testimonials for Smit's Hand-wound Guitar Pickups

Hey Kevin,
I've received the pickups on Saturday morning and it sounds great... much better with the alnico 3 and yet still mainteining the treble :D IT rocks both on split coils and with overdrive but Im sure u know that! ;) Thank u so much for making the best pickups and you have got a customer for life! Rockin in Christ. Tristan S. -Singapore

Hey Kevin,
The pickups arrived on Saturday and I put them in last night. I gave them a short test run today through my DRRI with and without my FullDrive II pedal. At first I thought the neck sounded pretty dark for such a low output HB but then I tweak the pickup heights and once I got them locked in all I can say is OMG!!! Played clean they are both SO articulate and "open" sounding, and the middle position is just OH SO SCHWEEET!!! And they sound great overdriven as well - hard to imagine anything sounding any better!
I've always been primarily a Strat guy and, to be completely honest, while I love the qualiity and playability of this Epi Elitist, I wasn't sure that it would end up being a long-term piece of my arsenal. Humbuckers to me have always sounded too dark and compressed for my taste. But if the first impression of these pickups is any indication of how much I'm going to like them, it looks like this Epi is a keeper and my tone quest is over!! Thanks again for the quick turnaround and incredible service!!! Dave J. -Sterling MA

Kevin, I put the pickup in my Explorer and used it at band practice today. Now we're talking! This is the best pickup I've ever had. Thanks for the great deal. It's a keeper. Aaron R. -Dubuque, IA

Hey Kev, I received the EBS-2 pick up this afternoon and dropped it into a northern ash strat... it sounds incredible! I absolutely love it! You can be sure that I will be ordering more from you ASAP! thanks again!
Dimitri D. -Valley Stream, NY

Kevin, I finished my Tele project and have been playing it for a couple of days to try the pickups out. I must say that I was very surprised at the tone I got out of these pickups. I did a 5 way super-switch to get 1-Bridge humbucker, 2-Bridge outer coil, 3- Bridge and Neck humbuckers, 4 Neck outer coil, 5-Neck Humbucker. This is the sound I have been trying to get for years and no matter what I tried (mass produced big names pickups)it sucked until I tried your pickups. The neck humbucker has that single coil vibe and when split to single coil it is pure. I also can work the volume and tone controls to dial in the tone with a wider range I have not found with other. Very happy with the pickups, more orders to come.
Rick H. -Paducah, KY

Thanks for the pickups, they sound amazing. Now I can say I love this guitar! Joey A. -St. Petersburg, FL

Kevin, you have a great feel and intuition when winding your pickups. It is one thing to copy something to a scientific tee but a whole nother to put yourself into your work.The pickups you wound for me have a dimensional quality. They are soft and round in their sound with almost an acoustic mid quality to them. To have something warm and be able to cut through. What a gift. Thank you. You will be hearing more from me later. Kit -Spokane, WA

mate, this is now officially the best hb i've ever had in a guitar of mine. i have been asking for a hb with a flat eq response for over 20 bloody years! i have it so dialed in now that it's completely blowin' me away. & the range of genres it's capable of is astonishing. i've got it doing what i like to call "wide vintage." & it mates REALLY well with the bridge tv jones magna'tron in the neck, which i have dialed in to do jimi/single coil glass clean, & jimi vowels dirty. & they KILL together! "muddy"- Brooklyn, NY

Kevin, Installed the pickups – love it! The guitar smokes now. Definitely a rock and roll machine. It can cover some blues/funk territory with the single coil, too. Thanks for the great service and killer pickups. Fred -Sunrise, FL

Hey Kevin, Just got the pickups installed and the sound just simply blew me away and the PRS RP pickups have found a permanent home in da drawer.... The split coils sound sparkling, sound is full bodied and warm and when u kick in the distortion n overdrive creamy is the word which comes to mind :D Thank u so much for making me a new convert to ur pickups. Enclosed is a picture of it on my ME :D Thank u once again and I'll def be getting ALL my pickups from u from now on :D Tristan S. -Singapore

