slowhands - a review

[gwEm]

i've just fitted a pair of slowhands to a squier cyclone (two pickup surf guitar). The bridge has a base plate, the neck does not, plus I have a 4way tele switch. i've made mistakes in the past posting reviews too soon after fitting, without having a chance to get used to them. but just to say:

these are the right stuff!!!

good and thick fender alnico pickup tone. nothing i the slightest bit girly about these pickups. clean they have the classic fender single coil sound, but with extra girth - in other words they sound great clean. suitable for jazz, surf etc etc

with overdrive theres no suggestion of wimpyness from the bridge - its 100% pure rainbow-era blackmore tones all the way.

breakup tone on both pickups does sound pretty clapton style, i'm not a fan of his, but you can get that sound if needed.

i haven't investigated the series mode yet, however i can report its very powerful and sounds good clean. didn't find a suitable driven sound from it so far, but i really only fitted these 15 minutes ago.

slowhands are fender single coils for people who don't like fender single coils. all the lush bell-like chime, but with MEAT.

i'm off to play 'man on the silver mountain' again! :)

[badgermark]

Was that the slowhand I sold you months ago? I really liked it too, just felt the guitar it was in was an utter dog. Hastily replaced it with my humbucker Esquire...

Glad you likes, not enough love is given to these quality pickups, my favourite strat set so far.

[gwEm]

yes, its that neck, with a freshly wound bridge from tim

[_tom_]

So you like the bridge one then? I'm once again looking into getting a Blackmore-eque strat (though with hardtail and a non-scalloped neck) and was looking into the Slowhands. What effect does the baseplate have on tone exactly, just makes it fatter and middier?

[Philly Q]

Sounds good!  I'm much less picky about single-coils than I am about humbuckers - most alnico singles from the well known manufacturers sound pretty decent to me.  But the Slowhands have always been the BKP set that most appealed to me from their description.

[gwEm]

So you like the bridge one then?

Very much. I played now on them for a couple of hours. The bridge is my favourite, followed by the parallel position. The neck is also pretty cool of course.

The series position is quite nice, but it muds out with heavy drive - the bass is rather strong. However it works very well with break-up drive and the cleans with it are quite unique - very useable.

I'm once again looking into getting a Blackmore-eque strat (though with hardtail and a non-scalloped neck) and was looking into the Slowhands.

I can't imagine a more appropriate pickup for Blackmore than this baseplated Slowhand bridge. It nails the early Rainbow tone, even through a solid state Marshall and fitted to a Squier.

What effect does the baseplate have on tone exactly, just makes it fatter and middier?

I'm not sure 100%, since I don't plan to remove the baseplate now the guitar is all back together. If you ever played a Telecaster A-Bed against a Strat you notice instantly the bridge is more alot meaty. Thats mostly due to the baseplate on the Tele pickup. I would suggest the baseplate adds lower mids and little bass.

[FernandoDuarte]

A Strat GAS is becoming inside me after much time don't caring nothing to they... And the Slowhands are the set that I would put... The description really gets me  :D

[gwEm]

as a little postscript to this i've raised the bridge and lowered the neck. the neck is a bit quieter than the bridge now, but its cleaned up the series position alot.

still very happy with this set. bridge is marvellous, sort of between a typical strat sound and a p90