Lead Lines - 60s inspired for a thoroughly modern tone.
The lead lines are the first humbucker we've brought completely in house, and from here on in, will be producing them here in the UK. This means you’re getting better quality, more options in construction, better materials and ultimately, a much improved version of one of our most popular humbuckers.
Essentially, they're built to a fairly standard formula - it’s that very late 50s, early 60s arch top tone made famous by Gibson® with their Les Paul®, but we’ve brought it forward a little, made it a little more usable and a little more obtainable.
Tonally – they’re raw, raunchy, biting in the top and punchy in the bass with a scooped mid-range that’s going to give you so much definition and that’s what makes the set for us – defined and aggressive without being overly high output makes them ideal pickups for the lead guitarist.
Tone Guide
The Lead lines are a fantastic “all rounder”. They'll do most things pretty well – be that country, blues, there are even some beautiful jazz tones to be found lurking in the neck if you’ve got the setup. But where they really earn there money, is in that big rock role, 4 or 5 piece band, heads and cabs, strong rhythm thumping behind you, roll up the volume and let fly – the Lead Lines will do the business time and again.
That’s exactly what we wanted the Lead Lines to do from day one, but because of that, they just aren’t really set up to bang out chords to fill the space, the notes begin to separate out as they decay, and that bite and twang starts working against you.
Officially, (as you’d probably guess) these are aimed at the lead guitarist – but because that excessive definition means they just don’t muddy up, they actually perform really well under heavy distortion so can work for rhythm players in very specific circumstances.
As such, we often see them as a companion pickup to the Bourbon Cities, which beat them hands down as a “primary clean” rhythm pickup, but many people mix and match the Lead lines and the Bourbon cities too; it can work as a great combo in the right hands.
String Spacing - 52mm or 50mm
Wiring - Red = Live, Black & Silver = Ground, Green & white = Coil Tap (Joined for normal operation)
Magnets = Alnico V
Wire = Plain Enamel
