Virtuoso P.A.F. Humbucker Set
HOW TO BUY Serious Guitarists rely on ToneSpec Pickups in all of their guitars because they deliver a serious advantage over guitars with cheap, stock or vintage pickups. Our propr ietary techniques make all other pickups obsolete. Due to demand, we have a waitlist you can easily join. It's tone you can feel & once you experience it, you'll never play guitars with anything less than ToneSpec Pickups. You can easily join our roster of guitarists with top-notch tone by following these easy steps to get started: Watch the video below that explains our process. Contact us to inquire about ordering. CONTACT US TO ORDER __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Tone of a Virtuoso - Get Inspired. The Virtuoso Guitar Player may be called upon to play many different styles, sometimes even during the same set. The expectation is that the Virtuoso will always deliver the goods in a seemingly effortless & extremely musical fashion. The Virtuoso PAF® Set was created with this type of Musician in mind. Wouldn’t it be great if you could reach all the tones needed for a session or gig with one guitar? Now you can! From Blues, Rock, Country, Jazz, Fusion & Beyond, the Virtuoso Set delivers great PAF® tone. Hearing the Difference When comparing our pickup to other pickups, the great players hear the difference right away. It seems the better the player, the more excited they get after hearing our pickups in their guitar. Mark Whitfield, the incredible Jazz Guitarist, was attending a show at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York. He was blown away by the guitar tone he was hearing that night. After the show he approached the Guitarist and asked him how he was getting that amazing tone. The Guitarist on stage that night was the great Leo Amuedo. Leo told Mark that he was playing the Tone Specific Virtuoso PAF’s. A few days later Mark ordered a set for himself and a set of our 60’s Blues Pickups for his Strat. Pro Tested – On the Road & in the Studio We’ve heard a lot of people say that great vintage tone is not possible with new pickups or new guitars, this set of amazing pickups has proved the nay-sayers wrong. Don’t take our word for it, just listen to what one of our Professional Beta-Testers has to say…. Leo Amuedo, a Virtuso in his own right, is a member of the Chris Botti Band and plays on occasion with Blood, Sweet & Tears. Leo has countless credits and is in high demand for studio work when not on tour. Nobody has been playing the Virtuoso set longer than Leo. He was our original Beta-Tester and has provided invaluable feedback. Leo has owned many guitars and used all types of Humbuckers. Most of the humbuckers he’s played over the years did a few things well but struggled in other situations. He’s been searching for great vintage sound PAF style pickups that would be able cover just about any situation. Leo has told us that the Virtuoso P.A.F. set is the most versatile set of pickups he’s played. They sound great in any guitar and with every amp he has tried. Few people know tone like Leo know’s tone, we are honored beyond words that Leo has installed the Virtuoso pickups in many of his guitars. The original design of the Virtuoso pickups made for Leo were made without covers and in the traditional 6 screw + 6 slug format. Leo loved these pickups and still has a set installed in one of his favorite guitars but he wondered if there would be a way to make these awesome pickups even better for a couple of project guitars he was working on. He asked us to remove the slugs and add another set of screws. We did it for him and he loved the results. This 12 screw set is now available to the general public. It’s called the “Leo Mod” so be sure to select that option if you want your Virtuoso PAF’s to have 12 screws, just like Leo. Warm, Clear & Dynamic If you’ve played more than a few vintage PAF® pickups then you know that no two sets sound exactly the same. Back in the day, the materials used to make pickups varied quite a bit and you could get very different results from two seemingly identical guitars from the same year and production line. What is consistent about the PAF® era pickups, is that they are typically warm and dynamic. We used these characteristics as a starting point for the Virtuoso PAF® Set. With the help of a few top professional players spanning across numerous styles of music, we created the best vintage voiced PAF® pickups to cover a variety of tones. We accomplished this enormous task without tricky wiring or gimmicks. We stayed true to the PAF design and the tone of the most versatile PAF® pickups. If you have great pickups, then 2 pickups and a 3-way switch is all that is needed. You can cover a variety of tone just by using your 3-way switch, adjusting the volume/tone pots and changing your pick attack. Unlike the most humbuckers that are stiff and lacking dynamic, these pickups are super responsive to whatever you throw at them. They also have been designed to sound great in just a about any scenario a Virtuoso might find themselves in. Vintage Tone - Modern Innovation Our painstaking design and testing process has yielded pickups that that sound great with tube amps, pedals, solid state amps, digital devices and even software. Tonal Details: The Neck Pickup is warm while remaining very clear. The Bridge Pickup can really cut but never gets harsh. The tone is very dynamic, while have plenty of punch and articulate tones on tap. They work great with the volume and tone pots to clean up or drive your amp. 12-Screw Mod AKA “the Leo Mod” More About Leonardo Amuedo Leonardo Amuedo is known worldwide for his extremely tasteful and artistic guitar tone. His musicianship has been captured on several Grammy winning recordings. Leo's style ranges across Contemporary Jazz & Bebop, Fusion, Blues and far beyond. His tone and touch are the envy of 6 string slingers everywhere. Leo is a recording artist on the Sony label. He has also toured the world with many top acts. Since 2012 he has been a member of the Chris Botti Band, they cover tunes ranging from Louis Armstrong to Led Zeppelin on a nightly basis. Leo loves the tone of vintage PAF's, but prefers having the cover removed to "open up" the tone. This works great for his style because he has warmth in hands to spare whenever he needs it. Removing the cover gives him access to a more cutting tone when he wants it. When you hear him play these very special pickups with your eyes closed, it sounds if he is playing several guitars at once. One moment, it's pure PAF bliss, the next moment it's if he's playing a vintage single coil guitar. These pickups in the right hands are so versatile and can cover just about any type of music. It's a special set of pickups made for the elite level musician. Leo enjoys the tone of the Virtuoso stock set without any mods but wanted to take fine tuning his tone to another level. He requested that we make a pickup with 12 screws for fine tuning. When you are a Virtuoso of Leo’s caliber, you hear every little nuance. When word got out about this mod, people started to ask for the “Leo Mod”. So we just had to add is an option for everyone to experience. Are you ready to get the most out of your guitar and approach the tone of a Virtuoso? Check out Leonardo Amuedo on itunes How to Buy/Pricing Our P.A.F. Humbuckers Pickups start at $598 - Due to overwhelming demand, the current wait is 2 months. To order click the "Add to Cart" at the top of the page. Our building process takes a little longer than most pickup winders and we have rigorous testing that is performed on all pickups before they ship. This includes sound test. The goal is to make pickups that will not only inspire you when you get them but also 20 or 30 years down the road. We want these to be the last pickups you get. Players with good ears seem to hear the difference right away. In fact, just about every pro we've dealt with has ordered multiple sets altering hearing how these pickups transform the feel & the tone of their instrument. We are sure you will appreciate the attention to detail when you hear your new pickups. Want to Skip the Wait? Click to Contact a Dealer