or less exactly the same as the neck VVPAF. The strat-like tones are far more subtle and harder to pick out. The humbucker sound is much more prevalent. That being said, the EQ at the bridge is 95% the same as the neck bucker. For this reason alone, I recommend that you don't try to use these two pickups together. It's not a good idea if you like a little variety from your guitar. There are slight differences, but you have to be playing clean to hear them for the most part. The bridge model has a little more spank clean than the neck. The neck is bell-toned and more smoothed out when played clean. The volume differences are pretty staggering between positions as well, so you have to severely drop your neck pup and raise the bridge to almost touch the strings before the volume is balanced between the two pups. It would be good to run a hotter pickup at the bridge for more equal volume distribution.
I'm gonna swap out the bridge pickup for a bluesbucker (P90 sound) and I'll let you know how this works out. This should give me a bit more grind on the bridge. Grind is what I'm looking for...
edited to add pic
Last edited:
