Benson Pickups, Fender Squier upgrade

[Benson]

Great tutorial Stan , thank you for the write up and I would love to hear your thoughts on the pickups.
Let me introduce myself, my name is John Benson and I am the winder at Benson Custom Pickups.
I am a lover of great tone and enjoy helping people bring out the most from their instruments.

I wanted to chime in to answer a couple of questions that popped up.

Tonyw is correct regarding winders trying to add that mystic to their own builds. I myself really just put the bare facts out there as to my parts and process due to years of questions. I let the tone speak for itself.

We have never used any clever set names or gimmicks, my aim is just plain quality and tone

My medium scatter refers to my own winding technique.
I have had many that have asked about a heavier scatter which then a coil can get microphonic from loose wires and with a mild scatter, you can still end up with a 60 cycle hum. This is just me sharing as much as I can with everyone.

In regards to the Alnico 3 in the bridge. Through the years , everyone has always complained about the ice pick tones in the vintage bridge position, but people love the neck and middle. My set is wound to capture the classic neck and middle tones, then I over wind the bridge to balance and use alnico 3 magnets to smooth it out.
I get great reviews on how usable my bridge pickup is and still stays true to the 63 vibe.

Really the true test just boils down to how the pickups sound for you and how your guitar feels, good sound is just good sound!

Thank you for time and very thorough job building this guard. I enjoyed the read!

[stan]

Great tutorial Stan , thank you for the write up and I would love to hear your thoughts on the pickups.
Let me introduce myself, my name is John Benson and I am the winder at Benson Custom Pickups.
I am a lover of great tone and enjoy helping people bring out the most from their instruments.

I wanted to chime in to answer a couple of questions that popped up.

Tonyw is correct regarding winders trying to add that mystic to their own builds. I myself really just put the bare facts out there as to my parts and process due to years of questions. I let the tone speak for itself.

We have never used any clever set names or gimmicks, my aim is just plain quality and tone

My medium scatter refers to my own winding technique.
I have had many that have asked about a heavier scatter which then a coil can get microphonic from loose wires and with a mild scatter, you can still end up with a 60 cycle hum. This is just me sharing as much as I can with everyone.

In regards to the Alnico 3 in the bridge. Through the years , everyone has always complained about the ice pick tones in the vintage bridge position, but people love the neck and middle. My set is wound to capture the classic neck and middle tones, then I over wind the bridge to balance and use alnico 3 magnets to smooth it out.
I get great reviews on how usable my bridge pickup is and still stays true to the 63 vibe.

Really the true test just boils down to how the pickups sound for you and how your guitar feels, good sound is just good sound!

Thank you for time and very thorough job building this guard. I enjoyed the read!

Hi John, thanks so much for taking the time to read this, I appreciate your feedback.
Thanks for the extra info, it clarifies a lot.
These are a really slick and nicely made pickup, and before too long they should be in my guitar, I am very much looking forward to it.