Lollar El Rayo Humbuckers

Yes, it's a humbucker, but probably not what you'd expect. "El Rayo" (The Thunderbolt) is tight and punchy, with a high end that opens up when pushed, and lows that stay defined and fat. Very clear and articulate, they are extremely responsive to your volume control and picking dynamics. Wanna mix the "Rayo" with single coils? We would. Also, don't be fooled by the DC numbers...El Rayo has a strong output without the heavy midrange bump, while still retaining the Lollar "3D" quality. Don't like humbuckers? Think again. A5 in the neck, A8 in the bridge, singles or sets.
 
Elias Graves said:
Nor have I. Would love to, but at $165 apiece, ouch.
I am seriously thinking about a set of Lollars for a guitar, though.
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Thats the thing...I'm pretty happy with the stuff I've got so experimenting with much more expensive options seems silly. Event the Suhr pickups ar $50-$60 cheaper IIRC.
 
FWIW, I've never tried Lollar's in a guitar, but one of my former bass students had a '67 Jazz Bass partscaster with Lollar's and they sounded great. :shrug:
 
OMG. I want a set of these sooooooo bad. I am jealous. Have you used the Lollar Imperials? I have a set and would love to compare. If they never used "woody" to describe them I would probably be good. I want woody pickups.:ack:
 
Bob411 said:
Congrats EG.
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:cool:

ugameus said:
OMG. I want a set of these sooooooo bad. I am jealous. Have you used the Lollar Imperials? I have a set and would love to compare. If they never used "woody" to describe them I would probably be good. I want woody pickups.:ack:
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No, never owned anything Lollar before.
This dude makes em sound like a tele, among other things.
The bridge pickup begins about 2 minutes in. That's the one I have coming.

[video=youtube_share;lDP_Tsc4ygs]http://youtu.be/lDP_Tsc4ygs[/video]
 
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The pickup arrived and I did a makeshift mount for the walnut guitar.
These are my impressions after half an hour screwing with it.

First, Lollar has insanely sweet quality control. There's not a dimple or curve or warp anywhere on the case and it fits tight around the base with zero gaps. The pole screws are some heavy duty mothers made from very hard steel. It's obvious they don't just slap these together.
Second, wow, what a sound. The quality of the tones generated is complex, open and in no way muffled in the way so many humbuckers are. Jason Lollar knows how to make a pickup.
Now, to describe what these sound like: Take 40% humbucker and add equal parts strat, tele and dynasonic is maybe the easiest way to put it. The thing still has the fatness of a humbucker and the overdrive still generates that wall of sound thing that humbuckers do so well but it's different. That midrange hump you hear in humbuckers is still there but it's shifter to a higher frequency and the high end detail of a strat or other single coil is there, too.
Despite the low dc resistance number (4.1 on this one) it has a lot of output. Easily drives an amp as hard as, say, a Gibson 498 or other moderate output humbucker.
Overall it's a killer sounding pickup and it is exactly what I don't need in the walnut guitar. It's insanely bright in this guitar. Way too bright. I was kinda aiming for a tele/gretsch/strat kinda tone but what I got was out of control. I had 300k pots and a .033 capacitor on it and had to run tone on like 2 to get good sounds. Some 250ks might work better but I see this pickup at home on a dark sounding guitar you're trying to liven up.
The biggest problem that I had was that it did not mix well with the firebird pickup at the neck. They seem to share some kind of overlapping frequency and they were trying to walk over each other but the mini couldn't keep up. It wasn't a good sound.
 
Mark Wein said:
bummer that it didn't work out. :(
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We live and learn. I got a decent enough deal on this one I can resell it if I decide to but I may keep it for something else.
I think I'm gonna put my Seth Lover in the walnut guitar. It needs something warmer.

This would make a perfect neck pickup for a Les Paul that suffers from muddy neck pickup syndrome.
 
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