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Axesrus "Bourbon City" - Wide Range Version
Axesrus - Bourbon City Humbucker


 
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Main Description

Bourbon City - The Home of Tone

Straight off the bat, let me set something out here “THIS IS NOT A *WIDE RANGE HUMBUCKER*” – this is a “Humbucker to fit into a wide range mount/route” - if you want to know more on what that actually means, and why it might matter to you, click on the "why wide range isn't all it seems" in the menu.

Working in the "vintage" realm, but just a shade spicier then something "very vintage" (like the True 50s) offering up a tighter low end, and slightly more bite in the highs, they're absolutely begging to be driven hard, though a big, british amp, something thats really going to rattle the windows.

As with most vintage humbuckers (be they spicy, be they a little tamer) - they absolutely excel at the classics. Rock, Blues, Country, Pop, as long as your not working in the extremes (Modern Metal and Classic Jazz!) the Bourbon City will do it with ease, and it'll do it with just a bit more grit and aggression then most. In short, guitar music, where the guitar sounds like a guitar? But you've got a little bit of distortion going on? As unimaginative as that may sound, its really what the Bourbons excel at!

And one of the characteristics that make these "hotter vintage" humbuckers, is the head room you retain along with that extra heat. That space? That breahing room? Coupled with the ability to "go a bit" under gain? Its a match made in heaven frankly, giving a wonderful, slightly sleazy tone thats got just the right amount of note seperation without becoming over defined.

Be warned though, whilst that extra "zip" in the highs is fantastic under a bit of gain, it can be a little too rasping if your on the cleaner end of the spectrum. Its not without its uses! That "country twang" lurks in there, and, honestly, most folk plaing "on clean" aren't really all that clean - theres always a little bit of grit in a guitar tone - but if your aiming for "ultra clean" - the bourbons will be just a touch too brittle in the highs. Classic 50s or True 50s would be my suggestion in those instances.

And in the same breath, modern metal - where your putting so much gain on the guitar signal, its got that huge compressed tone - wont work with the Bourbons (or any vintage pickup!) - its got too much shape, to much character in the highs. The note seperation will always ring through, and it'll sound a bit odd. One to avoid if your a dyed in the wool metal head.

Beyond that though, i'd struggle to really call the Bourbons anything but fantastic - they're a brilliant "guitar music" pickup! Nothing too clean, nothing too heavy, but for a wide range of different styles? Absolutely great!

Fender®, Telecaster®, Starcaster® and Strat® are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and Gibson Musical Instruments Corporation. Axesrus® has no affiliation with FMIC

Why Range isn't all it seems

What is a "wide range humbucker"?

TThis might seem a bit of a stupid thing to say, but, depending where you come from in the whole Tele® Deluxe/Custom thing, it will make some sense.

A wax potted history
Without getting too bogged down in the history of it, Fender® released “The Wide range humbucker” in the 1970s, and it’s a very specific design – it’s a 10K, 42 AWG humbucker, wound onto larger bobbins, and with threaded CuNiFe Rod magnets. The bigger bobbins needed to get 10K of 42 AWG needed a bigger cover, and the bigger cover needed a bigger base plate, which in turn, needs 4 screws to stop it wobbling. That design lasted through the entire original run, until 1981, when the the guitars were discontinued. (and I don’t think many lamented it, because no one really liked them at the time!)
Roll forward to 2004, Fender® “re-issued” the Telecaster Deluxe, Custom, and I believe, the Starcaster® (which also used wide range humbuckers) – but they changed the design. They kept “the look”, with the 3x3 pole screw setup, the huge covers, the 4 screw base plates – but internally, the humbucker was much more “normal” – it was steel poles, normal sized bobbins and a bar magnet. Electrically, it was behaving much like any other humbucker.
However, the problem with the re-issue version, is that they weren’t very well thought out. Theres a few different specs nowadays, but on the whole, they’re not amazing. It’s nothing to do with the space in the cover, or the steel poles, or the bar magnet, its simply because there hadn’t been much consideration gone into the coil design, they were just cheap and cheerful humbuckers dressed up to be something they weren’t
So we have a funny situation with wide range humbuckers – there are the originals, which are, frankly, a weird design, with a very “distinctive” sound, (very big, very brash, loads of head room, loads of body, hard to control!), and then the re-issues, which are more recognisable, more normal, but don’t sound amazing and this has led to something strange happening.
This has given rise to the belief that its some sort of sacrilege to put a “normal humbucker” into a wide range case, because, somehow, even the best humbucker in the world, will magically become terrible once there’s a generous block of wax around the coil. (which is obviously nonsense) and has driven a demand for “the original” wide range humbuckers.

