Hot Iron

With most of the Axesrus® humbuckers being made in the UK now, we're absolutely ecstatic to be working with the Hot Irons again! It’s like meeting up with an old friend for us.

They’re a set of pickup that have been on the books for as long as most of us have worked here, and a bit an oddity that made it across from the "old" Axesrus® – they never really fitted into the company ethos of days gone by, and honestly, I don’t think many of the old guard played them!

But with the company moving in a new direction, and a bit of you blood coursing through the veins, they proved themselves time and time again for that more modern humbuckers tone, and we're all in agreement that they’re well over due a bit of an update

Essentially, your Hot Iron is an overwound bridge humbucker - an absolute monster that just doesn't compromise in its pursuit of distortion, it’s a fantastic setup, allowing you to switch from big, face blistering riffs and solos to sweet and soulful chord progressions or flowing sweep picked arpeggios with no real drop in output.

Because of the innovative design, whist technically, you’re getting a high output pickup here, and you’re still getting alot of that definition, response and natural breakup you’d expect when playing such an aggressive pickup. You get great note separation, fantastic bite and growl in the lower end, and that all important mid-range that’s essential when you’re playing under a lot of gain.

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

Should be just below!

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 find on a vintage style pickup. That in itself, is pretty meaningless, because a Telecaster® neck pickup, is also wound with 43 AWG, and no ones going to say they’re “big and meaty”, however, the advantage of 43 AWG, is that, whilst it doesn’t induce as highly as 42 AWG, being thinner, allows you to fit more wire onto the bobbin, allowing for a pickup that DOES induce higher!

And with higher inductance, comes more “internal compression”, a lower resonant peak, and an boosted bass frequency range (which is the boring way of saying “Hot”), which give “high output” humbuckers like the Hot Iron a very distinctive tone – that huge, aggressive, early break up, massive volume character that is pretty much essential for modern metal and heavier rock.

The Bad – high output pickups are VERY specialist (and that’s purely down to the coils inducing so highly)
Whilst I will (with a straight face!) sit here and say “guitars are guitars, you can use them to do whatever you want! A Hot Iron will do blues, and a 50s Strat will do Djent” (and its true!) – we’ve got to remember that we, really, like guitars to sound like something we’ve heard before.
So, whilst there’s nothing stopping you playing the “St. Jame Infirmary” on a Hot Iron or “Candyman” on a Wraith, its probably going to be a bit “grumpy”, and if your really into (out of copyright) blues music? The novelty is going to wear thin VERY quickly.
So, high output pickups really do fall into a funny place with guitars – they’re so “hot”, they’re so rich in mid-range, so lacking in high end “ping” and so strong in the bass, that, really? Your only going to enjoy them if your using them if your entirely dedicated to the heavier side of things. Whilst high output pickups will give you the best heavy distorted tones you’ll ever hear, with clear and present mids, controlled highs and lashings of power, don’t fall into the “trap” of thinking the music you love, is always at the extreme end of “heavy” (it’s a weirdly common thing to do, I’ve done it myself – I love mid 2000s punk! In my mind, “The shape of punk to come” by Refused, is the heaviest thing I’ve ever heard… but upon showing it to our tame guitarist, he laughed and showed me Meshuggah)

Frankly? 90% of music, just doesn’t need high output pickups. If you love Led Zep, or ACDC, or Sabbath? Your probably going to be happier with something that retains a lot more headroom.

High output
I hate the way we think of pickups as “high output” (or medium output, or Vintage output” ) because, frankly, its nonsense, and its confusing, and everyone ends up thinking that the pickups resistance is the output, and output somehow relates to volume and tonal character.
That’s not true, at least, not entirely.

Its often said that “resistance is meaningless” (usually by the 50% of the population who DON’T think of resistance as output!) when it comes to pickups, and, really, that’s not entirely true – there is a very rough and ready rule that, essentially, the bigger the number, the “hotter” the pickup will be. So, I know, at a glance, that an 8K pickup is going to be hotter then a 7k pickup, and I know a 16K pickup is going to be hotter then a 12K pickup!

The “problem” with that rule, however, is that it is only true, when all things are equal, and the only variable that changes, is the length of the coil wire (which is, really, all resistance is!) and the Hot Irons are a perfect example of the golden rule in action – but it only tells half the story.

What we really want to keep an eye on with any high output pickup, is the inductance – and the Hot Irons are roaring along at 8 Henrys… and that’s high! (blame the 43 AWG)

The reason its important, is because, realistically? You can only mix and match pickups to within 2 Henrys of the bridge pickup, so the Hot Irons, don’t really play well with others. Which is somewhat limiting. A matched pair? Neck and bridge? Great! Hot Iron Bridge and an Ethereal in the neck? Lovely! They actually work really well with P90s (blighted by a similar problem!) but, really? You’re going to struggle to get them to work along side a single coil (our Heavy Hearts will do it!)

I suppose this comes under the same thinking that, high output pickups are really specialist, but its such a big thing, its probably worth mentioning again.
So, I wouldn’t be considering the Hot Irons for any other guitar that wasn’t HH (or HSH, using the middle pickup for coil splitting).

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)

Bode Plots

	Swap Graphs?
	Pickup #1 Humbucker Single Coil Telecaster P90 Offets Bass Other Hot Iron Classic Bourbon City True 50s HereticBourbon CityDevestatorEtherealModel 24	Pickup #2 Humbucker Single Coil Classic Bourbon CityDevestatorEtherealHereticHot IronModel 24True 50s

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:

• Your pickup is wound, assembled, soldered, tested, polished, wax potted, and retested by hand.

• The process happens in-house, at a small scale — typically around 6 pickups per day.

• 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.

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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.

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We stand behind our pickups with a relaxed lifetime warranty — no registration required, and no arbitrary time limits on support.

• Free repairs or replacements may be offered if a manufacturing fault appears within a reasonable timeframe.

• We assess warranty claims on a case-by-case basis, considering the age and condition of the pickup.

• 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.

• 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.

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Pickups are delicate. Faults can result from:

• Manufacturing defects

• Damage during shipping or installation

• Wear and tear

We generally approach warranty claims with the benefit of the doubt, assuming a manufacturing fault unless damage is obvious or severe.

• Minor damage or installation mishaps are often repaired just like manufacturing faults.

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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:

• Manufacturing tolerances

• Temperature changes

• Material variations (wire gauge, alloys, etc.)

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.