Main Description

Bourbon City - The Home of Tone

Once upon a time, we used to make all of our humbuckers “entirely customisable” – you could get a Bourbon City in the traditional setup, with 6 screws and 6 slug poles, you could get them in 12 slug with a H gate cover and a pink foil top plate, you could get them with 12 hex poles and an oversized ceramic magnet… you get the idea. The options were endless – it was great!

However – it did throw up a weird “quirk” with humbuckers. In short, “Pole choice matters”, and, to put that into real terms, a Bourbon city built with 12 screw poles, sounds different to one built with 12 slugs, or to a traditional 6 and 6 setup.

So, before we get any further, go into this eye open.

A 12 screw version of a Bourbon city will sound different to a “normal” version – it contains less iron within the coil, that reduces the inductance, which pushes the resonant peak to a higher frequency. This pickup will come across as slightly brighter, and slightly less powerful.

So, the reason we stopped “ultimate customisation” is this. Part of the skill of designing humbuckers (and selling them!), is knowing EXACTLY what they do, how they do it, and being able to guide people to buy the right pickup for their needs. And, ultimately, when you start changing things about a humbucker, like, swapping the magnets, or changing poles, you are changing what a pickup does, and, very quickly, you get to the point where the pickup isn’t behaving the same, and, eventually, that put pay to the idea of “this pickup can be anything you want it to be” (at least with humbuckers!) because, seemingly cosmetic changes were changing the tone.

However, having said that? I do appreciate that, at a certain point, form does overtake function, and if you’ve got your heart set on a 12 screw pole humbucker, and you want it to be 8K, Alnico 2, so on and so forth… me sitting say “well, its not going to sound the same!” probably makes absolutely no difference.

So, to close out the worst sales pitch I’ve ever done – if you want a Bourbon city with 12 screw poles, so it looks all modern and fancy, and you can live with the idea that its not going to sound the same as the traditional set you’ve got in your Les Paul… crack on! With my blessing.

Gibson®, Epiphone®, Stratocaster® and Strat® are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and Gibson Musical Instruments Corporation. Axesrus® has no affiliation with FMIC

Sound Clips

Should be just below!

The Good & The Bad

Between you, me and the fence post, I'm more an engineer then i am a salesman, so to scratch that itch - I’m compelled to not only write up the unavoidable "hey, this pickup great! Play Rock or Blues?! This one’s for you!", but for the sake of balance, it’s only fair that i get to write up what they're not great at too (and because this section isn't "up front" - i get to be a bit more technical about it too! Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to explain what all those lovely buzz words actually mean eh?)

Remember too - whilst I’m writing this stuff about Axesrus pickups, its true of every pickup ever made. Even if you’re not buying ours, this stuff is handy! It’s all true! all pickups have characteristics that make them good or bad... there are no perfect pickups!

So, here we go - Bourbon City - "A pickup for guitar music" - if thats not set the hook, i dont know what will! Gutsy and biting, begging to be pushed, and capable of retaining enough headroom that you dont turn into a wall of "mush" when things get hot and heavy. Heres the hows, whens and whys!.

42 AWG Coils

The Good - When we speak about "vintage" humbuckers - the main, defining variable that we're really speaking about, is the wire gauge - and that HAS to be 42 AWG (American wire gauge) - generally speaking, you'll only see it (on a humbucker) being wound to between 7 and 8.5Kohm, and, tonally, it's what makes vintage humbuckers (and pretty much every guitar we've ever heard!) sound the way they do, its whats responsible for producing that signal that’s "roomy" and "open". It allows for a very high resonant peak, with a narrower Q factor, which gives you the "snap" and "twang" and its that perception of space, with a focus on the higher frequencies (the Bourbons peak is sitting at 7.3kHz) makes the guitar feel uncompressed and breathy, but without feeling weak.

With the Bourbon City, that head room, and that bite in the higher frequencies, coupled with the power you get from a humbucker, makes them an idea choice for classic rock and hotter blues.

The Bad - Hard facts? 42 AWG wire costs an absolute fortune... but, it’s kind of essential (this has the potential to get a little off track, so I’ll try to keep it as brief as i can!)

42 AWG wire is, nowadays, almost entirely obsolete. It’s a wire gauge based in the imperial system (American, remember) - it has a diameter of 0.0635mm, and it’s what was used on nearly every pickup in the 50s and 60s, especially if they were made in the USA.

However, as the world became a smaller place, most "real world" applications for "very very thin motor wire" (which is what pickup coil wire really is), switched over to the metric system, where wire isn't sorted by gauge, its simply measured in millimetres (sometimes, incorrectly called SWG (even by myself - but there is some reason for that! More in a second) - so, if your winding, say, a tiny motor for an RC car? You might use 0.06mm wire (which would actually be 46 SWG... and its within the lower end of the tolerance of being 42 AWG too... wire gauge is confusing!) - and your little cars going to go exactly the same as if you'd used "proper" 42 AWG (0.0635mm) - it doesn't matter. (There will actually be some difference in the motors performance I imagine, but i doubt anyone’s testing for it)

So, with the rest of the world using 0.06mm wire, "true" 42 AWG, essentially, became extinct, except in one industry. Pickups! Gibson® and Fender® and a raft of US based pickup manufacturers kept the home fires burning, and stuck with what they'd always been using. (so 42 AWG is only ever available in Plain enamel and Formvar... never in "enamelled" or "Polysol" (there are even some questions regarding Gibson® T tops in the 60s with their "42 AWG Polysol", because they certainly don’t behave like 42 AWG!)

And, as oft happens when you’re dealing with, essentially, a lack of demand for a product, the price slowly, but steadily, creeps up. AWG wire, is expensive as a result, and metric wire, which is used in every other industry, has become dirt cheap! But why does that matter? Why didn't guitars switch over to the cheaper wire?

Well... they did! 99.9% of "cheap" pickups actually ARE wound with metric wire! And here’s where we hit "the problem"

If we were still dealing with little motors ("make little car go zoom!") - everyone would have switched over. They're not daft! But were dealing with audio signal generation with guitars - and, without making this sound more grandiose then I have to - we have a pretty good frame of reference as to "what a good guitar should sound like" - its every piece of music ever recorded from 1950 up to the modern day. Think about it - every famous guitarist? Every band you've got on your play list? Every one of those "genre defining musicians", has probably, been using a guitar fitted with a pickup wound using AWG (as you get into the modern day, it becomes a little murkier... but, you get the idea!) - they get to the point where they're making a record, they get a couple of quid in their back pocket? They're going out and using a top shelf guitar! They're turning up in the studio with a Fender® or a Gibson® (again, I generalise, but on the whole? Its true!)

And, as such, the characteristics you only get with 42 AWG (that head room, that brightness, that "snap", the way it hits the amp) is ingrained in our brains, probably before you ever even pick up a guitar, but certainly after you've been playing for a few years - and as soon as you change the "recipe"? As soon as you start using a wire gauge that marginally thinner? A pickup is no longer the same - its not producing the signal in the same way, and we taste it! Ultimately, to get a tone that you’re going to recognise as being exceptional? You've got to use 42 AWG.

So, 0.06mm wire? Isn't as "hot" (its not inducing as strong a signal, its normally operating at a lower resonant peak frequency (sometimes it can be higher, depends on the impedance of the coil, but usually, lower) and the Q factor is generally wider - 0.06mm wire sounds more rounded, smoother, less defined, less biting... its fine, honestly! It still sounds like a guitar - but it doesn't flick those weird switches in your brain that make you sit up and go "THAT is the tone I’ve heard coming out *famous guitarist*s fingers!"

