Stephens Design Vintage Lab 3 pu's review and clip!

[SD Pickups]

Alot of cheap commercial pickups sound pretty good with an overdrive pedal in front of them but played clean they sound flat and lifeless, with no soul. In some Page videos he turns way way down, and they still sound beautiful. There's kind of a fine balance though. About 3 years ago I was doing some work with prototypes and was mostly recording test audio tracks at real low volume. Some of the prototypes were real dark but in a real nice way that sounded beautiful with the amp set really low volume. But that slinky soulfulness fell apart with much gain and just overdrove into mud especially the neck. I never use pedals, just amp breakup.

[dretot]

I installed the vl3's in my friends '52/'57 goldtop. HOLY SHIZZLE............

YouTube - STEPHENS DESIGN VINTAGE LAB 3 PAF CLONES '52/'57 LES PAUL GOLDTOP

YouTube - STEPHENS DESIGN VINTAGE LAB 3 PAF CLONES '52/'57 LES PAUL GOLDTOP

and here's a cranked-up clip......

YouTube - STEPHENS DESIGN VINTAGE LAB 3 PAF CLONES '52/'57 LES PAUL GOLDTOP-CRANKED!

YouTube - STEPHENS DESIGN VINTAGE LAB 3 PAF CLONES '52/'57 LES PAUL GOLDTOP-CRANKED!

This guitar is dark and mellow so the vl3's are absolutely beautiful in her!

dre

[honduras]

dre, great sounding clips.Is it my imagination or does the clean clip of the 3's in the goldtop not sound uncannily like the 2's in your Historic? Just goes to show how a darker sounding guitar can mellow the brighter tone of the 3's. Now I'm really undecided which to go for!

[Mayo5]

Originally Posted by dretot

I installed the vl3's in my friends '52/'57 goldtop. HOLY SHIZZLE............

YouTube - STEPHENS DESIGN VINTAGE LAB 3 PAF CLONES '52/'57 LES PAUL GOLDTOP

and here's a cranked-up clip......

YouTube - STEPHENS DESIGN VINTAGE LAB 3 PAF CLONES '52/'57 LES PAUL GOLDTOP-CRANKED!

This guitar is dark and mellow so the vl3's are absolutely beautiful in her!

dre

That sounded awesome. I'm wondering if I should change my order to VLIII's instead of the II's. My Orville is pretty dark and articulate. Might be a better match, but I do love that dark deep sound.

[EFK]

If you have a naturally dark guitar, I don't think any pickup you put in there is going to change the basic character of the guitar; if you are one of those people who believes that the guitar itself imparts some tonal quality which is translated by the pickups (I am one of them, fwiw), then nothing you do short of maybe installing something crazy like an Iommi pickup etc. is going to change that basic tonal quality. I would think if your guitar is dark, you'd want to utilize something bright to avoid an excess of mud. I have a very midrange oriented, honky, somewhat dark and at the same time very accoustically loud LP. I just received mine, and went with VLIII after some advice from Dave as well as my own preference for lots of brightness. Nothing I put in there is going to change the basic honky, middy quality, but I want to use something like the VLIII which will add some sparkle and enhance the highs rather than something that's going to pile more dark qualities on top of it. I can't wait to get them installed!! Hopefully I'll have a chance tomorrow or Sat.

[Mayo5]

Originally Posted by EFK

If you have a naturally dark guitar, I don't think any pickup you put in there is going to change the basic character of the guitar; if you are one of those people who believes that the guitar itself imparts some tonal quality which is translated by the pickups (I am one of them, fwiw), then nothing you do short of maybe installing something crazy like an Iommi pickup etc. is going to change that basic tonal quality. I would think if your guitar is dark, you'd want to utilize something bright to avoid an excess of mud. I have a very midrange oriented, honky, somewhat dark and at the same time very accoustically loud LP. I just received mine, and went with VLIII after some advice from Dave as well as my own preference for lots of brightness. Nothing I put in there is going to change the basic honky, middy quality, but I want to use something like the VLIII which will add some sparkle and enhance the highs rather than something that's going to pile more dark qualities on top of it. I can't wait to get them installed!! Hopefully I'll have a chance tomorrow or Sat.

