VAUGHN SKOW's blog

When to rewind or rebuild a guitar pickup and when to replace it

Hey again fellow guitar geeks, I love ya each and every one!  So over the years I have re-wound a great many guitar pickups, and I pride myself on being the guy who can rewind ANYTHING!  Speedbumps, Filter'Trons, Hi-Li'Trons, Goldfoils, one-off Japanese made weird pickups from the 70's, yep!  Sure I do the typical Strat, Tele, Humbucker, and P-90 rebuilds too, but I ain't afraid of any pickup.  Hadn't met one that I couldn't fix yet.

So, you might expect me to advise you always rebuild a pickup rather than replace it, but that's not at all my recommendation.

A Techs HONEST Review of a PRS Silver Sky SE - The BEST Review you will find!

Howdy Guitar gang!  Sorry if it's been a while since I posted here, I cut the heck outta my hand a couple weeks back and it really slowed down my progress.  No playing ANY instrument, no making pickups, and no blogging!  But I'm sufficiently healed and ready to rant!  This rant is on the PRS Silver Sky.  As most of you know, I've became somewhat of a PRS pickup upgrade expert, at least where the humbuckers are concerned.But a few weeks ago I had a client send me his brand new Silver Sky for a pickup upgrade and setup tweak.

Potted vs un-potted guitar pickups, the pros and cons

Hey fellow guitar tone lovin' Guys n Gals!Ready to jump into a hot topic ... err, literally, like a hot vat of wax?  Let's talk about wax-potting pickups, and what it does.  Sound downright exciting?  If so, then yep ... you are a certified guitar-tone connoisseur! Let's "jump in" :)

Anico Pole-Pieces vs Pole Screws in Pickups - Tele or Strat Style

Howdy guitar gang!  So I had a request come in that got me to thinking ... thinking that maybe this is some info that ALL tone connoisseurs need to know!  So here goes. 

Here is the Question:

"Hey Vaughn!   I’m putting together a Telecaster from used parts. I’ll need pickups for it, and wondered I’d adjustable pole pieces were available for the bridge pickup.  Thanks!"

Guitar Players - Once Again I urge You To Play at Church

So, you all have heard me say it before, but in these days of Covid crap almost obliterating the live music industry, it's more important than ever!  You see, all through this supposed crisis, I've kept playing almost every weekend.  How?  I play at several Churches.  Guitar, bass, and drums, depending on the need.  And man it's a blast.  Of course, it doesn't hurt that I'm in Nashville, an area just brimming with full-on Pro level musicians, so my band-mates are almost always exceptional people to play with.  But, wherever you are, isn't any time spent out playing with other living, breathing musicians better than NOT getting to play at all?

The Best Gift For a Guitar Player or Any Musician

PRS 'Bright Cap' why it's there and how to remove it

What IS That Bright Cap Across The Volume Pot on A PRS For Anyway?

Hi guitar gang.  As you may know, I've became fairly well known for upgrading the pickups in PRS guitars; and I'd like to address one of the main questions that comes up when folks are replacing the pickups in their PRS.  The "Bright" cap!  First, what is it?  It's a small-value cap soldered across the first two lugs of your volume pot, Second, why is it there: to increase the brightness of the pickups.  Simple enough.  Let's dig in just a little deeper!

Partial Pickup Coil Splitting through Resistors, Common On PRS Models

Howdy guitar pals!  Last week I did a nice, juicy blog on what I found when dissecting a high-end PRS 58/15 pickup ... weird and interesting stuff! Read that blog if ya have not already :-)
This week I'll explain another bit of PRS pickup weirdness that seems to occur mostly on the Indonesian made PRS models with the basic, cheapo pickups:

Partial coil-splitting

Let's take a look at THAT! 

Paul Reed Smith (PRS) 58/15 Pickups Decoded! wiring and makeup discovered

Wow!  This is one industrial, epic, intensely cool blog for y'all!  You see, for years now I've been hearing rumors about how the high-end PRS 58/15 pickups perform something strange instead of the typical shutting off one coil to go into single-coil mode.  What I saw on several blogs were refrences to one coil being partially shut off via a resistor.  I had heard the pickups and certainly I agreed that they did NOT sound at all like ANY split humbucker I had EVER heard!  Generally, when one coil is shut off on a humbucker, what's left is an anemic, sharp, piercing single coil sound ... very low output (it IS only HALF a pickup, of course) and VERY harsh/bright because of it's very low wind count. 

Musicians Have Options for Income During COVID

Howdy Guitar gang!  Soooo, we can all agree that the world has been a crazy place to live the last year or so, but since my buddy Elon hasn't got Mars in 100% move-in condition yet, I guess we all gotta call this planet home for the foreseeable future.  But for many of us guitar-slingers, the landscape is almost unrecognizable from that of glorious 2019, when we all had the freedom to travel around the world, publicly assemble, and even play music in packed hole-in-the-wall bars if we felt like it; I guess our forefathers would have deemed it "Life Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness".  But we sure as heck can't