First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

J Moose

J Moose

New member
Several days ago a box landed on my doorstep containing a pair of the "Slash" alnico II humbuckers. What follows is a.... hate to call it "review" but my initial impressions of these pickups as they compare to a 12 year old AII Pro & Pearly Gates in a Les Paul I've been playing for the last several years.

First things first... I have to express my gratitude and many many thanks to both Frank Falbo & Evan Skopp for putting up with all my crap and for the oppertunity to give these things a test drive. You both know what a pain in the balls I am... I know it too though I can't help it!!! How ya'll put up with me I'll never know but I profusly thank you (& the rest of the company!) for all you do.

So like I said, these are the new "Slash" model pickups which I dropped into a Lester of unknown origin. Frankly I'm not sure what model it is... nobody is. Some have said its a Gary Moore... some have called it a 'Standard Minus" since its like a Standard but minus the binding. I was hunting for a good Paul when I found this one in a used guitar shop & adopted it as a main ride. Many people have expressed interest in buying it and I simply put their number on the pile... hehehehe

It had the stock pickups when I bought it and they were quickly replaced with a pair of Alnico II's. I'm not one to change pickups often, if I like what I hear I leave 'em be and to that end, the AII has been in the bridge slot almost since day one and hasn't left. Its not so much that I was after the "Slash" vibe as it was that I've worked with a bunch of people that have 'em in Lesters and its always sounded good... so I went with it, liked it, and left it alone!

On the flip side, the AII neck wasn't all that appealing to me in this plank. It was smooth & buttery... had what I call the "Allmans lead tone" in spades. Fat and round. But it was lacking clarity and came off as boomy, especially with those 'Steely Dan' chords. After playing around with heights & even flipping the pickup around (screws towards the bridge) I dropped in a Jazz which was immediate relief but lacked the "buttery round" thing. Eventurally it ended up with a Pearly which had the best balance between clarity and the "Allmans" vibe.

Ok... great... so what about the Slash pickups?!! C'mon man!
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

Well, before they arrived I knew I'd be somewhat scientific about it and to that end made some audio clips which are in the hands of Frank Falbo. I don't have a way to host public audio... sorry... He said he'll post 'em at some point. I hung a mic, plugged in... rocked... then flipped the amp to standby, slacked the strings and dropped the Slashers in place... took the amp off standby, played the same riffs and that's what 'ya get.

The one thing (two?) I didn't do was measure the pickup heights before I removed the AII & PG... nor did I tweak the polepieces of the Slashers which were pretty well flat compared to the tweaked out AII & PG combo. Other then that its exactly the same rig. The amp wasn't switched off... mic wasn't moved... nothing was touched! Pickup heights were eyeballed into place and that was that.

For anyone who was hoping that the new pickups would be up around the "elusive 10k PAF" wind... sorry kid. Keep dreaming. We all know (or do we?) that DC is only one small guage of a pickups sound and DC can vary from day to day, even hour to hour as you hold it in your hand and it gets warmer or colder. But for the sake of science, here's the DC off all pickups as I did the swap;

AII – 8.29
PG – 7.35
SLB – 8.50
SLN – 7.91

So... man... the sound??? What do they sound like???

In a word?

Rockin!

Working the bridge, the difference was NOT night and day. In fact, while its indeed noticable under hands and live in the room, it IS indeed a fairly subtle difference but a difference nonetheless. The tone was pretty much the same, just turned up to "11" as we often say. There's a hair more midrange & bark there... a little more "push" and a bit livelier. Not that I've ever really wished for an 'improvment' over the AII but if I had it would likely be this pickup! Everything I like, just more of it.

For the record its likely worth noting that the AII pro I removed seems to be slightly overwound and above, but not out of spec with its 8.29 DC resistence. At various points I've measured the DC on that pickup between 8.2 and 8.35 if my memory isn't failing though it has been many years. Its a 4-conductor, short leg pickup as is the Pearly.

The real suprise was the neck Slasher. To be honest I was expecting the same sort of thing I got from the stock AII which is smooth & round for single note "lead" work & boomy for chords & low string riffage. Not the case! There's quite a bit more hair & articulation there... pick attack & note definition is really there which is something I was missing with the original AII that was installed. Its also VERY well matched with the bridge pickup and while it doesn't have the 'snap' that Pearly has... it doesn't seem to be boomy, nor is it overlly round but it IS smooth and round! Pearly was a little more "scooped" sounding?! This was fatter and thicker, but not as murky as I remember the original AII neck in this guitar, which by the way is still here & installed in another guitar where I like it a lot!

Once posted the clips will speak for themselves... and again, this is all based on the very first impressions as played through one amp for about an hour. But I've also had the same pickups in this Lester for many years and sorta know what to expect as it would move from one amp to another. Both of these pickups sound great, they aren't super-hot... its not like a booster was kicked on, and in fact they don't even "seem" to have a higher output, but just "more tone" if that makes any sort of sense.
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

great write up

clips will be interesting

enjoy!
thanks
t4d
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

Hmm...I hate to follow up a big 2 post review with such a small addition but I have to say...Interesting!