Yeah that's what I was kind of getting at, and I think I'm in the same boat as you. When did you orders yours? Hopefully you like them, please report back here!

[Tone Seeker]

Originally Posted by dretot

and here's a cranked-up clip......

Whoa!

I had this clip playing in the background while I was working on a spreadsheet. When Dre cranked the volume pot on the neck at the 2:00 minute mark I literally said "Whoa!" out loud. I had to pull up the window and see which pickup he was on. That's a great neck pickup! It sounds sweet and yet cuts nicely with that level of gain.

Thanks for the new clips Dre.

Terry.

[EFK]

Well originally, I ordered a set of pickups back in January, but I wasn't committed to any particular 'set' of pickups. I told him what I was after, somewhat, and let him go from there. Then I heard some word about the VLIII research and prototypes, and after sending an email clarifying some of my thoughts, he thought they would probably work best with my specific LP so I figured I'd just wait on the VLIII. Wasn't very long as all this occurred just in the past few weeks. I don't mind waiting - not WB Pickups kind of waiting but I expect one guy making a lot of his own parts is going to need some time to get things together. I'm self-employed myself and it often takes me forever to get things done, especially as I put a lot of care into what I make. So from my perspective, a few months is nothing at all.

[neils]

Stunning. Hey, how about some details on the amp. Deluxe Reverb? Jensens? It all sounds so good.

Neil

[dretot]

Originally Posted by neils

Stunning. Hey, how about some details on the amp. Deluxe Reverb? Jensens? It all sounds so good.

Neil

Thanks Neils,
It's a '67 super reverb. Speakers are 2-weber "p10r" alnico on top and 2-eminence ragin cajun ceramic on the bottom. RCA 12ax7's in pre-amp and mesa boogie str-415 (sylvania 6l6gc) power amp and a solid state rectifier. vol-8, treb-7, mid-6, bass-3, rev.-2.5 and bright switch-on.
Volume was 2.5 on the mellow clip, same other settings.

dre

[Splattle101]

Originally Posted by dretot

Thanks Neils,
It's a '67 super reverb. Speakers are 2-weber "p10r" alnico on top and 2-eminence ragin cajun ceramic on the bottom. RCA 12ax7's in pre-amp and mesa boogie str-415 (sylvania 6l6gc) power amp and a solid state rectifier. vol-8, treb-7, mid-6, bass-3, rev.-2.5 and bright switch-on.
Volume was 2.5 on the mellow clip, same other settings.

dre

Gawd I love these amps. I'm now waiting on Webers for my old Super Reverb. Can't wait.

Very nice sound you got from those pickups. I enjoyed the way they retained their character with the vols down, even on the higher gain clip. I liked the way the middle position retained its character on the cranked clip too. (I am not a purist who insists the only way to listen to a pickup is clean. ).

Very nice PUps. And very nice playing, too. I liked the way you used your right hand to move up and down the strings, changing your picking position to coax different voicings from the instrument. More people should try this...they'd probably spend less on pickups if they did, though!

[SD Pickups]

Got a new VLII short audio demo from one of my customers, this is in an Orange Tiny Terror and a Gibson Studio. Nice PAF "cry" tone with this combo...

http://sdpickups.com/ebay/vl2custdemo.mp3

[EFK]

Guys you need to buy these pickups. I can't really say anything else. I've had a set in for 4 days now and I'm at a loss for words. I'm going to give it another week before I really consolidate my thoughts, but you had better get your orders in or I promise you - if you are after THE paf sound that you hear on all those old albums you love - you will be kicking yourself repeatedly if you do not buy these. I've been playing Gibsons for 28 years and THESE ARE PAFS. Period.

