Hallmark pickups "made-to-order" - did you know? Review
Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 8:28 pm
I didn't know, until I asked. It was that simple.
Backstory: I recently bought and took delivery of - on time as promised - a new Hallmark 60 Custom. I love the guitar. It looks great and plays wonderfully. In my opinion it dead-on nails the classic surf tones we all know and love. My one slight problem - I play that way only about 10% of the time. As much as I love surf guitar music, and love to play it, it's just not my main genre. I'm generally a punk style rip-roaring powerchord kind of guy that plays through monster Marshalls. All of the things about the Hallmark pickups that makes the guitar sound so amazingly wonderful clean, kind of didn't work for me when the gain on the amp goes up. It's just my personal taste. The stock bridge pickup was a little too "fat" for my liking with the amp set to blow-the-windows-out gain and volume levels. I found ways to work around it, but I wanted the pickups to just do what I want them to do without having to jump through hoops.
So here's what I did....I sent Mr Bob Shade an email explaining my situation and described the general sound I am after. I initially asked what my options were, and he suggested that I could send my pickup in to be modded by him for $50, or he could just make me a different pickup altogether. Wow! I thought that was pretty awesome. I wanted to keep it all Hallmark and stock looking, so that's what I did. A few more emails were exchanged, I further explained my tonal needs, paid the $100, and 5 days later a new custom wound handmade pickup was in my mailbox. How awesome is that? I went with the new pickup instead of modding my existing pickup because I wanted to be able to go back to "stock" if need be. To be honest, I wasn't sure it would all work out. Maybe I was being too nit-picky? Maybe the stock pickup was perfect? The new pickup experiment and total tonal satisfaction is easily worth the $100 in my opinion. And a pickup personally made to my "specs" and needs? For $100? Seems like a sweet deal to me.
The sound? Exactly as I wanted. He nailed it. I loosely described wanting a P-90 type sound with more clarity and bite than the stock Hallmark bridge pickup, and that's what he made for me all while looking like and fitting the guitar just like the original pickup. So now my 60 Custom is even more custom! It's a one-of-a-kind. I sacrificed a touch of the monstrous clean tone for better overdriven tone. That might not be acceptable for some of you, but its' exactly what I needed. The clean tone still kills in my opinion, the dirty tone is much better.
But the point to all of this is that if you didn't know that Mr Shade at Hallmark will listen to your needs and make you a pickup to fit those needs, well now you do!
Thanks Bob!
Backstory: I recently bought and took delivery of - on time as promised - a new Hallmark 60 Custom. I love the guitar. It looks great and plays wonderfully. In my opinion it dead-on nails the classic surf tones we all know and love. My one slight problem - I play that way only about 10% of the time. As much as I love surf guitar music, and love to play it, it's just not my main genre. I'm generally a punk style rip-roaring powerchord kind of guy that plays through monster Marshalls. All of the things about the Hallmark pickups that makes the guitar sound so amazingly wonderful clean, kind of didn't work for me when the gain on the amp goes up. It's just my personal taste. The stock bridge pickup was a little too "fat" for my liking with the amp set to blow-the-windows-out gain and volume levels. I found ways to work around it, but I wanted the pickups to just do what I want them to do without having to jump through hoops.
So here's what I did....I sent Mr Bob Shade an email explaining my situation and described the general sound I am after. I initially asked what my options were, and he suggested that I could send my pickup in to be modded by him for $50, or he could just make me a different pickup altogether. Wow! I thought that was pretty awesome. I wanted to keep it all Hallmark and stock looking, so that's what I did. A few more emails were exchanged, I further explained my tonal needs, paid the $100, and 5 days later a new custom wound handmade pickup was in my mailbox. How awesome is that? I went with the new pickup instead of modding my existing pickup because I wanted to be able to go back to "stock" if need be. To be honest, I wasn't sure it would all work out. Maybe I was being too nit-picky? Maybe the stock pickup was perfect? The new pickup experiment and total tonal satisfaction is easily worth the $100 in my opinion. And a pickup personally made to my "specs" and needs? For $100? Seems like a sweet deal to me.
The sound? Exactly as I wanted. He nailed it. I loosely described wanting a P-90 type sound with more clarity and bite than the stock Hallmark bridge pickup, and that's what he made for me all while looking like and fitting the guitar just like the original pickup. So now my 60 Custom is even more custom! It's a one-of-a-kind. I sacrificed a touch of the monstrous clean tone for better overdriven tone. That might not be acceptable for some of you, but its' exactly what I needed. The clean tone still kills in my opinion, the dirty tone is much better.
But the point to all of this is that if you didn't know that Mr Shade at Hallmark will listen to your needs and make you a pickup to fit those needs, well now you do!
Thanks Bob!
