Whether you’re looking to increase the heat on a lower-output instrument or just searching for a new flavor, this list has you covered.
HABANERO PICKUPS BY GROVER JACKSON
Bonney Bridge
Handmade in California, this overwound bridge pickup has a 16.7k resistance, and comes in nickel, black, or zebra.
$110 street
FISHMAN
Fluence Richard Z Kruspe Signature
Each pickup in the Rammstein guitarist’s signature set features three selectable voices. This active set is rechargeable—a battery pack is optional. Red finish is encouraged, though stainless is also available.
$309 street (set)
GFS Pickups
SBS Arena Power PLUS
The most affordable alnico ’bucker on this list has a 14.5k resistance and features the company’s Kwikplug system for fast swapping.
$39 street
SEYMOUR DUNCAN
Invader
Featuring overwound coils, a trio of ceramic magnets, and oversized metal-oxide pole pieces, these humbuckers promise heavy bass response and are available in 6-, 7-, and 8-string sizes.
$109 street
DIMARZIO
Super Distortion
A classic since 1972! This ’bucker, with its 13.68k ohms of resistance, is intended primarily for bridge-position installation and comes in a wide range of colors.
$89 street
GIBSON
498T Hot Alnico
A hotter spin on the 490 series humbucker, this boasts a resistance of 14.2k and is spaced for bridge position.
$119 street
PRS
m Bridge Humbucker
The company’s house high-output humbucker comes in gloss nickel and measures 15.7 k resistance.
$200 street
LOLLAR
dB Humbucker
While these boast the lowest resistance on this list (12.7k in bridge position), they’re the pickup maker’s hottest offering. Plus, they look hip!
$200 street
EMG
81
The classic active pickup boasts 3,000 hours of battery life and features the company’s Quick-Connect cable for easy installation.
$99 street
LINDY FRALIN
High Output Humbucker
The pickup maker’s highest output offering is a hot take on a PAF and comes in a variety of color and cover options.
$160 street
![Rig Rundown: Umphrey’s McGee [2025]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/youtube.jpg?id=60219771&width=600&height=600&quality=85&coordinates=280%2C0%2C280%2C0)
Tom Bedell in the Relic Music acoustic room, holding a custom Seed to Song Parlor with a stunning ocean sinker redwood top and milagro Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
A born storyteller, Bedell doesn’t keep his passion to himself. On Friday, May 12, at New Jersey boutique guitar outpost Relic Music, Bedell shared some of the stories he’s collected during his life and travels as part of a three-city clinic trip. At Relic—and stops at Crossroads Guitar and Art in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, and Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center in Wheaton, Maryland—he discussed his guitars and what makes them so special, why sustainability is such an important cause, and how he’s putting it into practice.
Before his talk, we sat in Relic’s cozy, plush acoustic room, surrounded by a host of high-end instruments. We took a look at a few of the store’s house-spec’d Bedell parlors while we chatted.
“The story of this guitar is the story of the world,” Bedell explained to me, holding a Seed to Song Parlor. He painted a picture of a milagro tree growing on a hillside in northeastern Brazil some 500 years ago, deprived of water and growing in stressful conditions during its early life. That tree was eventually harvested, and in the 1950s, it was shipped to Spain by a company that specialized in church ornaments. They recognized this unique specimen and set it aside until it was imported to the U.S. and reached Oregon. Now, it makes the back and sides of this unique guitar.
A Bedell Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides.
As for the ocean sinker redwood top, “I’m gonna make up the story,” Bedell said, as he approximated the life cycle of the tree, which floated in the ocean, soaking up minerals for years and years, and washed ashore on northern Oregon’s Manzanita Beach. The two woods were paired and built into a small run of exquisitely outfitted guitars using the Bedell/Breedlove Sound Optimization process—in which the building team fine-tunes each instrument’s voice by hand-shaping individual braces to target resonant frequencies using acoustic analysis—and Bedell and his team fell in love.
Playing it while we spoke, I was smitten by this guitar’s warm, responsive tone and even articulation and attack across the fretboard; it strikes a perfect tonal balance between a tight low-end and bright top, with a wide dynamic range that made it sympathetic to anything I offered. And as I swapped guitars, whether picking up a Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides or one with an Adirondack spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, the character and the elements of each instrument changed, but that perfect balance remained. Each of these acoustics—and of any Bedell I’ve had the pleasure to play—delivers their own experiential thumbprint.
Rosette and inlay detail on an Adirondack spruce top.
Ultimately, that’s what brought Bedell out to the East Coast on this short tour. “We have a totally different philosophy about how we approach guitar-building,” Bedell effused. “There are a lot of individuals who build maybe 12 guitars a year, who do some of the things that we do, but there’s nobody on a production level.” And he wants to spread that gospel.
“We want to reach people who really want something special,” he continued, pointing out that for the Bedell line, the company specifically wants to work with shops like Relic and the other stores he’s visited, “who have a clientele that says I want the best guitar I can possibly have, and they carry enough variety that we can give them that.”
A Fireside Parlor with a Western red cedar top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
