Lickup Pickups

Going back to when guitars sounded like guitars.

It's kinda funny if you think about it. Through the so called "Evolution" of the guitar pickup since Seth Lover came up with the PAF Humbucker for Gibson, everyone has been pushing these things to spit out more and more and more ohms, because everyone wants a "hot" pickup, right?

Not so, here at Virgil Guitars. During our phases of research & development, we found that the "hotter" pickups tended to diminish the natural midrange caused by the more "classic" style pups. Through lots of comparisons, our ears just guided us to these simple, yet PURE sounding pickups that are NOT overwound. The characteristics from our results were actually quite stunning. The first guitar we outfitted with our own, in-house, hand-wound pickups were installed in "The Bridge" guitar (VG #7). Instead of us bragging about these pups, we let our customers do it. You can read THEIR testimonials in our "Gallery" section - every one of our customers went crazy over them and THEY mentioned that fact in their testimonials (Since "The Bridge" build!).

Here is an excerpt from one of the testimonials from Michael, of Brooklyn, NY:

Apart from the cosmetic look of the guitar - the handmade custom PUPs are out of this world. I'm a Gibson man at heart but these pickups WAIL. Love the coil tap to switch from Single Coil to Humbucker with ease. All the sustain and tones you get out of the PUPS whether clean or dirty are spectacular...would make even Eddie Van Halen jealous! I'll attest to the tone as I played "The Bridge" guitar at my wedding for my wife....a little Neil Young - "Harvest Moon". I plugged straight from guitar to DI BOX into the soundboard and holy F*%# the sound was astonishing...and that was technically the first time I plugged in...even unplugged this guitar sounds amazing. Once I had a moment to really sit down with the guitar I was able to plug into my 1967 Ampeg Reverb Rocket II with a vintage Tube Screamer for measure. DAMN. The warmth and cleanliness of the clean tone is amazing...the dirty tones - dirtier the better.

We wanted to give them a great name. One that fits. They actually were getting their "licks" up on the guitar. We know that a great guitar is always inspiring to one's playing and hence the name "Lickup Pickups™". These come installed on all Virgil Guitars now, however, if you are married to a certain type of pickup, we respect that as well and can install most types of pickups on your guitar. We also sell Lickup Pickups™ at www.lickuppickups.com