Hi Kevin. I was reluctant to make a judgment until I played with them for a while, but after a month can say that I'm pretty well blown away by how good my guitar sounds now. I brought the guitar to my weekly rehearsal without mentioning that I'd changed the pickups. Most of the guys in the band commented on how good the guitar sounded that night, and universally suggested that I should only use the Tokai when we play out. I won't go on, but just wanted to say thanks and let you know I what I thought. Doug H. -Newburyport, MA

I was going to wait to throw the Dirty Boy in my LP until I settled on a neck P/U, but I couldn't wait. Holy sh*t... the sound is so big, yet focused. The output and overdrive is so dirty, yet it doesn't squeal... it has a a lot of tone within the pickup, yet it allows the LP to do its thing as well. Tons of sustain, attack, and drive... I LOVE IT!!! Awesome! "You are well-kept secret! Unfortunately, I think I'm gonna let the secret out =)." Sean K. -Wayne, NJ

I have the pu's in and the guitar strung. They sound real good. They are really well balanced from low to hi. Really nice real guitar sound. This may be the first time in 45 years I have heard a good humbucker guitar sound. Any other guitars have had original pu's so they were regular Gibson mass produced pu's. Thanks for the great work. Paul Z. -Branford, CT

About our alnico 4 tele set- "Kevin, I got the pickups in today, and I got them in the guitar. I have to say that I know your known for your HB's, but I will say these are great single coils. They do the opposite of the SD 5-2's. The Alnico IV magnets are super musical. The high end is chimey, but not brittle, and brighter than the 5-2, and the low end is tight and fat with a little less brightness. I have it wired with a 4 way switch, and in the series position , its unreal, it sounds the closest to a real PAF of anything with that switch that I have tried. Usually, the series in a tele is not all that great. The neck is fat and has a very Danny Gatton type jazz tone which I was not expecting from a tele pickup. And in the parallel 2 position, it is very strat (2-4) sounding, Steely Dan tone. It makes this very versatile." Anyway, thanks again, and great work.
Sammy S. -Smith Custom Amplifiers

Hi Kevin, The CC-2 set arrived yesterday and I installed them last night. They are exactly what I was looking for - what beautiful tone! My guitar and I thank you! :) Michael S. -Bremerton, WA

hi, I just wanted to thank you for the superb \"brown\" pickup. It has so much more detail than the \"big\" name guys pickups I used in the past. I intend to do a lot more serious recording in the near future using this pickup. thanks Rich H.

Thank you for such a nice product. The EBS-2 is in and is so much more expressive than the SD TB-11 CUSTOM CUSTOM that i had in it before. I will be ordering again!! Kurt P. -Grayslake, IL

The pickups arrived about 1.5 week ago, I only had about 2 hours of testing myself before I had to leave for a trip. But I left the guitar to a friend while I was away, he's a real dog at testing pickups and has played professionally for about 30 years. He has tried it both on gigs and on rehearsals during this time and we both agreed to the fact that EBS-2 is really a outstanding pickup. The tone is really rich and full at full volume and nails the mans sound well, but it is also one of the really few pickups that sounds really good when rolling off on the volume at the guitar, most pickups do not sound well doing that without loosing tone, but the EBS-2 handles it perfectly. Kudos to you Kevin, you know how to wind pickups for sure and I will be back!! John L. -Bromma, Sweden

Just wanted to let you know that the pickups I ordered sound great, tightened up my Les Paul. The note clarity is amazing and they respond very well when rolling off the volume controls. I can't believe the difference in these compared to the Burstbuckers I had in it. Allen W. -Kingstree, SC

I just wanted to let you know how pleased I am with your pickups. I replaced the stock Gibson's in my '89 Les Paul custom with a BC9-4 in the bridge and a CC-3 in the neck. Wow!!! They sound great. They are very warm and thick sounding, without the harsh high-end I had before. They nail the Zeppelin, Free and AC/DC tones that I wanted from this guitar. It finally just sounds "right" with my '67 plexi clone. Byron W. -Cedar Rapids, IA

