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The Laudanum - its addictive
With the new “Do What You Want!” customisation coding on our humbuckers, we’ve been able to seriously streamline what’s going on behind the scenes. One nice side effect of that is getting the chance to revisit a few slightly forgotten favourites from years gone by — and the first one I wanted to bring back properly was the Laudanum.
The Laudanum is a very heavy pickup. There’s a huge amount of low-end weight on tap, and just a little less of the high-end sparkle you’d traditionally associate with high-output humbuckers. That balance makes it absolutely ideal for metal rhythm work, where filling space and moving air is the whole point. It’s not a pickup for every occasion, and in some guitars that lack of “zip” can make things feel a touch dark or bottom-heavy — but if you know what you’re aiming for, it’s a very satisfying place to land.
Beyond that, it’s business as usual. At around 15K, the Laudanum was never designed to clean up politely. It wants to lean on the front end of the amp, constantly nudging it toward distortion, even at lower gain settings. And as with all high-output humbuckers, it’s worth resisting the temptation to get lost in the numbers. Big figures and promises of instant amp breakup are all well and good, but pickups like this are extremely responsive — and they will punish sloppy technique without mercy.
A delicate hand is often required to play the heaviest music.
Gibson®, Epiphone®, Stratocaster® and Strat® are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and Gibson Musical Instruments Corporation. Axesrus® has no affiliation with FMIC
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!
43 AWG Coils
The Good
43 AWG wire is thinner than the wire you’d typically find on a vintage-style humbucker. On its own, that fact doesn’t mean very much — after all, a Telecaster® neck pickup is also wound with 43 AWG, and no one’s accusing those of being big and meaty.
The real advantage of 43 AWG is density. While it doesn’t induce quite as strongly per turn as 42 AWG, its smaller diameter allows significantly more wire to be packed onto the bobbin. More wire means higher overall inductance — and that is where things get interesting.
Higher inductance brings with it increased internal compression, a lower resonant peak, and a boosted bass response (the boring, technical way of saying “hot”). In high-output humbuckers like the Hot Iron, this translates into a very distinctive voice: huge, aggressive low end, early breakup, and a massive sense of volume and authority that’s pretty much essential for modern metal and heavier rock styles.
The Bad
High-output pickups are very specialist — and that’s almost entirely down to just how hard the coils are inducing.
I’ll happily sit here (with a straight face) and say “guitars are guitars — you can use them however you want.” A Hot Iron will play blues. A 50s Strat will do djent. And technically, that’s all true. But in reality, we tend to like guitars to sound like things we’ve heard before.
So while nothing is stopping you playing St. James Infirmary on a Hot Iron, or Candyman on a Wraith, it’s probably going to feel a bit… grumpy. And if you’re genuinely into blues (especially the out-of-copyright sort), that novelty is going to wear thin very quickly.
High-output pickups occupy a slightly awkward space. They’re so hot, so rich in midrange, so strong in the bass, and so restrained in the high-end “ping” that you’ll only really enjoy them if you’re firmly committed to the heavier side of things. Yes — they’ll give you some of the best heavy distorted tones you’ll ever hear: clear, present mids, controlled highs, and serious power. But don’t fall into the trap of assuming the music you love lives exclusively at the extreme end of “heavy”.
(It’s a weirdly common thing to do — I’ve done it myself. I love mid-2000s punk, and in my head The Shape of Punk to Come by Refused was the heaviest thing imaginable… until I played it to our tame guitarist, who laughed and put on Meshuggah.)
Frankly? About 90% of music doesn’t need high-output pickups. If you love Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, or Sabbath, you’ll almost certainly be happier with something that retains more headroom, more dynamics, and a bit more air up top.
High Output
I’ve never liked the way we talk about pickups as “high output”, “medium output”, or “vintage output”. Frankly, it’s messy, it’s confusing, and it’s led generations of players to assume that DC resistance is output — and that output somehow directly equals volume and tone.
That isn’t true.
Well… not entirely.
You’ll often hear it said that “resistance is meaningless” when it comes to pickups (usually by the half of the population who don’t think resistance equals output). That’s not quite right either. There is a very rough, very ready rule of thumb: all else being equal, bigger numbers usually mean a hotter pickup. I can look at an 8K pickup and know it’ll be hotter than a 7K. I can look at a 16K pickup and know it’ll be hotter than a 12K.
The problem is that this rule only works when everything else really is equal — when the only variable changing is the length of wire on the coil (which, ultimately, is all resistance measures). The Hot Irons are actually a textbook example of this rule working perfectly… but they also highlight why it only tells half the story.
What really matters with high-output pickups is inductance — and the Hot Irons are absolutely roaring along at around 8 Henries, which is seriously high (you can blame the 43 AWG for that).
Why does that matter? Because in practical terms, you can only comfortably mix pickups that sit within about 2 Henries of each other — particularly when you’re dealing with a bridge pickup this strong. And that means the Hot Irons don’t always play nicely with others.
A matched neck and bridge set? Great.
Hot Iron bridge with an Ethereal neck? Surprisingly lovely!
A Wraith and a Laudanum? Great!
They’ll even pair nicely with P90s, which suffer from a similar inductance issue.
But realistically, you’re going to struggle to make them behave alongside a traditional single coil. (Our Heavy Hearts will do it — but that’s very much the exception rather than the rule.)