All because of that 0.0035mm... If you've ever wondered what the difference between "good for the money" and "actually good" pickups is? Why there exists £15 pickups that sound pretty good, and £250 pickups that bring a tear to your eye? That’s it... 0.0035mm!

So, obviously, we use 42 AWG, but it comes at a cost... and that cost is, primarily, financial!

Tonally, 42 AWG too, doesn't have much "internal compression" - so if you’re looking for a humbucker that’s a bit "chewier", with a bit more punch and a little less definition? Aiming for more metal than rock? That head room, and that "spank" probably isn't what you’re looking for, but, equally, i wager you've not read this far into a write up about a vintage humbuckers wire gauge if you’re looking for a humbucker for tech metal. If you have (and fair play to you if so!) - you’re after 43 AWG! That’s where the chewy/gutsy stuff lives! Model 24!

Alnico 2 Magnet

The Good - Whilst i'm not the biggest believer in magnets making a huge amount of difference when it comes to humbuckers, i will concede that they do make a difference (give "how the sounds change" here, if you fancy learning a little more on the topic), so, with that in mind, in this humbucker, Alnico 2... works! Its slightly weaker, which buys you back a little extra warmth in the low end, which counter points beautifully against the blistering snap that is the top end.

Ultimately too, just like the 42 AWG debate? Pickups are a prime example of "play the hits"... and all the hits? In this style? Used Alnico 2s!

The Bad - There isn't really a great deal wrong with any choice of Alnico to be honest, purely because most of the "heavy lifting" with a pickups tone, is being done by the coils - but, i will say, Alnico 2, adding that extra few dBV of low end, right in the fundemental range, can, in some situations, be a slightly "over warm", especially when your dealing with a slightly hotter vintage humbucker (where the coils are producing a little more low end!)

I cant, hand on heart, say its ever bothered me (we woudln't have been making the Bourbons for 15 years, almost entirely unchanged, if it did!), but if your looking for a pickup right on the ragged edge of "what a vintage humbucker can do" - Alnico 2 might not be for you.

As much as i hate "naming" famous guitarists (because it implies this pickup has something to do with "the name", and it doesn't... not at all!), sometimes its a little unavoidable - think of Eddie Van Halen or Santana - they were both using fairly normal, vintage humbuckers, but they used much stronger magnets, which sucked out a little of the lows, and gave them a slightly more biting, brittle tone - if thats the thing your after, the Bourbons are a great jumping off point, but, really? I'd be reaching out and saying "Craig? any chance of a Bourbon with an Alnico 8? Or a Ceramic?"

But yeah, as standard? Alnico 2s great! Covers alot of ground, its got shades of "nice" without detracting from the definition and bite that you want when driving an amp that bit harder. Dont muck about with it just for the sake of it, but, equally, if you know what you like, i'm open to magnet swaps! (saves me having to make 15 different product pages just for different magnets!)

Avoiding speaking in extremes (and failing)

The... thing - This one is not really got anything to do with good or bad, so i'll break away from that format whilst I’m closing this out.

With humbuckers, especially with vintage humbuckers, like the Bourbon or the Classic 50s or the True 50s - there’s a temptation to really speak in these huge, overflowing terms (something, admittedly, I’ve probably failed to avoid in my own write up!), so i'll say this.

VINTAGE HUMBUCKERS ALL SOUND PRETTY SIMILAR!

Now, when I say that, what i really mean is "All vintage humbuckers, wound using 42 AWG Plain enamel, using 6 fillister head pole screws, and 6 3/16" slugs, with a resistance of between 7k and 8.5k, inducing between 4.5 and 5.5H, sound pretty similar" (you knew it wouldn't be that simple right?!)

