Custom Handwound Pickup Set for Alex, Franz Ferdinand

For His Specimen Emerald Deluxe Guitar

Creamery Custom Handwound Calibrated Pickup Set for Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, for his Specimen Emerald Deluxe Guitar

Alex wanted a custom designed set for his new guitar made by Ian at Specimen Products in Chicago. We talked about the best versatile combination for both recording and live gigs and came up with this. I'd made a number of custom designs to fit into a number of his guitars but these were purely for recording, this set had to be versatile enough for the studio and stage.

Bridge - Creamery Custom Classic '71 Wide Range Humbucker

True to the original '70s design with individual threaded magnets and internal ferrous reflector plate. Alex wanted to recreate the bridge tone of his '72 Deluxe guitar so I made a custom version with slightly weaker magnets (the original CuNiFe magnets do lose charge over time. I also overowund it a little to again, add a little more warmth so the tone is classic Wide Range, the "Doubled Up" single coil tone with great clarity & definition.

Middle - Creamery Custom Sonic-Six (Standard Humbucker Size)

Although resembling one of my Hum-90, P90 design in a standard humbucker size, ther Sonic-Six is actually something quite different inside. More akin to a cross between a Jazzmaster pickups and P90, the pickup has a wide, fat, single coil but with individual threaded magnets to again, give more clarity and definition whilst keeping much of the grittier P90 tone.

Neck - Custom Vintage 2 (Broadcaster) Tele Neck

A slightly overwound version of my standard Broadcaster style Tele neck pickup with custom size Alnico 2 magnets for a warm yet clear neck tone.

Custom Calibrated Set

I made the three custom pickups as a calibrated set, designed for good volume balance with no sudden jumps or drops as Alex flicks through the positions. This means tweaking the specifications and outputs to give a good balanced volume level when moving from bridge to neck position.

"The pickups sound AMAZING. Totally loving the sounds I'm getting. Thanks Jaime"

- Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand