Inflames626
New member
I thought I'd reminisce about Mastertone pickups, made by one Tony Snape of Australia, now discontinued, and see if anyone else can relate.
In the early 2000s, I was looking for an alternative to the mighty EMG 81 for low tunings. I was really enjoying the sound of a cheap $200 Indian made Dinky tuned DGCFAD with EMG 81 with EXG, SA and S singles. The licensed bridge (really cheap, string thru saddles) is crap but it still sounds huge. That was as low as I went.
I was really getting into (then) low tuned stuff--C and below, especially my namesake and favorite band, In Flames, and Dark Tranquillity (C#). Also, some sludgy stuff like Crowbar--B standard. I needed something with more body than the 81 but with similar attack, but I didn't do my own wiring at the time and I didn't know about the 18 volt mod.
I found the 85 to be flabby in the bottom. This was the pre Blackouts world--in the active camp, if EMG didn't do it for you, that was about it.
I thought passives were inferior at the time. They were for your father's band, not death metal. Being 22, to me it was all output output output, and the batteries only helped that. Plus Seymour and Larry had so many models I didn't want to get into that financial quagmire of pay, trial, and error.
So I went to Harmony Central (gulp) and found these guys talking about some pickup called the Mastertone SPA--Supa Phat Ass. I don't remember if it was available in 2 volts or 4 volts, but EMG was only doing 1 volt output RMS at the time and 2-4 seemed huge. An X2N was only doing 500. In my n00b mind, it was a no brainer. More output=better, even though all I knew was the sound of an EMG 81.
I ordered them. They were fairly expensive--$150 or $200. I put them in a crimson swirl Japanese Kelly I had tuned C standard and they sounded huge, especially the SPA. I kept them in there for years. Recently, I put them back in and wired them 18 volts, taking a chance on ruining them. They're probably the best sounding pickups I have ever played. Only the Thomson Blackouts come close.
The only complaint I had with them was the VHO-n neck humbucker, made for blues, was muddy and indistinct. It was like it was fighting the neck position. If you've ever put an EMG 81 in the neck, you know what I'm talking about. It sounded like the pickup was under a blanket.
A little while later, SD came out with the Blackouts, which, if memory serves, sounded extremely similar to the SPAs. Snape quit making his pickups, but the few that are still floating around out there seem to still be highly sought after.
Thoughts, guitar gods?
In the early 2000s, I was looking for an alternative to the mighty EMG 81 for low tunings. I was really enjoying the sound of a cheap $200 Indian made Dinky tuned DGCFAD with EMG 81 with EXG, SA and S singles. The licensed bridge (really cheap, string thru saddles) is crap but it still sounds huge. That was as low as I went.
I was really getting into (then) low tuned stuff--C and below, especially my namesake and favorite band, In Flames, and Dark Tranquillity (C#). Also, some sludgy stuff like Crowbar--B standard. I needed something with more body than the 81 but with similar attack, but I didn't do my own wiring at the time and I didn't know about the 18 volt mod.
I found the 85 to be flabby in the bottom. This was the pre Blackouts world--in the active camp, if EMG didn't do it for you, that was about it.
I thought passives were inferior at the time. They were for your father's band, not death metal. Being 22, to me it was all output output output, and the batteries only helped that. Plus Seymour and Larry had so many models I didn't want to get into that financial quagmire of pay, trial, and error.
So I went to Harmony Central (gulp) and found these guys talking about some pickup called the Mastertone SPA--Supa Phat Ass. I don't remember if it was available in 2 volts or 4 volts, but EMG was only doing 1 volt output RMS at the time and 2-4 seemed huge. An X2N was only doing 500. In my n00b mind, it was a no brainer. More output=better, even though all I knew was the sound of an EMG 81.
I ordered them. They were fairly expensive--$150 or $200. I put them in a crimson swirl Japanese Kelly I had tuned C standard and they sounded huge, especially the SPA. I kept them in there for years. Recently, I put them back in and wired them 18 volts, taking a chance on ruining them. They're probably the best sounding pickups I have ever played. Only the Thomson Blackouts come close.
The only complaint I had with them was the VHO-n neck humbucker, made for blues, was muddy and indistinct. It was like it was fighting the neck position. If you've ever put an EMG 81 in the neck, you know what I'm talking about. It sounded like the pickup was under a blanket.
A little while later, SD came out with the Blackouts, which, if memory serves, sounded extremely similar to the SPAs. Snape quit making his pickups, but the few that are still floating around out there seem to still be highly sought after.
Thoughts, guitar gods?