And to boil that down to something that'll actually fit on the sticker for your hard case - "All GOOD vintage humbuckers sound pretty similar"

So, when i say "The Bourbon City is a snorting, bucking bronco of a humbucker, with a blistering top end and a warm, sultry low" or a classic 50 is "has full, rich bass frequencies, with a crystalline shimmer that'll make you openly weep at the first chord"... it’s true... but what i actually mean, is getting lost under the "flowery language" that, frankly, I’m using to make a sale (we've all got to eat right?!). The Bourbons are more lively, they're going to be that bit hotter, that bit more badly behaved, that bit happier being pushed - but, really? It’s not as grand a departure as the language implies - vintage humbuckers are all, electrically/tonally/musically, doing pretty similar things. There’s certainly some variation within the specs, which translates into differences tonally, but please, to appease the engineer in me, don’t get sucked in by the spiel! The differences exist, but they're pretty small, not quite beneath consideration, but definitely not worth losing sleep over.

If over aggrandising is the curse of guitars is , it’s at Necronomicon levels with pickups, we all speak in these insanely over the top terms, and i honestly wish we didn't have to, but, it’s the world we live in (and I'll stop when everyone else does! Deal?), so consider this little write up some soothing for my soul if nothing else.

A Bourbon city is hotter than a classic 50, which is hotter than a True 50, but they're all more than capable of doing an absolutely amazing job at country, blues and rock guitar music... or pop, or free form acid jazz... or anything that’s not a complete wall at saturation to the point of square wave distortion. The differences are there, but, really? It’s all a case of "the hotter a pickup becomes, the more low end its producing, and the harder its hitting the amp" - and even then, that sentence is riddled with inaccuracy - but it’s a nice rule of thumb with vintage humbuckers, and does strip away this tendency to speak in extremes - the bigger the resistance, the warmer the pickup, and the harder it will drive an amp... but never to the point where it’s an unrecognisable departure from the "next one down"

A Bourbons not going to blow the windows out of their frames any more than a Classic 50s will, but in that final 2% of "Guitar I love" vs. "In the ballpark" ? All those flowery words, whilst a bit over the top, are actually helping shove you in the right direction. Sure a Classic 50s will do hard rock, sure it'll have all the characteristics you'd expect, but i tell you now, the Bourbon will do it better if you’re chasing specifics.

So, as much as a kop out as it may sound, and as much as i cringe writing up the flowery stuff... put a bit of stock in it! It’s not, strictly speaking, true, but it does give you a bit more "artistic guidance" in choosing pickups, and, ultimately, if your umming and arring between a Bourbon and a Classic 50s? They're both great, they both do the same jobs; they're only slightly different, don’t over think it! They'll both treat you very well in when used in similar situations.

Remember though, this is only true when we're speaking "good vintage pickups" - as soon as we break away from 42 AWG, wound between 7 and 8.5K? (Or your comparing a cheap pickup wound with 0.06mm/46 SWG wire to something wound with 42 AWG!) We see much bigger departures in signal generation, different shapes to the pickups "EQ"... where these extremes in language actually do become "much more true to real life"

It almost makes the language we use to describe the differences between one "good" vintage model and the next laughable - if i can say a Bourbon City has a rich, strong, thumping low end with a fire character, how do i describe the Hot Iron, at 14.5K of 43 AWG? it’s packing more bass  in the trunk then a boy racers Vauxhall Corsa!

I suppose, ultimately, what I’m saying is "know what you’re looking at" - if it’s a vintage pickup, and I’m speaking about "huge bass and blistering aggression", it’s all relative to vintage pickups, so it’s not all that angry or bassy at all. If I’m talking about high output humbuckers having a "tight defined low end", again, relative to high output gear, it’s got more control over its low end then most heavy gear, but it’s still going to be pretty bottom heavy.

Setup

500k pots work perfectly (thats what was used on the recordings for reference) and a 0.022 or a 0.047 cap on the tone will see you absolutely fine - you can try a 300k tone pot if you like, but i've never felt it made much of a difference myself.