Originality for the sake of it?
Now, I do understand that to a certain extent, and this maybe goes a little beyond my remit as the man charged with telling you about humbuckers, but that’s a weird idea to have. The re-issues sound bad because we recognise their tone/signal as being “a normal humbucker” and we recognise it as being a pretty poor example, but we DO RECOGNISE IT. Jumping from that, to “I must have the original with the extinct magnets and massive bobbins” – if you think about it, how many 1970s Tele Deluxes have you actually heard? How many have you been in the same room as? How many have been in the hands of players who have inspired you with their tone? I bet its not a long list right? (an honourable mention to Alex Kapranos though!)

That puts the “original” design into a funny situation (and it does begin to explain why the design didn’t catch with the initial release) – most of us have never actually heard them.

And to get into the very shallow waters of this thinking, consider this.

“Good guitar tone isn’t magic, nor is it some mad cap engineering exercise, it’s simply a case of being able to put your finger on what you’re hearing and being able to say ‘I know that! I know what it’s for!’ and being able to apply that to the music you like to play”

And before you jump down my throat and tell me I’m an idiot, consider this. You’re here, shopping for pickups because, presumably, your current pickups clearly aren’t doing what you want from them. What have you based that opinion on?

Chances are, you’ve got a tone in mind right? Maybe another guitar or a few guitarists/bands/songs where you’ve heard what you’re after and you know your guitar isn’t doing it? Do any of those players actually playing original Telecaster® Deluxes?

Basically (and I’m sorry to sound miserable in this, I promise you, I’m not! I’m just trying to keep this short!) – our taste in guitar tone is based almost entirely in “what we’ve heard before” – and because very few of us have heard a great deal of “original” wide range humbuckers (and those of us that were lucky enough to be exposed to them in the 70s, don’t exactly have fond memories!) – it’s a dangerous (and frankly, expensive!) game. Because your buying blind. The Original design might have been the best guitar tone, electrically, ever produced (not that such a thing can exist! But humour me!), but because it never caught on, it remains relatively unrecognisable, and we just don’t like it all that much as a result!

And that’s quite depressing in its own way, but, think of it like this. You either want to sound like something/someone you know and recognise and like… or you’re a free spirit, and to paraphrase John Lennon, you’ll get a tune out of a tuba! If you’re the former, you probably don’t want “real” wide range humbuckers… they’re too unfamiliar. If you’re the latter? I’d argue you don’t have to swap a pickup in your life! (who cares what came before eh? Get back to making music!)

And that’s kind of what happened back in the 70s – Fender® wanted to make a Humbucker, they employed Seth Lover to do the job, they didn’t want to copy Gibson®, but they wanted to muscle their way into the Rock scene where Gibson® had been dominating. The Tele® Deluxe turns up, its got humbuckers, but these humbuckers didn’t sound like Gibson® humbuckers, no one really fell in love with the Tele Deluxe, it never ended up defining its own niche within music, and they dropped off the radar in 1981 for 23 years!

Doing what Fender® should have done
I wouldn’t be typing this if the original wide range design caught on. If Fender had managed to get a Tele® Deluxe or a Starcaster® into the hands of Angus Young, Eric Clapton and BB Kind and have them fall madly in love with it – it would have managed to cement itself into the realm of legendary tones… but it didn’t – so they almost did the right thing when with the re-issues – everyone wanted the Wide range to be a normal humbucker, so that’s what they gave us… they just didn’t do a great job with it.

And that brings us back to our “humbuckers to fit a wide range route” – the inevitable sales pitch in all this.

This pickup is a normal humbucker, it’s a very good one at that – everything it does in a Les Paul® or a Strat® its going to do in a Telecaster® Deluxe or a Starcaster® - electrically, its identical, so tonally, its identical, and importantly, its recognisable as being a good humbucker! Its not going to give you “that original wide range humbucker tone” because that’s not what it is, but its going to do exactly what its design to do, and it’ll fit into the guitar without any mods, and it won’t ruin the look of the thing!