[dretot]

Originally Posted by SD Pickups

Got a new VLII short audio demo from one of my customers, this is in an Orange Tiny Terror and a Gibson Studio. Nice PAF "cry" tone with this combo...

http://sdpickups.com/ebay/vl2custdemo.mp3

I dig it! Sounds "old". It's nice to hear clips of these incredible pu's. C'mon vl owners, let's hear 'em!

dre

[SG Lou]

I'm sold......VL3's are going in my replica

[Tone Seeker]

Originally Posted by EFK

if you are after THE paf sound that you hear on all those old albums you love - you will be kicking yourself repeatedly if you do not buy these. I've been playing Gibsons for 28 years and THESE ARE PAFS. Period.

Do you have the VL3's?

Terry.

[EFK]

Yep. VL3.

[SD Pickups]

EFK are you in San Diego? Trying to figure which customer you are ;-) There aren't very many VLIII's out there now just 2 sets, 2 more going out tomorrow.

Here's a new option I forgot to mention, these are my upscale $85 cover with a $25 relic job, my first attempt, though I figured out the technique before on regular cheap commercial covers. It doesn't work on the cheapie covers because it exposes the copper underplating and copper looks really ugly showing through nickel plating. These have no copper underplating so it works real well. The 2nd photo is my version next to a real PAF cover for comparison. This is a tricky technique and not easy to have complete control over yet, one cover aged a lot further than I was expecting but it still looked pretty cool:

[SD Pickups]

2nd photo, real PAF cover next to VL Relic cover....

[EFK]

Dave I'm in PA smack in the middle of nowhere!

[Shai`tan]

"I'm sold......VL3's are going in my replica "

+1.

[SD Pickups]

Another set of VL PAF relic covers, they all come out different, like fingerprints for your guitar

[Mayo5]

Mine are being built this week, I can't wait. All of those videos drove me crazy in trying to decide between the VL2's and the VL3's.

[honduras]

Which did you pick and what made up your mind?

[SD Pickups]

Here is a new audio clip from Dan Spitz, founding member of Anthrax.
This is the VL2 set in a Gibson Historic 335, I didn't edit this at. Here is what he used,

"My own tone that is very reminiscent of a few from our past"
Carol Anne Dumble clone amplifier
Marshall Vintage Basketweave 4x12 with 20 watt heritage G12M's
Gibson ES 335 Historic '63 Nashville /
Real old Bumble Bee capacitors
Dunlop Jazz 3 XL picks
Everly B-52 10-46 strings
TAB Funkenwork modified 57 microphone
My fingers straight into Ableton Live

"Sample music starts off with toggle switch in the middle and then later flips to Neck to show the incredible nuances of just using your touch to bring the volume and dynamics down and back up with the volume on full at all times during this. You can hear the toggle switch click positions between takes. Later there is some Bridge Only takes."

http://sdpickups.com/audio/spitz-vl2.mp3

[Stowburst]

Dre... Love you style man.. great player, pups and guitar sound amazing..very P90ish to my ears!

[dretot]

Stowburst,
Thanks for the nice words, I really appreciate it. The goldtop normally has late pat# pu's ('65-'75) in it. Not sure of the exact year. Dave's vl's take it to another level. The pat#'s are very clear, but also sort of thin. The owner of the goldtop got real excited when he heard the clip and decided he needed a set of vl's.

I'm in line for my set...................counting the days. In the meantime, I've tried my boutiques and other pu's with different mags, poles and spacers and got some decent results, but just can't get that nice chirpy attack and vowelly
tone of the vl's. They really are special pu's.

dre

[Stowburst]

Originally Posted by dretot

Stowburst,
Thanks for the nice words, I really appreciate it. The goldtop normally has late pat# pu's ('65-'75) in it. Not sure of the exact year. Dave's vl's take it to another level. The pat#'s are very clear, but also sort of thin.

I recently played some late 60s pat# and they were also thin (in a good way ) but then again all the PAFs I have played have been thin sounding too...thin but fat if you know what I mean!?! I think Dave's pups sound fantastic.. just watching your GT vid AGAIN! LOL Your feel is killer and just watching your play has influenced me!

[Mayo5]

I just got mine in the mail, but I'm not going to be able to see them or play them for almost two weeks. The torture.....

[honduras]

Which ones did you go for?