Hallmark pickups "made-to-order" - did you know? Review

[Greg_L]

I didn't know, until I asked. It was that simple.

Backstory: I recently bought and took delivery of - on time as promised - a new Hallmark 60 Custom. I love the guitar. It looks great and plays wonderfully. In my opinion it dead-on nails the classic surf tones we all know and love. My one slight problem - I play that way only about 10% of the time. As much as I love surf guitar music, and love to play it, it's just not my main genre. I'm generally a punk style rip-roaring powerchord kind of guy that plays through monster Marshalls. All of the things about the Hallmark pickups that makes the guitar sound so amazingly wonderful clean, kind of didn't work for me when the gain on the amp goes up. It's just my personal taste. The stock bridge pickup was a little too "fat" for my liking with the amp set to blow-the-windows-out gain and volume levels. I found ways to work around it, but I wanted the pickups to just do what I want them to do without having to jump through hoops.

So here's what I did....I sent Mr Bob Shade an email explaining my situation and described the general sound I am after. I initially asked what my options were, and he suggested that I could send my pickup in to be modded by him for $50, or he could just make me a different pickup altogether. Wow! I thought that was pretty awesome. I wanted to keep it all Hallmark and stock looking, so that's what I did. A few more emails were exchanged, I further explained my tonal needs, paid the $100, and 5 days later a new custom wound handmade pickup was in my mailbox. How awesome is that? I went with the new pickup instead of modding my existing pickup because I wanted to be able to go back to "stock" if need be. To be honest, I wasn't sure it would all work out. Maybe I was being too nit-picky? Maybe the stock pickup was perfect? The new pickup experiment and total tonal satisfaction is easily worth the $100 in my opinion. And a pickup personally made to my "specs" and needs? For $100? Seems like a sweet deal to me.

The sound? Exactly as I wanted. He nailed it. I loosely described wanting a P-90 type sound with more clarity and bite than the stock Hallmark bridge pickup, and that's what he made for me all while looking like and fitting the guitar just like the original pickup. So now my 60 Custom is even more custom! It's a one-of-a-kind. I sacrificed a touch of the monstrous clean tone for better overdriven tone. That might not be acceptable for some of you, but its' exactly what I needed. The clean tone still kills in my opinion, the dirty tone is much better.

But the point to all of this is that if you didn't know that Mr Shade at Hallmark will listen to your needs and make you a pickup to fit those needs, well now you do!

Thanks Bob!

[Bob Shade]

Hey Greg!

Thanks for writing! Yes Greg wanted to rock harder and while our stock pickups have more than enough of output and feature alnico mags, and most guys love the bold round way it makes the guitar sound, Greg wanted something specific.

We have several options as far as tone for our pickups that we can employ. In Greg's case we used a different wind used a pair of vintage ceramic magnets that without disturbing the output section cleaned it up a bit for more clarity and depth in the Marshall distortion mode. The typical Mosrite style pickup although great for certain clean and rock tones, are not as good for cranking Marshall fat pig tones.

If there is anyone who needs a pickup for a high gain amplifier and does not want to sacrifice the look and output, we have the pickup for you now dubbed the " Fat Pig".

So just ask for the Fat Pig pickup, I will know what you want.

Thanks again Greg!

Snarl on!

Bob

[Greg_L]

Your welcome Bob, and thank you for working with me on this. This pickup really met my needs and easily pushes the amp into that just right sound for blazing powerchords and articulate overdriven leads all while maintaining the bite, chime, and clarity one would expect from a single-coil pickup. I'm not into metal levels of amp gain, but I like to push the tubes hard and still be able to hear the notes and overtones in an open chord. This pickup delivers!

Another little side bonus that I've noticed with this new pickup is that the volume knob seems to be more sensitive/reactive than before. Rolling the vol back on the guitar is more effective and the pickup cleans up really nicely. I don't pretend to understand the how and why that happens more with this new pickup, and it's not a technique I use often, but I do like that guitar behaves more in this way now. I like it when a pickup can go from rip your face off to a pretty clean sound with a twist of the volume knob without losing a ton of tone or output. This pickup delivers in that regard as well.

Well done sir and thanks again!

Greg

[erksin]

'Fat Pig'.

Side question - will any standard-sized humbucker fit the C60 pickup rout and mounting ring?

[Bob Shade]

Hey Greg, thanks again.

Yes erksin you can get a traditional size humbucker to fit the mounting ring on a 60 Custom very easily.

You simply bend the feet out (keeping them flat) on the humbucker until they are in line with the holes for the adjustment screws on the mounting ring and you are in business!

I have done this for Marky Kobanes 60 Custom guitars. If you look for one of his threads on his 60 Custom I am sure you will find a picture of one if need be.

Bob

[MarkyKobane]

I was gonna ask Bob..... then I read and saw you mentioned me. THANKS!

So you guys know...Bob also made me custom pickups for my Johnny. I posted pics awhile back.
Check em out! HI-fi in white with showing poles!

I have the Hallmark logo tattooed on me. My entire band uses Hallmark guitars. Bob has really created something special and we should be happy to be apart of this History!

[MarkyKobane]

P.s. greg - I have Dimarzio Super II's in mine. I startd playing a GPC weaselrite when I was 16 so it's just what I grew up on, feeling comfortable. If you play punk, ramones-core, power-chords these are great. Here's a link to us using H60's with dimarzios in the bridge.

http://kobanes.bandcamp.com/album/halfway-to-sanity

[Greg_L]

P.s. greg - I have Dimarzio Super II's in mine. I startd playing a GPC weaselrite when I was 16 so it's just what I grew up on, feeling comfortable. If you play punk, ramones-core, power-chords these are great. Here's a link to us using H60's with dimarzios in the bridge.

http://kobanes.bandcamp.com/album/halfway-to-sanity

Haha, that's cool. The entire Halfway to Sanity album. I did Rocket to Russia a few years back.

I didn't want humbuckers in the Hallmark. I have a Les Paul and an SG, and that's all the humbucker I need. I wanted to keep my 60C single-coil equipped to maintain it's surfy goodness while still being able to blast my way through my usual punk stuff. With this pickup Bob made for me going into my Marshall heads, I get really close to early "Johnny" sounds. Closer than I've ever been. Not that I'm trying to cop his sound, but it's always been a guilty pleasure trying to achieve that kind of rare sound. I've always considered the Road to Ruin sound one of the best punk guitar tones ever recorded. The sound I'm getting out of this pickup falls somewhere between the thickness of a humbucker and the screeching brightness of a Strat or Tele. It's right in between, to my ears. And that's just right to me.

[pillof]

hmmm. so this type of humbucker might not work, right? there's no feet to bend.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/medium-output/prails_shpr1/

[Greg_L]

hmmm. so this type of humbucker might not work, right? there's no feet to bend.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/humbucker/medium-output/prails_shpr1/

There are feet on there.....