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Rebel 90s in a Firebird

December 16th, 2009

Youtube user CaptainChrismo give a pretty nice guide to our Rebel 90s, including clean sounds, dirty sounds and how they react to boutique pedals. Great stuff!

Tonerider Around the World - Rebel 90s!

December 11th, 2009

Aurelio Guitars in Italy make guitars in all shapes and sizes - from classic Fender designs to steam-punk inspired oddities. Leonardo Aurelio runs the show and is now fitting our Rebel 90 set to more and more custom orders - and its easy to hear why. Lush blues tones, with plenty of personality and dynamics make the Rebel 90 a great alternative to single coils and humbuckers.

	Tonerider Around the World - Vintage Plus December 11th, 2009 We started Tonerider to make pickups for guys who played at our local bar - how times have changed. We now get emails from all corners of the globe, but possibly the most remote review has just come in from the sun-kissed island nation of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. For those of you who don't know where it is, check out the google map here. Guitarist Alain from the Reunion based Blues-Rock band Nervous Breakdown is enjoying his new Vintage Plus tele pickups and has this to say about them: "You know, I have a fender USA Standard Strat strat with Texas Specials, a Gibson Les Paul with 57/57+pickups, and an Epiphone Korina Flying V with 490/498, but now I prefer to play my humble Squier with the Vintage Plus Pickups".

Tonerider Around the World - Vintage Plus

December 11th, 2009

We started Tonerider to make pickups for guys who played at our local bar - how times have changed. We now get emails from all corners of the globe, but possibly the most remote review has just come in from the sun-kissed island nation of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. For those of you who don't know where it is, check out the google map here. Guitarist Alain from the Reunion based Blues-Rock band Nervous Breakdown is enjoying his new Vintage Plus tele pickups and has this to say about them: "You know, I have a fender USA Standard Strat strat with Texas Specials, a Gibson Les Paul with 57/57+pickups, and an Epiphone Korina Flying V with 490/498, but now I prefer to play my humble Squier with the Vintage Plus Pickups".

	Tonerider Around the World - Pure Vintage December 11th, 2009 Here's a blast from the past! One of the first ever strat sets we made was for a Chinese musician called Lui Donghong from the Beijing based band "Sand". Liu had a beat up Japanese strat with in SSH format, and the bucker was broken - and with two days before headlining at the 2004 Midi Festival he needed a quick fix...we got winding and without even time to cut out a new pickguard installed a set of Aged Alnico V pickups - very similar to what would become our Pure Vintage set. The gig went great and Sand totally rocked it in front of about 30,000 fans. The sound quality isn't all there, but the vibe of the evening is definitely captured - here's the opening tune of the set, which in English is called something like "The Best Days of our Lives".

Tonerider Around the World - Pure Vintage

December 11th, 2009

Here's a blast from the past! One of the first ever strat sets we made was for a Chinese musician called Lui Donghong from the Beijing based band "Sand". Liu had a beat up Japanese strat with in SSH format, and the bucker was broken - and with two days before headlining at the 2004 Midi Festival he needed a quick fix...we got winding and without even time to cut out a new pickguard installed a set of Aged Alnico V pickups - very similar to what would become our Pure Vintage set. The gig went great and Sand totally rocked it in front of about 30,000 fans. The sound quality isn't all there, but the vibe of the evening is definitely captured - here's the opening tune of the set, which in English is called something like "The Best Days of our Lives".

	Protocaster Guitars now using Tonerider Pickups November 9th, 2009 Master Relicer Josh Grove's new company, Protocaster Guitars, has formally launched with a new website featuring some of the sexiest looking worn-in strats and teles we've seen for a long time. We are proud that Josh has chosen to install Tonerider pickups on all models. Check out the website for instrument listings and contact details here.

Protocaster Guitars now using Tonerider Pickups

November 9th, 2009

Master Relicer Josh Grove's new company, Protocaster Guitars, has formally launched with a new website featuring some of the sexiest looking worn-in strats and teles we've seen for a long time. We are proud that Josh has chosen to install Tonerider pickups on all models. Check out the website for instrument listings and contact details here.

	Winding, Bobbins and Hook-up… October 12th, 2009 In part one of our new workshop tour series, we've written a quick guide to one of the most important parts of our production process - coil winding. Find out more about the different bobbins we use for guitar pickup production and how we wind our coils to mimic hand-wound patterns. More parts of the workshop tour series will follow over the next few weeks, so keep coming back and checking the news page.

Winding, Bobbins and Hook-up…

October 12th, 2009

In part one of our new workshop tour series, we've written a quick guide to one of the most important parts of our production process - coil winding. Find out more about the different bobbins we use for guitar pickup production and how we wind our coils to mimic hand-wound patterns.

More parts of the workshop tour series will follow over the next few weeks, so keep coming back and checking the news page.

	Putting an Epiphone Genesis Back on Top October 12th, 2009 Marc Rhodes from the Blues Band Emma's Nasty Apple has swapped out the old noisy humbuckers from his Epiphone Genesis and dropped in a set of our favorite pickups, the Rebel 90. He says this of the switch: "First impressions are that these are amazing! Oddly enough they seem to have as much or more output than the buckers they replaced. The punchiness and definition is way over the top, and notes are clear and articulate. I’m becoming a pretty much all single coil guy now. I have a Reverend Club King 290 with soapbars and a Strat that I put in Duncans, and yours went into a 1982 Epiphone Genesis which has always been my favorite guitar until I got the Reverend. Now it is back on top. Great stuff, man. Thanks!"

Putting an Epiphone Genesis Back on Top

October 12th, 2009

Marc Rhodes from the Blues Band Emma's Nasty Apple has swapped out the old noisy humbuckers from his Epiphone Genesis and dropped in a set of our favorite pickups, the Rebel 90. He says this of the switch: "First impressions are that these are amazing! Oddly enough they seem to have as much or more output than the buckers they replaced. The punchiness and definition is way over the top, and notes are clear and articulate. I’m becoming a pretty much all single coil guy now. I have a Reverend Club King 290 with soapbars and a Strat that I put in Duncans, and yours went into a 1982 Epiphone Genesis which has always been my favorite guitar until I got the Reverend. Now it is back on top. Great stuff, man. Thanks!"

	An Usual Set for a Fine Old Guitar Oct 12th, 2009 When it was time for a vintage guitar make-over, we were pleased to supply a slightly unusual set of pickups to power this guitar from the "golden years" of Framus. It's a California double-cut, one of our favorite designs from the venerable German maker. Guy from Australia, the owner of the guitar, talks about the result via email: "It has a Rocksong humucker at the bridge, a Rebel 90 in the middle and a Vintage Plus tele at the neck. The tele pickup sounds like a tele neck pickup should sound - compressed and mellow with slightly jangly harmonics. The Rocksong is clean and clear for a humbucker with a useful single coil sound when split. The standout for me, however, is the Rebel 90. This is a great pickup! Powerful, smooth and clear. I Love it!"

An Usual Set for a Fine Old Guitar

Oct 12th, 2009

When it was time for a vintage guitar make-over, we were pleased to supply a slightly unusual set of pickups to power this guitar from the "golden years" of Framus. It's a California double-cut, one of our favorite designs from the venerable German maker. Guy from Australia, the owner of the guitar, talks about the result via email: "It has a Rocksong humucker at the bridge, a Rebel 90 in the middle and a Vintage Plus tele at the neck. The tele pickup sounds like a tele neck pickup should sound - compressed and mellow with slightly jangly harmonics. The Rocksong is clean and clear for a humbucker with a useful single coil sound when split. The standout for me, however, is the Rebel 90. This is a great pickup! Powerful, smooth and clear. I Love it!"

	Tonerider Analog Effects - A Straight Set Oct 12th, 2009 Jo Inge Hjerkinn in Norway tried one Tonerider Analog effect, and then had to own them all! Here's how he's using each of the stompboxes to craft his tone. "I am using all the Tonerider pedals. The BD-1 works great for hi-gain sounds, especially with high output humbuckers. The AO-1 has replaced my vintage TS-808 for the dirty/crunchy sounds. I use the CP-1 mainly as a booster for leads and it offers plenty of sustain, particularly in combination with the BD-1. For clean, country-pickin' playing, it provides a great, snappy compressed sound. Although it's not used much, the SC-1 makes it easy to dial in sweet and full chorus sounds which are very transparent and retains the original guitar tone. What I really like about these pedals is that you get analog effects with such high sound- and build quality AND true bypass for a very, very reasonable price." Jo is now waiting on the AD-1 delay, which will be shipping in November.

Tonerider Analog Effects - A Straight Set

Oct 12th, 2009

Jo Inge Hjerkinn in Norway tried one Tonerider Analog effect, and then had to own them all! Here's how he's using each of the stompboxes to craft his tone. "I am using all the Tonerider pedals. The BD-1 works great for hi-gain sounds, especially with high output humbuckers. The AO-1 has replaced my vintage TS-808 for the dirty/crunchy sounds. I use the CP-1 mainly as a booster for leads and it offers plenty of sustain, particularly in combination with the BD-1. For clean, country-pickin' playing, it provides a great, snappy compressed sound. Although it's not used much, the SC-1 makes it easy to dial in sweet and full chorus sounds which are very transparent and retains the original guitar tone. What I really like about these pedals is that you get analog effects with such high sound- and build quality AND true bypass for a very, very reasonable price." Jo is now waiting on the AD-1 delay, which will be shipping in November.

	Rafi Kirder plays a Holy Grail May 31st, 2009 We had the great pleasure of meeting Rafi Kirder at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in April when he took delivery of his new Holy Grail Telecaster from RebelRelic. These Holy Grails couldn't be simpler - just a single bridge pickup, a single volume pot and a single tone pot. Find out more about them here.

Rafi Kirder plays a Holy Grail

May 31st, 2009

We had the great pleasure of meeting Rafi Kirder at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in April when he took delivery of his new Holy Grail Telecaster from RebelRelic. These Holy Grails couldn't be simpler - just a single bridge pickup, a single volume pot and a single tone pot. Find out more about them here.

	Vintage Plus + Affinity + Great Playing May 30th, 2009 We just got sent this link from youtube.com, and we think it really showcases a lot of the sounds that our Vintage Plus pickups are capable of. Watch out for a few pickup changes - especially at 0.57 when the switch is changed to the neck position - the neck tone is just superb. Update: It was great to get a call from Pantelis Karagiannis of the band Common Party, the player in this video. Check out all their music at www.myspace.com/commonparty.

Vintage Plus + Affinity + Great Playing

May 30th, 2009

We just got sent this link from youtube.com, and we think it really showcases a lot of the sounds that our Vintage Plus pickups are capable of. Watch out for a few pickup changes - especially at 0.57 when the switch is changed to the neck position - the neck tone is just superb. Update: It was great to get a call from Pantelis Karagiannis of the band Common Party, the player in this video. Check out all their music at www.myspace.com/commonparty.

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