I've never really bonded with the A2P Bridge but the neck has a home in my old Yamaha SG2000 but recently I've wished the neck had a little more power to it...nbothing crazy just a little more and I've been thinking about pulling the Custom Custom from the bridge for a while no in favor of something a little more traditional sounding...maybe the A2P-Slash pickups are the answer.
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

I thought these looked interesting. My only quibble is they don't come with 4-con as standard...
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Slash
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 11:23 AM
To: Evan Skopp
Subject: Re: First Impressions of the Alnico II Pro Slash


That's fantastic! Btw, the new pick ups are in 3 of my "live" guitars now & they sound killer!
Sent via Satan ] ; ) >



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Evan Skopp
To: Slash
Sent: Thu Mar 18 11:21:08 2010
Subject: First Impressions of the Alnico II Pro Slash


This comes from one of the members of our on-line forum. Here's part of his review, which is here:

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=187387

So... man... the sound??? What do they sound like???

In a word?

Rockin!

Working the bridge, the difference was NOT night and day. In fact, while its indeed noticable under hands and live in the room, it IS indeed a fairly subtle difference but a difference nonetheless. The tone was pretty much the same, just turned up to "11" as we often say. There's a hair more midrange & bark there... a little more "push" and a bit livelier. Not that I've ever really wished for an 'improvment' over the AII but if I had it would likely be this pickup! Everything I like, just more of it.

The real suprise was the neck Slasher. To be honest I was expecting the same sort of thing I got from the stock AII which is smooth & round for single note "lead" work & boomy for chords & low string riffage. Not the case! There's quite a bit more hair & articulation there... pick attack & note definition is really there which is something I was missing with the original AII that was installed. Its also VERY well matched with the bridge pickup and while it doesn't have the 'snap' that Pearly has... it doesn't seem to be boomy, nor is it overlly round but it IS smooth and round! Pearly was a little more "scooped" sounding?! This was fatter and thicker, but not as murky as I remember the original AII neck in this guitar, which by the way is still here & installed in another guitar where I like it a lot!
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

Evan Skopp said:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent via Satan ] ; ) >
Click to expand...

The Man has connections!!!

Btw, never the less great review. Looking forward to hearing those clips.
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

Is the neck model short legged? If so, it might find a home in my Hamer.
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

J Moose! Your review is Slash-approved!!!!!

I can't wait to hear clips.
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

Great review, seems like those pickups would suit me perfectly. (I'd have to get another guitar to put the Custom and PGn in, though, for heavier stuff) Are the pickups made as a limited run or can I get a guitar first?
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

Great review!! Kinda chaps my @$$ that I just bought a reg one for a LP.. wish Id have waited for a Slash one.. I like it in the neck, but could enjoy alil more of the articulation.. Had one in the bridge once but wasnt enough beef.. maybe time to try again
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

Are these custom shop pickups, or is the price similiar to production pickups?
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

Evan, that's really cool that the man himself read my piece! Humbling actually...

Anyway... general questions & answers.

The new pickups are indeed 'standard' models, not a custom shop or limited edition deal. Though to be honest I'm not sure when they'll be available at your local guitar shop. Soon I'd guess... the pair that Frank sent me were prototypes from the production floor. Shouldn't be any differences at all from what I got.

Standard configuration for these is 2-conductor and long-legs... that's the deal and part of what makes 'em special. Some time ago one of the conversations I had with Frank was about the intangible stuff... is there an audible difference between 2 & 4 conductor? How about long vs. short legs? Plastic or maple spacer? Its all possible and likely all adds up to "something" even if its just a couple percent.

In theory, he says the spacer material shouldn't make a difference & generally can't be heard, but maybe someone out there can. With the conductors there's a slight difference in the diameter of wire used in 2 vs 4... and that little extra length for the splits, well... its probably not much if anything, especially compared to the length & quality of cable that's between the guitar and amp!!! But there's certainly a difference, however minor and once you slap that through a bunch of gain stages...

The length of the legs again shouldn't be audible, but maybe it is. The longer legs do add more mass to the baseplate and that does affect the magnetic field to some degree... so that's certainly plausible. I'll buy that more then the 2 vs. 4 conductor debate!

At the end of the day there's a few other differences in the wind of these pickups, and that's likely where the real magic is since in essence they're a "custom" version of a regular old pickup that happens to be in a very special instrument.

They aren't radically different from the regular AII, at least not the slightly overwound one I pulled out from my Lester but it IS different enough to be noticeable. And its not so much a difference in tone as it is feel... they're just more immediate and responsive. Though there is a difference in tone as well... I hate to understate that but I don't want to overstate it either!
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

My 22 yr. old daughter plays a mean Les Paul...are these pickups in stores yet? She'll FREAK when I send her a set. Slash is her GOD.
 
Re: First impressions of the new Slash AII pickups

When are these going to hit the stores again?

It's my next purchase. I already have the APH1 in my LP, and it's never coming off from that guitar. I'm planning on getting another LP at some point, and this new Slash pup will be in that guitar.
 
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