And that, for me, is the way to do upgrades to these guitars – I’ve nothing against revisiting the original design, if you want to a walk a mile in your dads shoes, and play the guitar he regrets selling in 1983, go do it, with my blessing, go get a set of 10K, CuNiFe poled wide rangies and see what you can get them to do! But If you want something you know your going to click with straight away? A normal humbucker in a big case might be much less of a culture shock!
So to round out yet another terrible sales pitch – that’s what we’re doing here. It’s not historic, it’s not trying to ape a 1970s wide range humbucker, it’s a Bourbon city in every way shape and form, that will fit into a Telecaster Deluxe, or a Custom, or a Starcaster® without any messing about – and it will sound like a Bourbon city.


Good & Bad

Between you, me and the fence post, I'm more an engineer then i am a salesman, so to scratch that itch - I’m compelled to not only write up the unavoidable "hey, this pickup great! Play Rock or Blues?! This one’s for you!", but for the sake of balance, it’s only fair that i get to write up what they're not great at too (and because this section isn't "up front" - i get to be a bit more technical about it too! Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to explain what all those lovely buzz words actually mean eh?)

Remember too - whilst I’m writing this stuff about Axesrus pickups, its true of every pickup ever made. Even if you’re not buying ours, this stuff is handy! It’s all true! all pickups have characteristics that make them good or bad... there are no perfect pickups!

So, here we go - Bourbon City - "A pickup for guitar music" - if thats not set the hook, i dont know what will! Gutsy and biting, begging to be pushed, and capable of retaining enough headroom that you dont turn into a wall of "mush" when things get hot and heavy. Heres the hows, whens and whys!.

42 AWG Coils

The Good - When we speak about "vintage" humbuckers - the main, defining variable that we're really speaking about, is the wire gauge - and that HAS to be 42 AWG (American wire gauge) - generally speaking, you'll only see it (on a humbucker) being wound to between 7 and 8.5Kohm, and, tonally, it's what makes vintage humbuckers (and pretty much every guitar we've ever heard!) sound the way they do, its whats responsible for producing that signal that’s "roomy" and "open". It allows for a very high resonant peak, with a narrower Q factor, which gives you the "snap" and "twang" and its that perception of space, with a focus on the higher frequencies (the Bourbons peak is sitting at 7.3kHz) makes the guitar feel uncompressed and breathy, but without feeling weak.

With the Bourbon City, that head room, and that bite in the higher frequencies, coupled with the power you get from a humbucker, makes them an idea choice for classic rock and hotter blues.

The Bad - Hard facts? 42 AWG wire costs an absolute fortune... but, it’s kind of essential (this has the potential to get a little off track, so I’ll try to keep it as brief as i can!)

42 AWG wire is, nowadays, almost entirely obsolete. It’s a wire gauge based in the imperial system (American, remember) - it has a diameter of 0.0635mm, and it’s what was used on nearly every pickup in the 50s and 60s, especially if they were made in the USA.

However, as the world became a smaller place, most "real world" applications for "very very thin motor wire" (which is what pickup coil wire really is), switched over to the metric system, where wire isn't sorted by gauge, its simply measured in millimetres (sometimes, incorrectly called SWG (even by myself - but there is some reason for that! More in a second) - so, if your winding, say, a tiny motor for an RC car? You might use 0.06mm wire (which would actually be 46 SWG... and its within the lower end of the tolerance of being 42 AWG too... wire gauge is confusing!) - and your little cars going to go exactly the same as if you'd used "proper" 42 AWG (0.0635mm) - it doesn't matter. (There will actually be some difference in the motors performance I imagine, but i doubt anyone’s testing for it)

So, with the rest of the world using 0.06mm wire, "true" 42 AWG, essentially, became extinct, except in one industry. Pickups! Gibson® and Fender® and a raft of US based pickup manufacturers kept the home fires burning, and stuck with what they'd always been using. (so 42 AWG is only ever available in Plain enamel and Formvar... never in "enamelled" or "Polysol" (there are even some questions regarding Gibson® T tops in the 60s with their "42 AWG Polysol", because they certainly don’t behave like 42 AWG!)

And, as oft happens when you’re dealing with, essentially, a lack of demand for a product, the price slowly, but steadily, creeps up. AWG wire, is expensive as a result, and metric wire, which is used in every other industry, has become dirt cheap! But why does that matter? Why didn't guitars switch over to the cheaper wire?