Hey Kevin, Just wanted to let you know that my Challenger has never sounded better. I am now officially a handwound, unpotted convert. These pickups sound so open and organic that it shocked me. After trying 3 sets of pickups in this guitar over the years I finally found the sound that truly compliments the instrument. I played it at an open mic jam virtually hours after installing them and they were a huge hit among the other guitarist present and sounded great no matter which amp I plugged into. These pickups have character, to say I am pleased with the product and the whole buying experience is an understatement. Thanks Kevin, you have my highest compliments. Jack D. -Fort Walton Beach, FL

The tone is exactly what I was looking for with my Dumble clones. I have been looking at various single coil sized humbuckers, super hot bridge single coils, etc. and have not found the tone. Now i will use the bridge for many duties and it is very splittable. I will be contacting you about how to get some of the split coil tones to work a little better but I am already pretty happy with them. Thanks for your time and great effort in making some bad ass pickups.
Brook G. -Spokane, WA

Kevin, Received my pickups today. Seriously man, how the hell do you do it. This bc 10.5 and cc 5n are hands down the greatest pickups I have ever heard, EVER! Yes I still love my cc 2n and bc 92 but this set I got today is hands down my all time favorite , hands down. This bridge pickup has just the right amount of breakup. It is not distortion, but just the right amount of breakup. Like my description of what I wanted, this pickup sounds like keith richards looks. Like the best PAF I have ever heard except it has a pretty bad hangover. This neck pickup is my all time fav too. I love my cc 2n but this one with alnico 5 has just a little more crystaline sweetness to it. Seriously thank you dude, you have no idea how happy I am. Don M. -Bailey, CO

Thanks for the excellent service and the possibility of custom design. I have looked at several pickup manufacturers websites and yours is easily the best I that I found [that includes Gibsons] .There is useful information on most of them but yours is the most customer friendly and ultimately the most helpful. Bernard S. -The Netherlands

I just got the boosted classic and classic coil pups for my 61 sg reissue and I have to tell you how happy I am with them. The low end is tight and the highs are perfect. These are absolutely incredible. Thank you so much, your pups made my guitar sound like it should. Keep up the good work. You should have another order from me in the near future Andrew M.

"Smits pickups have so much tonal character that I want to put them in every humbucker guitar I own. They are fantastic! Customer service beyond belief. Smit works with you from beginning to end" Jack W. of Smoking Slowly -Nashville, TN

Bridge pickup : Unbelievable clean sound. Compare to the TB4 that was in it before, the sound is warm, full of low mediums.....If it's so warm, maybe will it sounds like the Pearly Gates , no bite when I overdrive it ? When I apply distortion, the shock : sound is so rich !! Incredible treble, but not yelling, not to aggressive .. Just Warm and Rich ! So, Warm sound, Infinite sustain, great dynamic : perfect ! And, what is rare For a 15K pickup : it's not a mess like a dirty Fingers when I apply high gain. A great pickup from blues to Metal ! Just like the TB4 ... But in really much much better ! Neck Pickup : A Burstbucker-like, with dark sound. THE sound you want to hear from a classic PAF a little overwound. Big basses, high mediums. And the same deal when I apply distortion, so many harmonics jumping from the amp .... Perfect too !! The good thing when I use Very high gain on both pickups : no noise.
Jeremy B. -Occasion Musique France

"as most of you Paul guys know, a neck pickup in a Les Paul is just a dicey proposition, often sounding too boomy and flubby to be of much use. Even with the pickup lowered below the mounting ring I was in mud city." "knowing the above about LP neck pickups is why I also ordered his Bucker Lite, a much better choice for the Les Paul neck slot to my ears......if you think 6.7K isn't going to be enough balls to keep up with your bridge pickup think again!!!! Much better suited to the guitar at hand, this pickup offered me lots of crisp top end while keeping the richer overall tone of the neck position. Plenty of "Sweet Child O' Mine" tone here, and when combined with the bridge pickup it was a fairly convincing Strat tone I was copping. Lots of fun and usable tone for a change!!" Andy F. -Waukee, IA

