You might be noticing a trend focusing on neck pickups. lol! You’d be right. I’ve been on the hunt the past several months and I’ve been learning a lot.
The 59 Clone is one I grabbed at the same time as the Mojotone Black Magic bridge humbucker that was mentioned a while back. While I’m not known for chasing a ‘vintage’ or a PAF’ tone, I gave this one a shot and have been pleased.
Something I really like about this pickup is the offset coil windings that still cancel the hum but allow for a wider range of frequencies and more nuance to come through. Then they add the butyrate bobbins, maple spacer, and vintage spec screws/slugs.
What is nice is that from there, you can choose the rest of your specs. Covered (and type of color) or open coils… potting… type of magnet… and even the output.
I went with open black coils, with an A4 magnet and the lower 7.0k resistance. It comes with the vintage style long legs and single conductor cable, but I asked for mine with short legs and 4 conductor cable to allow it to fit in more modern mounting/wiring options as well.
Mojotone has a nice quick turnaround. I was pleased with the packaging, along with screws, springs, instructions and even a nifty sticker. It installed without a hitch and I was soon listening to an impressive neck pickup. On a clean amp setting, you can still push it to want to break up, but with a parallel wiring option it produced nice clean tones. Chimey and airy, with a nice presence in the low end that do not overbear. On a dirty amp setting, the offset coils really go to work to deliver nice chording, while lead work really shines with a nice accent in the mids and highs that don’t wimp out but don’t take off your head. I think it’s a nice versatile option
series – 6.92k
split N – 3.71k
split S – 3.22k
parallel – 1.73k
Darth Phineas is a long time music industry insider who provides his readers with unbiased reviews on musical instrument and guitar gear. You can read more of his reviews and check out industry news on his Facebook community Darth Phineas