Covers, as always, mute what top end "snap" there is ever so slightly - i actually prefer the Bourbons without a cover, because, whilst a cover is great for smoothing out that jaggy highs and snappy rough edges, this is a humbucker thats happiest when its being pushed that shade harder then a "proper" vintage humbucker - it wants to be angry, it wants to be driven, and that extra snap? That extra defnition you get with an uncovered pickup, really plays into that.

Obviously, form does sometimes overtake function, so I wont call anyone for wanting a cover fitting, but just go in eyes open, a cover will smooth out the definition, just a touch. I certainly wouldn't be approaching covers with any sort of fear with the Bourbons though- if anything, they'll smooth out a litle of that top end fizz and make them a slightly nicer clean pickup, at the cost of that note seperation and zip that makes them world class at light to medium gain work.

Warranty & Returns

In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to write this section up, and, I really wish I didn’t have to, but, if I’m being honest and transparent about how pickups work, for better or worse, it’s probably worth being honest and open your rights as a consumer too, and maybe give a little insight into how we actually build pickups.

How we do it

Pickups, at our end of things – are “Custom made” – I cannot stress this enough. When you click the “Add To Cart” button, there is no pickup on the shelf, no bucket of pre-terminated bobbins or half complete pickups. It is made, entirely, from scratch using the parts we have available.

This means, if you order a Bourbon city, or a Hot Iron, or a Texas Blue, it is wound FOR YOU. It is being built to the specifications you have stipulated in the drop-down menus, even the most “normal” design, is still, essentially, built to order.

That entails our pickers collecting the parts from stores, delivering them to the winders, who then get the copper on there, and then the wound coils going to the techs to solder, terminate, test, polish, wax pot, clean, retest… you get the idea.

This is all done “in house” and, obviously, there is a queue, which is first in first out, so pickups will NEVER be shipped same day. Realistically, it takes about 2 weeks, but we do get busier at the beginning/end and middle of the month, so that can have a knock on effect.

And this is all being done, by hand, on a VERY small scale. At maximum, we can produce about 6 pickups a day.

It works wonderfully frankly, because we can make, pretty much, anything you can dream up, and keeping it small scale, means we have an exceptionally high attention to detail with each pickup sold.

Returns

So we have an item, when all is said and done, that didn’t exist until you purchased it, that has cost a lot of man hours to actually manufacture, and has been manufactured to your exact specifications.

As such, pickups come under the remit of “custom work” as laid out under the our terms and conditions, and as outlined in the UK governments distance selling regulations.

This means, in short, pickups are none returnable, and none refundable.
I understand, in this day and age, that may seem quite the hard-nosed approach, but, sadly, there’s no wiggle room in this. Once a pickup is wound, there’s no going back. It belongs to you. There is no “I’ll test it to see if I like it” or “I’ll return it if I don’t like the colour!”.

Warranty

All Axesrus pickups come with a “relaxed lifetime” warranty as far as I’m concerned. I’m never going to ask you to register the purchase, stop offering support 12 months after purchase or limit support to the initial customer in the case of second-hand stuff. We are incredibly proud of the pickups we produce, and I’ll help out wherever I can.

However, its worth laying out what I’d consider “realistic” expectations as to what we will cover as part of a warranty.

Repairs and replacements
Whilst we will not accept pickups as return for refund under any circumstances, we reserve the right to repair or replace any pickup that develops a manufacturing fault within a reasonable time frame.

I won’t put a scale on that time frame, but I will say, its at our discretion. If you’re lucky enough to have some of the VERY early hand wound stuff we made, and we (stupidly) thought we could do it at £20 a pickup, and the coil wires snapped after 10 years? I’m probably not in a position to repair or replace it free of charge, you know? You’ve had your fun; you’ve got your money’s worth!

On the flip side of that – if you’ve bought a £200 humbucker 2 years ago, and it’s developed a fault? You’d better believe Axes is bending over backwards to get it repaired and get you up and running again.

I’ll say this too, we won’t hang you out to dry – if that £20 pickup can be repaired, even if we’re not doing it as part of the warranty, we will offer to repair it at a reasonable price.