"I got the pickups yesterday and have already installed them. Your description was spot-on with these, just as promised. They're perfect." "I can't get over how articulate the 54 and 65 are even with the gain cranked. Tone to the bone my friend!" "Thank you for a wonderful transaction, and I mean THANKS. You have a great product here." Dave M. -Katy, TX

"Got the model 43 and 43+ pickups installed today in my Les Paul Classic, and all I can say is WOW! These puppies simply bleed vintage tone, better than described. My Tweed Deluxe purred and squealed on command with great definition, and the clean tones were equally full. Thanks a lot!" Mike P. -Williamsburg, VA

"Those pickups finally brought the Gibson Les Paul Double Cut to life. The sustain I was looking for is there and the guitar is still plenty bright. That is exactly what that guitar needed." Mac -Lenoir, NC

"If you've ever been thinking about trying a handwound pickup for your guitar, Smit is the guy to deal with. He is a great fellow, a guitar tech and a guitar player all in one. He is truly interested in giving you a product in which you will be very happy with. At the same time, his prices are far below the going handwound rates. His guarantee to change or tweak the sound till your happy, is a unheard of in the handwound world. You cant go wrong. I am a discriminating guitar player with high expectations. Smit worked together with me on building a custom Pair of his higher out put humbuckers and I got just what i was looking for."
Gary Greer -gman productions Canada

Hi Kevin, I buy a brick a few week ago now is arrived and I put this little monster on my hot pink strat and the only i can say is thankkkkkkkkkkk youuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now my strat really scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A very very very very satisfied buyer!!! Camillo P. -Italy

Pickups sound awesome. Better than the Iommi pickups. The Gibsons sound constricted compared to yours. Also superior in tone to the Dragon II's that were in the guitar. Before I thought the 5 way switch was a bit gimicky, now I find more useable tone in there and the single coil sounds are much more authentic. I will recommend you to all my friends...... Thanks again
Tommy G. -Tatoo Amplification in Pearl, MS

I upgraded my old vantage les paul guitar with all new hardware and SMITS PICKUPS, ( a 65 bridge + a 43+ neck). I wired it jimmy page style, using 4 push pull pots. no matter which position the pots are in, the power and tone are absolutely outstanding. these pickups are amazing. When I find another vantage DL-405, it will get the same set up. I really am very happy with these pickups. Their power and smoothness has made this my best guitar. Thank you for a job well done, wade.
Wade C. -Long Branch, NJ

I just got my guitar back from my tech guy with your pickups installed and in a word they are awesome. The guitar sounds absolutely gorgeous - from the sweet clean tone to the dangerous growl when cranked. I had to almost bribe my tech guy to get my guitar back. ..........I will be having another set wound for my 335 very soon. Thanks again for the pickups and the world class service -you are simply the best. Steve C.

Kevin, received your pickups Monday and installed them in my guitar today. I couldn't be more pleased. They sound incredible! Bridge is clean, but fat with punch if you need it. The neck sounds super clean and as sweet of a humbucker neck pickup as I have ever heard. Tom Q. -Baltimore, MD

Smit, beautiful sounding pickups!! I have owned three Les Pauls and two SG's, and your pickups sound better then any I've heard. Great craftmanship, great product, great tone. Thank you!! Ben R. -Orlando, FL

Finally got the new BL (Bucker Lite) into my LP DC (Les Paul double cutaway) last night and got to play it full out today. For me it was an immediate winner. Liked it from the first note. For what I wanted I would not change a thing. I like it. A lot. Dean H.

