Installed custom 7 way in what was already a fantastic guitar, set the switch to clean and the sound is superb. Very, very happy.
Excellent product and reasonable pricing. Installed new pickups on a Player II HSS Strat and this kept everything neat and organized. Biggest problems were finding larger spacers for SD single coils and the Shawbucker II wire colors were questionable because of conflicting online contradictions. OW was indeed correct. Blender really brought out the best of the pups and they complement each other well, especially with the blend capabilities.
Amazed how great this looks; it works so well, it’s easy to install, sounds great. I’m more than satisfied. Great customer service too.
Hey there folks.
I wanted to give a quick review on this pickup based on my last 30 days of usage. I put these in my 1996 Les Paul Studio.
The original pickups were 490R and a 498T. Don't get me wrong, the stock pickups are good but I always found them to be too dark for my liking.
I put these in along with the JP pots found on this website and to my ears they are amazing.
These pickups are clear but have a warmth to them. They are not dark and dank, but they don't have a super bright chime. I think these are really a great middle ground for magnets and tone.
I have always found many Les Paul pickups to be too muddy for my liking. Not all, but many seem to be.
I tend to gravitate towards a brighter sound (not necessarily a lot of treble, but rather clarity) so I can shape the tone with different effects and pedals. I am not a pedal junkie by any means, but I know the tones and sounds I like.
I really like the dynamics of these pickups at differing volume levels rolled back from the guitar and they take OD and dirt pedals really well.
These pickups seem to have a more even frequency curve and cut the lows and highs. At least to my ears anyway. There is still plenty of sustain to be had here, and it didn't take away from the characteristics from my guitar. The pickups seemed to balance the tone a bit.
So far, I really like them and they have helped keep me coming back to this guitar to play. I have enjoyed getting to learn the dynamics and controls.
I hope this helps in some way. The cool thing about playing the guitar is that it's a life long pursuit. So it's cool to experiment a bit.
Custom Nashville '7-Way' for Tele®
Kit arrived quickly and easily installed, tone is fantastic, my 4th solderless harness!
Very good product.
Product arrived on time and it was exactly as advertised. Neatly packaged and lovely presentation, to boot. Couldn't be happier! Would not only recommend but also planning more purchases soon.
Highly recommend, took my tele to a whole new level. Very happy customer.
I like the no solder aspect and easy pickup switching. It didn't take long to assemble. I'd like to see the ground block in another location or a terminal block instead, that took the longest, trying to get 3 wires in that block.
Solderless is the way to go! Wire retaining system is rock, or blues, (insert your genre or style of play), solid. Tinned wires are beneficial ‘though not essential.
Discerning the tone controls in the second position, all three pickups, takes a bit of playing around with to understand.
Primary reason for my interest in getting this switch was for the Telecaster sound of bridge and neck pickups. Push/pull pot is extremely smooth and takes minimal effort to lift. I use the pick to quickly lift it.
Shipping was fast, install was easy, if you’re willing to take your time anyone can perform this mod.
I put them in a Jet JS300 import guitar and they sound terrific.
I had the 50s coil split previous version, this is better. Specially the pots feel much smoother, and it turns out I prefer the 60s wiring better too.
Super easy to install with vast array of tonal options .
glad I did not pay much for this guard. I have a bullet Strat and took the chance that it would fit since it is an eleven hole guard.the furthest bottom rear screw hole was off by a whole diameter. probably fender doing. so just because you have an 11 hole guard does not mean it will fit on anything but a real Strat !
This upgrade was so easy and has made a tremendous improvement to my tele. Top notch quality components. I will definitely be using Obsidian Wire for any future upgrades I do on any of my guitars.
Loaded a new pickguard with Seymour Duncan, Classic Stack noiseless singles in the neck and middle and a 59/Custom Hybrid humbucker in the bridge.
I normally wire and solder up my own selection of pots and switches but decided to give the Custom HSS Gen 2 ObsidianWire a try in this build. I'm glad I did as its an all quality unit and the push in wire termination works a treat.
Still run a tiny bit of solder on the pick up wire ends so they would not fray when inserting into the terminal block.
If your thinking about trying this Custom HSS Gen 2 unit you will certainly be impressed by its quality build. I wondered how good the spring tension termination would be to use and it was easy with tight good connections.
It took longer to mount the pickups than to connect them. All up probably took me 1 hour to do a thorough install.
Super easy to hook up. A little tricksy with the push-button thing and getting the wire in there correctly but it works out. Biggest problem with it being "difficult" is wires that are perhaps a tad too short. But overall - not very difficult. I took it super slow and got everything right the first time. I'm psyched now because I can swap in different pickups pretty easily. I got the Universal because I initially had a humbucker on it, but ended up going back to a normal SS config. Super flexible. Love it.
Only weird thing with Youtube videos is that I only found examples from Landon Bailey (which ARE great) but he always uses the Vintage 3-Way and I had the Custom. Just a bit different but nothing to worry about.
quick, easy replacement of stock equipment; really appreciate the solderless harness setup. Solid swiching and tone control.
What a well-designed piece of kit! Gives you a lot of versatility for experimenting with different pickup combinations.
I wanted to try assembling some parts I had into an offset tele-style guitar with neck humbucker, but I didn't know anything about electronics or have soldering equipment. The Obsidian was the cleanest no-solder solution I found. I bought one with the push-pull tone pot for coil splitting a humbucker pickup and found it very easy to install. The Wago push-button terminal block on the board is perfect for guitar wiring, and less fussy than screw terminals.
If you've got a Lawing Zexcoil pickup with six individual coils, the push-pull switch as configured won't enable their "silent split". With a normal coil split, one of the coils is just sent to ground when splitting. The Zexcoil needs to be switched from series to parallel instead, which requires different wiring. If you split the Zexcoil with this configuration, you only get sound from three strings, but it works fine in non-split mode.
I emailed Obsidian with questions about the configuration and got a reply directly from the founder!
Took a minute to figure out the correct wiring.
Customer service was great.
Fast response to my questions.
I could install another 1 in no time.
So far I like it. Seems to be high quality.
I usually solder.
I see the benefits of a quick pup swap.
Awesome product! Super easy install. Works flawlessly. No dead spots, scratching, hissing, or any other anomalies. Couldn't be happier. Fretless Jazz Bass with passive Bartolini's.
Vintage '3-Way' for Tele®