Well... they did! 99.9% of "cheap" pickups actually ARE wound with metric wire! And here’s where we hit "the problem"

If we were still dealing with little motors ("make little car go zoom!") - everyone would have switched over. They're not daft! But were dealing with audio signal generation with guitars - and, without making this sound more grandiose then I have to - we have a pretty good frame of reference as to "what a good guitar should sound like" - its every piece of music ever recorded from 1950 up to the modern day. Think about it - every famous guitarist? Every band you've got on your play list? Every one of those "genre defining musicians", has probably, been using a guitar fitted with a pickup wound using AWG (as you get into the modern day, it becomes a little murkier... but, you get the idea!) - they get to the point where they're making a record, they get a couple of quid in their back pocket? They're going out and using a top shelf guitar! They're turning up in the studio with a Fender® or a Gibson® (again, I generalise, but on the whole? Its true!)

And, as such, the characteristics you only get with 42 AWG (that head room, that brightness, that "snap", the way it hits the amp) is ingrained in our brains, probably before you ever even pick up a guitar, but certainly after you've been playing for a few years - and as soon as you change the "recipe"? As soon as you start using a wire gauge that marginally thinner? A pickup is no longer the same - its not producing the signal in the same way, and we taste it! Ultimately, to get a tone that you’re going to recognise as being exceptional? You've got to use 42 AWG.

So, 0.06mm wire? Isn't as "hot" (its not inducing as strong a signal, its normally operating at a lower resonant peak frequency (sometimes it can be higher, depends on the impedance of the coil, but usually, lower) and the Q factor is generally wider - 0.06mm wire sounds more rounded, smoother, less defined, less biting... its fine, honestly! It still sounds like a guitar - but it doesn't flick those weird switches in your brain that make you sit up and go "THAT is the tone I’ve heard coming out *famous guitarist*s fingers!"

All because of that 0.0035mm... If you've ever wondered what the difference between "good for the money" and "actually good" pickups is? Why there exists £15 pickups that sound pretty good, and £250 pickups that bring a tear to your eye? That’s it... 0.0035mm!

So, obviously, we use 42 AWG, but it comes at a cost... and that cost is, primarily, financial!

Tonally, 42 AWG too, doesn't have much "internal compression" - so if you’re looking for a humbucker that’s a bit "chewier", with a bit more punch and a little less definition? Aiming for more metal than rock? That head room, and that "spank" probably isn't what you’re looking for, but, equally, i wager you've not read this far into a write up about a vintage humbuckers wire gauge if you’re looking for a humbucker for tech metal. If you have (and fair play to you if so!) - you’re after 43 AWG! That’s where the chewy/gutsy stuff lives! Model 24!

Alnico 2 Magnet

The Good - Whilst i'm not the biggest believer in magnets making a huge amount of difference when it comes to humbuckers, i will concede that they do make a difference (give "how the sounds change" here, if you fancy learning a little more on the topic), so, with that in mind, in this humbucker, Alnico 2... works! Its slightly weaker, which buys you back a little extra warmth in the low end, which counter points beautifully against the blistering snap that is the top end.

Ultimately too, just like the 42 AWG debate? Pickups are a prime example of "play the hits"... and all the hits? In this style? Used Alnico 2s!

The Bad - There isn't really a great deal wrong with any choice of Alnico to be honest, purely because most of the "heavy lifting" with a pickups tone, is being done by the coils - but, i will say, Alnico 2, adding that extra few dBV of low end, right in the fundemental range, can, in some situations, be a slightly "over warm", especially when your dealing with a slightly hotter vintage humbucker (where the coils are producing a little more low end!)

I cant, hand on heart, say its ever bothered me (we woudln't have been making the Bourbons for 15 years, almost entirely unchanged, if it did!), but if your looking for a pickup right on the ragged edge of "what a vintage humbucker can do" - Alnico 2 might not be for you.

As much as i hate "naming" famous guitarists (because it implies this pickup has something to do with "the name", and it doesn't... not at all!), sometimes its a little unavoidable - think of Eddie Van Halen or Santana - they were both using fairly normal, vintage humbuckers, but they used much stronger magnets, which sucked out a little of the lows, and gave them a slightly more biting, brittle tone - if thats the thing your after, the Bourbons are a great jumping off point, but, really? I'd be reaching out and saying "Craig? any chance of a Bourbon with an Alnico 8? Or a Ceramic?"