Hey! Kevin! The pickups are fantastic!! Fat mojo creamy vibe! Thanks really for your job! Friendly, Fast, Nice products, the Pups sound AWESOME!!! Gerald P. -France

"I got my pickups today. Got them in my guitar. OH MY GOD MAN. You did it. These things are it. You have made the pickups that I have been hearing in my head for the last -- years. Thanks man. Look, in the past year I have tried anything you can think of......... None have cut the mustard and all were returned or sold on ebay. My quest for toneful pickups with personality is over, finally." "Thanks for charging a reasonable price for your products. Besides making a great product, it is another way to ensure return customers and build lasting relationships. You have made a lifelong return customer here my friend." "You have no idea how excited I am man, that i don't have to try pickups anymore only to settle for something that isn't right." Thanks again and I will spread the word. Don M. -Bailey, CO

wow. these white pickups arrived today and are amazing. i don't ever think i have played a sweeter or more toneful pickup. honestly. great work. Jason S. -Austin, TX

Kevin, Sweet, juicy, defined, vocal.....more a little later. Gotta go back & play . I thank you sir. Peter G. -Sebastian, FL

World's Best Sounding Pickups at the World's Best Price. End of Story... Jon S. -Lewisville, TX

Yours is both clear, punchy, still, got great sustain and is full of "good life"! Steen -Denmark

Hey, Kevin. I've been playing these babies in my Les Paul for a few hours now, and I feel it's time to give you a thumbs-up tone report on them! They blow away the 57's I had in there before. I've just been playing through my '65 Deluxe Reverb (the Marshall is on the workbench just this minute, so I've yet to hear them through that). The neck pup (CC-5) has a lot of the good "hollow" sound associated with the best PAFs and really cuts through just enough. I use the neck position a lot, and I think it will work out well for me. The bridge pup (BC9-2) is a nice match for the neck pup, with the alnico 2 and hotter wind. It seems a lot less brittle than the 57 (which I use to hate), with more of the girth I've been looking for. I bet it will really cut through for me. The middle position is where I was surprised, I admit. I don't know if it's due to them both being scatterwound with mismatched coils, but the richness of this middle setting opens up a whole new world of possibilities that blends the two better than any I've played in any of my guitars. I think these even beat the WCRs that are in my Standard, and for half the price! I want to thank you for offering such a superior product at such great prices.
Dave M. -Denver, CO

The pickups sound loud and vibrant, thank you!!! My Gibson sounds like I think it should. Keep up the good work!!!
Chris M. -White Bear Lake, MN

Sorry, forgot to thank for tweaking the pickup for me. Sounds awesome great dynamics can get anywhere from Steve Vai to ACDC. It gets a lot more bass response without being muddy. Leads really cut through the mix. Thanks so much.
Mike B. -Vacaville, CA

Hey Smit! The pups came today and just put them in the git. What a difference!! I've used lots of pickups over the last 30 yrs and these great sounding pickups. Thanks buddy. Brian H. -Zumbrota, MN

I bought the Boosted Classic BC-10 and the Classic Coils at the guitar show at the Factory at Franklin. You put in Alnico 4 magnets at the show while I waited. Last night, I installed them in the Epiphone SG Special I am modifying. Holy Mackerel! What a difference! The guitar sounds great like a much more expensive instrument with clarity, warmth, depth, and sustain. It was a little darker sounded than I expected, but in a good way. Thank you very much for the extra effort to change the magnets. If I need pickups again, I'll get them from you. Colin B

Kev, Got the BC-10C and threw it in my Paul... damn dood... you need a marketing team to start getting your name out there. I'm gonna try to get a really solid recording of my Paul with the DB and the BC-10C through my 73' Sunn Model T so you can hear how sinister this thing sounds. Holy crap........... Thank you so much. I have already gotten several compliments from tone geek friends of mine AND my DRUMMER!!! How insane is that?!?! It sounds so much better that even a DRUMMER noticed!!! Now that is something... Sean K. -Wayne, NJ