Hey Porter! New Handmade Pickups!

Affordable pickups, hand-wound in the USA? We found ’em. Welcome Porter Pickups!

You’ve got yourself a nice electric guitar that feels comfortable, looks great, but sounds… meh…  The thing to do is get some new pickups in there.  It’s an upgrade we love to do here, but we’re not big fans of those big mega-store brands. We prefer the workmanship, relationships, and above all superior results we’ve found with smaller pickup companies. But the price can admittedly get pretty steep. So what would you say to a USA-made, hand-wound pickup that doesn’t make you smash your kids’ piggy bank open? Check out our newest line of Porter Pickups!

Brian Porter & Co. make each pickup completely by hand. Why, well in Brian’s words,

We have no plans of ever changing the way our pickups are wound. Part of the reason for this is tradition – by making pickups how they used to be made, and part of it is the advantages it can offer the customer to have a pickup custom wound specifically for them, tailored to their styles and with the materials we believe will best achieve what they are looking for. We feel that our process of hand winding pickups results in a truly custom product, which also has our touch put into each pickup we make.

Anything made with that kind of dedication costs money, but you’ll find Porters to be priced right around the most popular big store brands.

But how do they sound, right? Well, here’s a PRS SE Santana. We installed a set of chrome-covered Porter Classic humbuckers and they sounded great. Compared to the stock pickups, which sounded rather dull and lifeless, the Porters sound very articulate, sparkly, and clear. They break up nicely, with smooth overdrive when you lean into them a bit, particularly through our tube Deluxe amp here at the shop. Big thumbs up.

We like to compare pickups to wine here. The store-bought stuff is fine; does the trick, and can be pleasing enough. But once you try the good stuff, you understand the difference. Trust us, Porter Pickups are good stuff. Check out their website and full line here. Give a call to see what we have in stock and if we don’t have it, we’ll get the ones you’re looking for.