But yeah, as standard? Alnico 2s great! Covers alot of ground, its got shades of "nice" without detracting from the definition and bite that you want when driving an amp that bit harder. Dont muck about with it just for the sake of it, but, equally, if you know what you like, i'm open to magnet swaps! (saves me having to make 15 different product pages just for different magnets!)

Avoiding speaking in extremes (and failing)

The... thing - This one is not really got anything to do with good or bad, so i'll break away from that format whilst I’m closing this out.

With humbuckers, especially with vintage humbuckers, like the Bourbon or the Classic 50s or the True 50s - there’s a temptation to really speak in these huge, overflowing terms (something, admittedly, I’ve probably failed to avoid in my own write up!), so i'll say this.

Matched Set?

The Bourbon is a humbucker that covers an awful lot of ground - so this might get a little long winded, so, to keep it brief, there aren't many pickups we make that you couldn't match with them, but, i'll try to keep this a little more focused, so if your mixing and matching, your going to really get the best out of the set.

That classic combination of a 5H/8.2K/alnico 2, mounted to a standard humbucker base, is capable of working in a Strat®, a Tele®, A Les Paul®, an SG®... prety much anywhere you'd find a humbucker, this is going to fit, and electrically, its going to play well with most pickup specs too, so, the first thing to remember - dont fear the Bourbon! Its about as easy going as it gets when it comes to humbuckers.

However, its certainly got "a style" - its wide reaching,(and i'd probably have an easier time writng the list of things that DONT work with them!) but lets keep that "this is a sleazy, spicy, vintage humbucker" in mind when we're talking matched sets.

Bridge pickups (Bourbon in Neck)

Humbuckers

Bourbon City - Traditionally, Humbucker guitars have "truly matched sets" - and, frankly, i think it works best. So, obviously, if your fitting a Bourbon City in the neck, having one in the bridge is going to give you "the full experience" - and thats a very traditional setup, very focused on blues and rock, the bridge will be capable of chords and lead work without feeling too specialist - a good, normal, versitile setup!

Model 24 - There will be situations where you want "more" from your bridge pickup, and whilst the Bourbon is a great option in its own right, you do, occasionally, find situations where your treading the fine lne between Rock and Metal - and in those situations, the Model 24 makes an ideal companion pickup for a Bourbon neck - its more rounded, more muscullar, a little more capable, a little happier whendistorted and has more natural compresion - HOWEVER - its not my first choice for a neck pickup, so, if your considering a M24 bridge, the Bourbon works great to give you a smoother, sweeter counter point to what is, really, quite an aggressive, expressive humbucker.

Telecaster®

With the "Humbucker Neck" Telecaster® being a pretty popular modification nowadays, i'll keep this one as "to the point" as i can, but i do have to get bogged down a little into the science side of it.

Most Tele® models will, 99% of the time, have a single coil in the bridge, and that single coil will most defnately want 250k pots.

Fitting a humbucker in the neck slot, means you'll probably want 500k pots (to retain top end from the humbucker)

Further more, single coils, traditionally, dont induce the same strength signal as humbuckers - in simple terms, they're not as loud - so, whilst we can account for 500k vs. 250k pots (a 470k resistor wired in parallel with the single coil will sort it! Like this loom.) - we've still got to work with the pickups inductance/volume - and to do that, you've got to have slightly hotter bridge pickups in this setup - trying to match an out and out vintage bridge pickup with ANY humbucker, is going to leave you very disappointed when you hear how weak the bridge pickup is compared to the neck!


These, however, are safe bets for all vintage humbuckers, and work well with the Bourbon City.

Yorkshire Jack - Great little pickup - what i'd call a "modern tone" for a Telecaster (which means 1990s onward) - its not as twangy as you'd hear from a 50s/60s affair, but its much happier under a little gain or distortion. It feels, weirdly, like a Humbucker - its a big more "spiky", with that twang you'd expect, but its in the ball park of humbuckers like the Bourbon, which means its going to play well on the same amp settings, and, frankly, it'll even do a decent job on 500k pots thanks to its higher industance! Cant go wrong with a Yorkshire Jack/Bourbon Combo for me.

T90 - If the Yorkshire Jack is humbucker adjacent, the T90 is a P90 in sheeps clothing - its HUGE, wound up with 42 AWG, inducing up around 6H, its a fantastic pickup. It retains alot of the headroom you'd expect from 42 AWG, its got a very throaty "twang" rather then the slightly waspish "brrrrring" you get with "very vintage" pickups, and again, its perfectly at home on 500ks. Big and Muscullar, but happier on cleans/slightly dirty because its much roomier then the YJ, and that lack of compression does guide you more towards cleans with a touh of diirt more then "chain saw" distortion.

A WARNING - remember, when your working with Humbucker Neck Tele® guitars - unless you can find an ingenius way of coil splitting the humbucker when the switch is in "neck + bridge in parallel" - your going to get an awful lot of phase cancellation (with one coil from the humbucker wiping out the bridge pickup - most never bother to fix it, and accept that pos 2 is "something weird", but...) to get it to work "properly" you're going to need to do something very clever with the wiring!

Stratocaster®

There aren't many situations where i expect to see a Bourbon City in the neck slot and a single coil in bridge and middle (they do exist!, HSH guitars and the (slightly odd) Reverse HSS) - so i'll keep this brief, and, really, its more with a view towards HSS and HS guitars.

Strings Ransom - originally designed as the companion pickup, specifically for the Bourbon in HSS and HSH guitars! Built around Alnico 2 poles rather then the traditional alnico 5s, giving them a more rounded, slightly dirty feel, with a stronger bass and not as much "snap" as a traditional Strat®, a little chewier, a little grubbier, a little more forgiving if you throw them about. Great for, pretty much, everything you'd expect from the Bourbon City frankly.

And the pickups we pair with the BC on the HSS assembly!

Texas Blues - Much more traditional, much more "this is what a Strat should sound like" - raw and rasping and raunchy, plenty of snap, backed up with alot of body. A great option if your wanting "Gibson and Fender" in the same guitar. Pairing with a Bourbon wont give you as much of a "dedicated blues rocker" but they'll give you alot of versitility.

TB754S - A bit left field, and whilst they'll work, i cant think that a SSH and HSH guitar really NEEDS a TB754 myself - they're a fairly specialist pickup, wound "as hot as you can go" with 42 AWG, so they're bit and biting and roomy, but also, quite dark and brooding - a Strat pickup without the razor blades. Not for me personally, atleast in a reverse HSS or HSH, but, never have it said i'm the best judge of taste!

A WARNING - just like on the Tele, you want to be finding a way to coil split the humbucker whenever its "on" with a single coil, otherwise, the 3 coils will phase cancel out, and it'll sound like you've got a bridge single coil in pos 2. Thankfully, plenty of ways to do that, even with standard 5 way switches! If in doubt, get in touch and i'll talk you through it. (obviously, "tech support within reason" - i'm not here to fix your guitar, i'm here to support Axesrus parts)

Neck Pickups (Bourbon in Bridge)

Classic 50s - Yep

True 50s - Yep

Telecaster®

Screw Vintage - yep

Straocaster®

Strings Ransom - originally designed as the pairing for a bourbon HSS and HSH guitars!

Texas Blues - Yep

TB754S - Yep

Bode Plots

Swap Graphs?

Pickup #1

Pickup #2

Setup

500k pots work perfectly (thats what was used on the recordings for reference) and a 0.022 or a 0.047 cap on the tone will see you absolutely fine - you can try a 300k tone pot if you like, but i've never felt it made much of a difference myself.

Covers, as always, mute what top end "snap" there is ever so slightly - i actually prefer the Bourbons without a cover, because, whilst a cover is great for smoothing out that jaggy highs and snappy rough edges, this is a humbucker thats happiest when its being pushed that shade harder then a "proper" vintage humbucker - it wants to be angry, it wants to be driven, and that extra snap? That extra defnition you get with an uncovered pickup, really plays into that.

Obviously, form does sometimes overtake function, so I wont call anyone for wanting a cover fitting, but just go in eyes open, a cover will smooth out the definition, just a touch. I certainly wouldn't be approaching covers with any sort of fear with the Bourbons though- if anything, they'll smooth out a litle of that top end fizz and make them a slightly nicer clean pickup, at the cost of that note seperation and zip that makes them world class at light to medium gain work.

Sound Clips
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