I've been working with W. Jeffrey Jones on a lot of new designs lately. We have brought back the classic V-90 pickup from a few years back for some of his newest guitars like the Deamon Sassefrax . There have been several new P-90 single coil pickups. One of them is the new Tap-90 that features an honest to god old school coil tap. It runs about 8K tapped and about 12.5 K un-tapped. I'm looking forward to seeing these put to use!
Here's another amazing guitar from W. Jeffrey Jones. This model is called Proteus. It sports the new Saturn Set that were developed in a joint effort with Jeffrey. Here's is what Jeffrey had to say about the pickups.
One other defining feature of this particular instrument is the set of pickups, custom-made for this guitar by Clint Searcy of Searcy String Works. I can't say enough about them. I prefer a clean, clear pickup, especially in the neck position. The music I play myself consists of chords that are comprised of close harmonies and a pickup has to be capable of voicing those harmonies without turning them to mud. And the bridge pickup gets up and rocks when you need it. Clint never lets me down with his work. He also gave me black pole screws for an equally clean look, as well as full adjustability of all the poles spaced specifically for the string spread of the Proteus. These are incredible humbuckers that I plan on using regularly in many of my future instruments where humbuckers are called for. I can't say enough about them. They complete the whole package of this versatile guitar.
We're getting the final production details worked out on some of the new pickups. Let me take a moment to tell you about the Saturn Humbucker set.
The Saturn Humbucker Set is comprised of the Anthe Neck pickup and the Janus Bridge pickup. Both of these pickup were born of a desire to offer a very evenly balanced and clear sounding humbucker with crisp response that was geared towards finger style players and jazz tones. Unlike the slightly mismatched coils on many of out rock humbuckers, the coils on the Saturn pickups are perfectly matched for dead silent operation. It was decided that these pickups would not be wax potted because many players feel that unpotted pickups impart a bit more touch responsive reaching to changes in the players approach. The magnetic structures on these coils are also identical to make sure the signal from each coils is a perfect mirror image. We decided to use screw poles in both coils to offer the player the ability to fine tune the poles to perfectly match their playing style and string choice. Four wire leads allow for many wiring options.
The Anthe uses an Alnico 5 magnet and has a DC resistance of about 7.5K ohms. The Janus is identical but weights in with a DC resistance of 13K ohms. Both are available in 50mm or 52mm string spacing. While some of our early prototypes and promotional units have been Zebra with chrome screws the production models will be double black with black screws.
I got to see Heart last night for the first time. Ann Wilson is a Goddess if ever there was one. They did this tune and it was something close to a spiritual experience.
The Ryman Auditorium, on the other hand, should be ashamed of itself for selling wheelchair seats with a 100% obstructed view at full price. I think I'll be taking that little matter up with the management... Alicia got to look at the back of people's asses for most of the show.
I'm not quite done with the shop upgrades. These things never go as planned... but I wanted to show you some of the work that's has been going on in the shop while it's been "down". There has actually been a number of projects going on when time permits - but today I just want to tell you about this one. It's a limited run of Zebra Humbuckers for the new Saturn set. This new line features the Janus bridge pickup and the Anthe neck pickup. They are designed for exceptional clarity with perfectly matched coils, Alnico 5 magnets and 12 screw poles to insure an even magnetic response across all 12 poles and allow for exceptional string to string balancing. This is also the first production pickup from the Searcy String Works shop to feature unpotted coils. These new humbuckers are currently being featured in some of W.Jeffrey Jones' works. There will be more information on that as we get closer to the official launch of the set.
Alicia and I had a chance to hang out at the 2009 Summer NAMM show for a day and do some interviews for Six String Bliss. While we were there we got to talk to TV Jones and Seymour Duncan for just a bit. If you would like to here the podcast we did for Six String Bliss go HERE and download #161.
I've been working with W. Jeffrey Jones on a lot of new designs lately. We have brought back the classic V-90 pickup from a few years back for some of his newest guitars like the Deamon Sassefrax . 