This really circles back to the same point: high-output pickups are specialist tools. It’s such an important consideration that it’s worth saying twice. With that in mind, I wouldn’t recommend the Laudanums for anything other than an HH guitar — or possibly HSH, where the middle pickup is primarily there for coil-split duties rather than full-output balancing.
Alnico 3
The Good
Alnico 3 is a relatively weak magnet, and because of that it naturally emphasises low-end frequencies compared to stronger magnetic grades. In a high-output humbucker, this adds weight, body, and a much stronger focus on the bottom end. That isn’t always desirable — but if you approach a pickup already knowing what it wants to do (in this case: terrifying low-end power), Alnico 3 can breathe a lot of life into what might otherwise feel like a slightly tired idea.
Used deliberately, it gives high-output designs a sense of scale and authority that stronger magnets can sometimes struggle to deliver.
The Bad
Unsurprisingly, the downside is more or less the inverse of the upside — and it’s something that’s often overlooked in pickup design: everything is relative.
If you boost the low end, the high end becomes comparatively weaker — even if it hasn’t actually changed. Our ears don’t hear frequencies in isolation; we hear them in relation to one another. Think of it like this:
Pickup #1 will sound brighter. Pickup #2 will sound fuller — but also like it’s missing some top end, despite both having the same high-frequency output.
This is where expectations can trip people up. If you’re thinking “I love high-output pickups — I just want everything to stay the same, but with more low end”… that simply isn’t how physics works. We can boost the low end using a weaker magnet, but the trade-off is that the top end will be perceived as softer as a result.
The Laudanum pretty much proves that point beyond any reasonable doubt.
The Classic 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 4.8H/7.7K/alnico 3, 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.
Humbuckers
Classic - Traditionally, Humbucker guitars have "truly matched sets" - and, frankly, i think it works best. So, obviously, if your fitting a Classic 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 Classic 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 classic 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®
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 a vintage humbucker.
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 Classic wont give you as much of a "dedicated blues wabbler" 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)
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Bode Plots
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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.
Honesty & Transparency
In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to write this section. But since pickups are complex, custom-made instruments — it’s only fair to be upfront about how they’re made, your consumer rights, and what you can expect from us.
How We Build Your Pickup
Every Axesrus pickup is made to order. When you click “Add to Cart,” there’s no pre-made stock waiting on the shelf — your pickup is crafted entirely from scratch using parts we have available.
That means:
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Your pickup is wound, assembled, soldered, tested, polished, wax potted, and retested by hand.
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The process happens in-house, at a small scale — typically around 6 pickups per day.
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Because we build carefully and meticulously, your pickup is made just for you, to the exact specifications you selected.
Realistically, this means a lead time of about 2 weeks, though it can vary depending on order volume. Pickups will never ship same-day.
Returns Policy
Since your pickup is a one-of-a-kind, custom-made product, it cannot be returned or refunded once production has begun. This aligns with UK distance selling regulations around custom work.
No “try it and see if you like it” or “return if the colour’s not right” — once a pickup is wound for you, it’s yours.
Warranty Coverage
We stand behind our pickups with a relaxed lifetime warranty — no registration required, and no arbitrary time limits on support.
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Free repairs or replacements may be offered if a manufacturing fault appears within a reasonable timeframe.
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We assess warranty claims on a case-by-case basis, considering the age and condition of the pickup.
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Early, low-cost pickups (like our first £20 ones!) may not be eligible for free repairs after many years of use, but we’ll always offer repair services at a fair price.
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For higher-end pickups, like a £200 humbucker, you can expect us to do our best to get you back up and running.
Important: We are happy to extend warranty coverage to new owners within 24 months of the original purchase, as long as we can verify the initial sale.
Damage vs Fault
Pickups are delicate. Faults can result from:
We generally approach warranty claims with the benefit of the doubt, assuming a manufacturing fault unless damage is obvious or severe.
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Minor damage or installation mishaps are often repaired just like manufacturing faults.
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Heavily damaged or intentionally broken pickups will not be repaired or replaced under warranty, free or paid.
Lead Times & Cancellations
Once you place an order and production begins, there’s no cancellation or backing out. Your pickup enters the production queue immediately.
Modifications After Purchase
Want a different magnet, cover, or wiring after you’ve received your pickup? Usually, we can help — for the cost of parts and postage.
More complex modifications are evaluated case-by-case and aren’t covered by warranty.
Variations & Specifications
Pickup specs may vary slightly due to:
Such normal variations are not grounds for warranty claims.
Warranty Postage
Shipping costs for repairs or replacements after the initial 14-day period are the customer’s responsibility.
If you ever have questions, concerns, or just want to talk pickups, we’re here to help — no matter how long it’s been since your purchase.
Now, full disclosure - there's an awful lot that can be written about pickups! There's an awful lot about electronics, and science and psychology, and consumerism and style and taste and music and... well - honestly? There's probably more to be said about pickups then I'll ever be able to write, at least on a product page - not without it snowballing into a huge "thing" that no ones ever going to be able to navigate. So - with that in mind, if your interested in this sort of stuff, or your just looking to trawl through a bit more information on "pickups in general" - heres a few links to the knowledge base that might come in handy. Sound Clips Explained - How we do it and why.
Customisation Options - Real Photos
Why are the specs the same for neck and bridge? - Matched sets explain!
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