Damage vs. Fault
Pickups are delicate creatures I’m afraid. Nature of the beast I suppose, they were never designed, all those years ago, to be “presented” outside of a guitar, so go in knowing this, pickups can be damaged. Either in transit, whilst in storage, or during install.
It is VERY difficult to know how a pickup has developed a fault, so most of the time, we will go into all warranty claims with the mindset that “it’s a manufacturing fault”, frankly, because it keeps everyone happy, avoids any awkward conversations as to “who’s done what” and, normally, repairing damage done during install is the same work as repairing a manufacturing fault either way. Worst case, we might have a delicate email exchange about who’s covering the postage, but that’s about as bad as it gets.

However, we will take this approach only when a pickup, which is showing damage, is only showing minimal damage. I appreciate everyone makes mistakes.

Pickups that have been heavily damaged, have seen heavy wear and tear, or have been intentionally broken in an effort to raise a warranty claim, will see not be repaired, or replaced. Neither free of charge or “for a fee”

Lead times and cancellations
We do publish the lead times on all of our custom build work, and there is very little we can do to decrease the time it takes to actually manufacture this stuff I’m afraid, short of jumping you to the front of the queue (which is never fair, and we won’t do it)

Be aware that once an order is placed, work beings on your build, and as such, you’ve entered into the contract, and there is no backing out. Coils can often be wound within the hour or the order being placed, but they will sit in the work queue due to a back log at terminating/testing/cleaning.
Modifications
There are, occasionally, situations where someone buys a pickup, installs it, plays it for a while, and then might want something a little different down the line. Maybe a different magnet, or a cover fitting, or a new hookup wire fitting.

I am happy to carry out this work, and, normally, regardless of the “time since purchase”, this will be done simply for the cost of parts and postage.

However, the “depth” of these modifications, and if we’re willing/capable of carrying them out, is at the discretion of Axesrus. We’re happy to discuss this on a case-to-case basis, but go in eyes open, that its unlikely to be part of the warranty.

“Warranty with initial purchase”
I’m not a stickler when it comes to this stuff, but I will say, we do have to draw the line somewhere, so, strictly speaking, this “relaxed warranty” is, officially, limited to the original purchaser of the product.

That said, I’m not a robot, nor am I a fool. I’m aware that sometimes, a pickup is moved on relatively quickly, or is bought by a 3rd party for someone else, so, in these cases, lets just be sensible about it. I’ll carry forward a “true” warranty on a pickup for 12 months after the initial purchase, regardless of who is contacting me in regards to any issue.

However, I will need to know who the initial customer was. Even if it’s just their name and a rough date of purchase.

This goes for technical support too – I’ve no problems offering support on Axesrus products, regardless of “time since purchase”, but I will ask for some proof that they are in fact, Axesrus products.

Modifications to second hand parts, will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis too.

Changes in specification/tolerances
Over the years, we’ve had a few “interesting” conversations regarding pickup specifications, especially when it comes to returns and warranty.

The published specs of our pickups, are published with a “within tolerance” subtext, based off of the readings from our testing equipment.

There will, always, be variation between one pickup and the next, and whilst we endeavor to keep those readings within the tolerances stated, they do occasionally wander outside of the 10% we stipulate as “acceptable” – this is usually due to temperature fluctuation, or specification changes outside of our control (wire diameter, alloy composition etc.) – any resulting change in readings based on these factors, will result in an updated technical spec on the website, but, as you can imagine, the first we know about an unforeseen spec change, is when the pickups come off the winder.

We do not consider these “out of spec” accidents to be cause for a warranty claim I’m afraid, and we endeavor to keep on top of them so the information we’re giving you at point of purchase, is as accurate as possible.

Warranty postage
Repairs or replacement postage cost, outside of an initial 14 day period, is at your cost. I appreciate, in some situations, that this is prohibitive (especially when shipping outside of the UK).