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MASTERTONE vHO & SPA PICKUPS |
What's black, chrome, gold and shiny, hand made in South Australia and guaranteed to give your guitar new life? Well, according to Tony Snape, ex-Australian Airforce technician, Mastertone Pickups. Mastertone have been on the scene, bubbling away and threatening to do huge things, for a few years now. Ian Moss is one well-known name that is said to favour them and a look at their guest book at www.mastertonepickups.com suggests that he is not alone and that there's a real treasure waiting to be discovered by the uninitiated.
But are they any good? I was sent a matching set of vHO - Vintage High Output - and the SPA - Super Phat Ass - pickups to try. First impressions are important and three beautifully finished chrome humbuckers greeted me when I opened the boxes. They look unique as the cover is as smooth and contoured as a baby's bum - a chrome baby. They ship with pots and wiring including the battery clip - Mastertone Pickups are active but not in the traditional sense as you will see.
I quickly had them installed into my beloved Tokai LS75Q, which is basically a very fine Japanese built '59 quilt top Les Paul copy previously fitted with Seymour Duncans. The SPA was installed into a first issue Maton Mastersound MS500 whose original pickups were pretty questionable to say the least. I couldn't believe my ears when I fired up the Tokai. The vHO's are plenty loud but not over the top. They are designed to accentuate all of the woody qualities that a Les Paul can offer and this they most certainly did. To paraphrase another Mastertone convert, it was like pulling the cotton wool out of my ears. Super tight bottom end punch, sparkling tops that don't diminish when you wind down the volume pots and so much definition that any shortcomings in your technique are soon made loud and clear. Their all-round sound could be described by the sound a cricket bat makes when you 'donk' the leather on the sweet spot - spot on and hair raising. They don't have any of the dryness normally associated with active pickups nor are they glassy like some modern passives. Just tone, tone and more tone. There's no microphonic feedback due the double potting and the Alnico 5 polepieces give you that traditional element sought after in a good PAF. That said, they are not to be compared to PAF's as they are certainly something more. The neck pickup is smooth, woody, sparkly yet bluesy and so usable and the bridge pickup can deliver slam, sweetness or subtlety with a simple tweak of the volume pot. I have to drop names now; a couple of weekends ago I decided to put the pickups to the ultimate test by using them live with Joe Camilleri, Daryl Braithwaite and James Reyne at a triple bill on the Gold Coast. Normally I would take a Les Paul or other familiar US guitar for the job but I found that I could coax all of the necessary sounds right from the Mastertone appointed Tokai. 'Commonly known' single coil twang was to be had just by turning the guitar down and running it clean into a Twin. You'd be hard pressed to get standard humbuckers to do that without sounding muffled. I also tried them in the studio with a H&K zenTera, possibly the last word in modeling amps. The digital nature of the amp tended to over emphasize the high-end qualities of the pickups but this could be fixed by backing the presence off a little. Valve amps are the go for these pickups as they drive them like a well-oiled and very noiseless machine.
The SPA was not as aggressive as I had anticipated although it is certainly loud and packs a fair whomp. Razor sharp attack, biting tops but still possessing that woody beauty found in the vHO, it's a metal player's dream but coupled with a vHO in the neck position it suited me fine for all of the chorus drenched clean stuff I have to play in the James Reyne set. Wind it up with a decent amp or overdrive pedal and you're in solo heaven. The SPA is available in two output voltages: 2.5 or 4 which would really melt your amp - in a good way! The Maton, I'm glad to say, is now a very functional alternative in my choice of weapons.
Due to the fact that these pickups are hand made with US Alnico pole pieces and NASA standard circuitry, they are not cheap. A set of vHO's will set you back the best part of $500 but these are not your run-of-the-mill pick ups either. They genuinely offer something different and in my opinion, better. Tony has told me that he has plans for another 28 models that will hopefully see the light of day before the year's up. I look forward to this a lot. If you are after standard sounding humbuckers then these are probably not for you; if you want something exciting and more alive sounding then definitely check these out. I'm converted.
Out of five:
QUALITY
PLAYABILITY
BANG-F0R-YOUR-BUCK
OVERALL
