Anyone tried Klein Pickups?

[Marc]

I’m interested in the grey bobbin ‘65s or ‘69s but no sound demos. Klein is very highly regarded but hoping someone has experience of them?

[zhivago]

I've been interested in trying out the Firebird pickups they make, but there's been a few stories on TGP with people saying there are delays in delivery and bad comms etc.

It has spooked me as I am in the UK and any problems with an order from abroad are usually pretty painful,

...having said that, I would still like to try them.

Interestingly enough a couple of days ago I went on their site again and it has been updated, so maybe they will step up the web business. (the old site looked pretty ancient).

[Marc]

Right same here I’m over in Bristol. I did notice something in the copy saying something like “Mr Klein makes every pickup” which kind of says “be patient”. I’ll have a think.

[zhivago]

Yeah it is a tricky situation when only one person winds...when it comes to Fenders, my favourite winder in Don Mare...I have ordered three times in the past few years, each time taking at least 9-10 months to get my pickups.

He is well worth the wait but my god, it is a loooong time if you already have a guitar you want to drop the pickups in....and of course whenever I move a guitar that has them installed I take them out and keep the pickups in a drawer instead of selling them on thinking "I'll order again in the future".

Same thing with my pairs of Throbak PAFs, although that is more of a price thing...they get more expensive every time I look at their site!

For what it's worth the reviews for people that have Klein's pickups are great, so it might be worth taking the leap of faith.

[Marc]

Yeah it is a tricky situation when only one person winds...when it comes to Fenders, my favourite winder in Don Mare...I have ordered three times in the past few years, each time taking at least 9-10 months to get my pickups.

He is well worth the wait but my god, it is a loooong time if you already have a guitar you want to drop the pickups in....and of course whenever I move a guitar that has them installed I take them out and keep the pickups in a drawer instead of selling them on thinking "I'll order again in the future".

Same thing with my pairs of Throbak PAFs, although that is more of a price thing...they get more expensive every time I look at their site!

For what it's worth the reviews for people that have Klein's pickups are great, so it might be worth taking the leap of faith.

I asked someone on another forum about ordering Kleins and he says the plus is that they are amazing and has ordered several sets.
The negatives were… no comms and slow - 4 to 5 months and eventually they show up.

[AcrylicSuperman]

Yeah it is a tricky situation when only one person winds...when it comes to Fenders, my favourite winder in Don Mare...I have ordered three times in the past few years, each time taking at least 9-10 months to get my pickups.

He is well worth the wait but my god, it is a loooong time if you already have a guitar you want to drop the pickups in....and of course whenever I move a guitar that has them installed I take them out and keep the pickups in a drawer instead of selling them on thinking "I'll order again in the future".

Same thing with my pairs of Throbak PAFs, although that is more of a price thing...they get more expensive every time I look at their site!

For what it's worth the reviews for people that have Klein's pickups are great, so it might be worth taking the leap of faith.

I asked someone on another forum about ordering Kleins and he says the plus is that they are amazing and has ordered several sets.
The negatives were… no comms and slow - 4 to 5 months and eventually they show up.

This ^. Kleins are worth the wait though.

[zhivago]

I asked someone on another forum about ordering Kleins and he says the plus is that they are amazing and has ordered several sets.
The negatives were… no comms and slow - 4 to 5 months and eventually they show up.

Yeah the wait is bummer, but if the wait is worth it then I am all for it.

I dropped a pair of Oil City Winterizers into my Firebird yesterday but I think I will put an order for some Kleins and just wait it out until they get here with the Oil Cities.

[Marc]

I asked someone on another forum about ordering Kleins and he says the plus is that they are amazing and has ordered several sets.
The negatives were… no comms and slow - 4 to 5 months and eventually they show up.

Yeah the wait is bummer, but if the wait is worth it then I am all for it.

I dropped a pair of Oil City Winterizers into my Firebird yesterday but I think I will put an order for some Kleins and just wait it out until they get here with the Oil Cities.

Oil City - that's a point I'll see what he can do for me. I'm after the mid sixties plain enamel JM sound (but not the Pure Vintage 65s as they are too bright).

[zhivago]

Oil City - that's a point I'll see what he can do for me. I'm after the mid sixties plain enamel JM sound (but not the Pure Vintage 65s as they are too bright).

The Winterizers sound really, really nice...beautiful sparkle and shimmer....the only real bummer (for me) is that they are chrome finish and the rest of my Firebird has been swapped to nickel, so I will keep them as an "interim set" until I can get some nickel pickups on there....I bet he could wind a JM pickup to get you that sound...might be worth dropping him a message.

[Marc]

Oil City - that's a point I'll see what he can do for me. I'm after the mid sixties plain enamel JM sound (but not the Pure Vintage 65s as they are too bright).

The Winterizers sound really, really nice...beautiful sparkle and shimmer....the only real bummer (for me) is that they are chrome finish and the rest of my Firebird has been swapped to nickel, so I will keep them as an "interim set" until I can get some nickel pickups on there....I bet he could wind a JM pickup to get you that sound...might be worth dropping him a message.

They sound interesting!

Update: I decided to order a set of 65 grey bobbins with plain enamel from Croatian winder Q Pickups. Heard so many great reports about this guy. Hopefully will be with me in a couple of weeks.

Q 65s

[zhivago]

Very cool!

Keep us in the loop, I was tempted to order Q’s Firebird pickups, they are priced well and even have the odd sale on Reverb where you can get some money off.

[Marc]

Very cool!

Keep us in the loop, I was tempted to order Q’s Firebird pickups, they are priced well and even have the odd sale on Reverb where you can get some money off.

So the Q 65s arrived and I installed them along with a Lavaguard. They are superb - very close to my real 1965 and a different league to PV65s. Great build quality. Recommended!

Annoyingly the top switch has given up the ghost I could see one of the lugs was wobbling looked like it had been overheated previously so I’ve ordered a new one and got to open it up again.

[zhivago]

Very nice!! I will keep Q pickups in mind for any future projects!

[Surfysonic]

FWIW, I've bought a few different pickup sets from Q and have never been disappoinited - great communication and shipped fairly quickly. I've had his:

• '58 Jazzmaster pickups set

• '62-'63 Jaguar pickup set

• '64 Stratocaster pickup set

• Stratocaster Blue Foil Pickup set (for a Squier Cyclone)

The only set I still have (now in a drawer) are the '64 Strat pickups. I moved on the other guitars that had the other pickups installed. The only reason I've got the Strat pickups in a drawer is due to my effort in acquiring noiseless/hum-cancelling single coil pickups for all my guitars and I've got my 2 Strats covered (Fralin Hum-Cancelling and soon to arrive Kinman Perfect Vintage set).

I've mentioned this elsewhere on OSG - if Q ever decided to make noiseless single-coil pickups or humbucker in Jazzmaster pickup form, I'd get some in a heartbeat. He's got a Hybrid P90/Humbucker Jazzmaster - https://reverb.com/item/13614966-jazzma ... -q-pickups but the pickups are only hum-cancelling when both are active.

[Larry Mal]

I bought a set from Q and would absolutely do business with him again. He had the custom made pickups I had requested in my hands in under a week from Croatia. The price was great and communication also. If I ever buy Firebird pickups they'll be from him.