Review 5/10/2008 STAN HINESLEY Hand Crafted Pickups "Kasmire" and "Zen"!
http://www.stanhinesleypickups.com/humbuckers.htm
Kashmir
Classic PAF
Sweet vintage tone! When you think of truly legendary tones, what names spring to mind? Billy Gibbons? Eddie VanHalen? Jimmy Page? Eric Clapton? Each of these guys’ tones have a couple of things in common. Mega talent and the humbucker that started it all…the legendary PAF Humbucking Pickup. The Kashmir is our Alnico 2 loaded Classic PAF inspired humbucker. This pickup offers a warm, sweet, smooth vintage tone with enhanced midrange. Comes with vintage style braided shield push-back wire. 4-conductor cable available by request at no additional charge. The Kashmir also includes all necessary mounting screws, springs and wiring instructions.
*DC resistance= Neck 7.6k, Bridge 8.4k, Alnico 2.
Zen
High output creamy vintage blues tone. The Zen pickup includes a 4-conductor cable, the necessary mounting screws, springs and wiring instructions. Great for either position, best for bridge.
*DC resistance = 13.8k ohm, Alnico 2.
Review
First off I want to spell this out for everyone, HINESLEY'S ARE THE BEST. That’s the opinion of AMG, some will differ but have you tried Hinesley's?
My experience with the Kashmir as my Neck pickup and the Zen as my Bridge pickup have me basking in tonal glory. I had them professionally installed by Art Hanson, owner of Hanson Music in Billings, Montana. Art is an extremely talented musician who has played along side some of the best musicians in the industry, the LA scene and then some. His talent is unquestionable and knack for tone is second to no man. Art metered the Kashmir and the Zen and both pickups are on, Kashmir (DC resistance= Neck 7.4k, Bridge 8.4k, Alnico 2). The Zen was coming up at (DC resistance = 12.9k ohm, Alnico 2). Although on Hinesley's web site he lists it at 13.8k ohm.
Art Hanson installed the pickups into my Jackson RR guitar. I selected this guitar because it had two slots for humbuckers, (HH) like a Gibson Standard. Hinesley has many other options but for the style and sound I prefer I like this configuration the best. Art told me the guitar was not good enough for the high quality pickups I was putting into it. I agreed but for the purpose of this test I selected a guitar not much different than what most people are playing. Most people will have an $800.00 guitar like this RR model and I want the masses to be aware that a pickup swap can improve your guitars tone thus making it sound like a much more expensive guitar in many cases, not all but many. In this case the upgrade was definitely an upgrade from the standard Jackson factory pups it came with. Stan specifies on his site that his Zebra humbuckers have the black coil facing the outside in both the bridge and neck positions. Reverse zebra has the black coil to the inside. A Zebra neck pickup has the black bobbin facing the neck and a Zebra bridge pickup has the black bobbin facing the bridge. I told Art to set the pickups the way he thought best. He is the tech ala guru so I left this up to him. He actually looked at Stan’s installation guides and went with the recommendation of putting the Zen in as the bridge pickup and the Kashmir as the neck pickup with the black sides out..
I get a great responsive tone out of the guitar, how much better? The difference is not measurable really in terms of word but the way I feel when playing this guitar is dramatically different and I now count it as one of my favorite guitars in my collection and I use it more often than any of my other guitars for playing metal. My style varies but I love playing the blues, country, rock and metal sort of a Zakk Wydle kind of player. My tone is just that, my tone, but I consider the Hinesley pickups part of the completed puzzle. I like the tone I get with them and because of this I consider this guitar and pickup combination as the motor that drives what it is that I'm looking for in tone on the guitar. It makes or better facilitates what it is I want to hear. I'm different and like a tone that’s different but not so different that my originality and influences are lost, I want my sound to be entertaining and at the same time a new flavor. I use a small variety of things to accomplish my sound and most everyone does but if you are a serious tone chaser looking to separate yourself from the pack visit Stan Hinesley's web site and shoot him an email, ask him what he thinks would be best for what your trying to accomplish and he will be more than happy to help. He owns his company and handles all his customer service himself. Try to get that from Duncan or Dimarzio! P.S. I use those other pickups in my other guitars so I'm not knocking them at all, I'm just saying that I found something that works the BEST for me and the tone I'm chasing. The great customer service is the icing on the cake. Modestly priced the Kashmir and Zen pickups sell for $109.99 ea. U.S.
http://www.stanhinesleypickups.com/humbuckers.htm
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