Click on one of the basses to start with that 5-string—Dingwall Combustion NG-2, G&L MJ-5, Ibanez BTB33 Volo, MTD Kingston Saratoga Deluxe, and Spector Legend5 Neck-Thru.
In his On Bass column, touring and session low-ender Victor Brodén recently wrote about the essential instruments a working bassist should possess [“The Wrecking Crew—Basses You Need to Get the Job Done,” January 2015]. A third of this must-have list consisted of 5-string basses. It’s just one example, but there’s no doubt that extended-range instruments have found a permanent and important place in many a bassist’s arsenal.
Leo Fender planted the seed in the mid-’60s with the Bass V (though his creation added a higher 1st string with the 5th string handling low-E duties). The concept of an electric bass with a lower 5th string was popularized in the mid-’70s, exemplified by offerings from Alembic, Michael Tobias, and Carl Thompson. By continuing to develop and refine the design, such luthiers as Ken Smith have helped increase the 5-string’s popularity.
This year, the low-end community was treated to a fresh crop of 5-string machines. Keeping the price between $750 and $1,500, we picked new creations from Ibanez, Dingwall, G&L, Spector, and MTD to measure their musical mettle. Tested under the same conditions, these five instruments all displayed tones, playability, and construction that will suit a variety of players.
We checked out these basses onstage and in a home studio. In the studio we examined build quality, took notes on playability and setup, and critically auditioned each instrument through an Epifani UL 501 head and an Epifani UL3 DIST 112 cabinet. The live evaluations happened in a small club while playing in the house band during a jam night. There, all five basses ran into the UL 501 driving a Bergantino HD212 cab.
Who’s ready to rumble?
Ibanez BTB33 Volo
In 2014, Ibanez embarked on one of their most experimental projects: the Bass Workshop. Taking a “why not?” approach has breathed new life into their bass designs by transforming some of their popular models into exciting, eye-catching instruments meant to push boundaries. Ibanez introduced the most recent Bass Workshop designs at winter NAMM 2015, and that included the 5-string BTB33. Opting for finesse over burliness, this bass is equipped with a high C string to facilitate fluid solo and chordal playing. Tuned E–A–D–G–C, the 33"-scale BTB33 is nicknamed the “Volo.”Short and Sweet
The organic aesthetic of the BTB33 conveys looks rarely found at its price point. Boasting neck-through construction, the bass has mahogany body wings covered with a heavily grained ash top, a 5-piece neck/center core constructed from maple and bubinga, and a rosewood fretboard adorned with abalone inlays. Rosewood is also used for the finger ramp, which encourages consistent right-hand plucking across all strings by preventing your fingers from digging in too deeply.
jazz-guitar sound.
Ibanez combined forces with Bartolini for the BTB33’s electronics. A pair of long BH1 humbuckers sends the signal to a 3-band Ibanez preamp with switchable 250 Hz, 450 Hz, and 700 Hz midrange settings. The 5-knob arrangement uses two sizes of dials that allow easy differentiation between the preamp and volume/blend section.
Other features include a Neutrik locking jack, Mono-rail bridge, and a Graph Tech nut. Hardware of this quality speaks to the care that Ibanez puts into every detail of the BTB33.
Learning to Fly
Volo is Italian for “flight,” and the compact makeup of the BTB33 certainly invites you to soar across the fretboard. Contributing to speedy shifting is the instrument’s balance that held its position at any angle. The 17mm string spacing at the bridge provides effortless string skipping, though some traditionalists might find it a bit cramped. Creating chord shapes was a breeze, thanks to the narrow neck.
Ratings
Pros:
Slick, compact design with clean tones and cool looks.
Cons:
1st string can be a bit thin. Could be too specialized for all occasions.
Tones:
Playability:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$999
Ibanez BTB33 Volo
ibanez.com
Fans of Matt Garrison might feel compelled to copy his technique on the BTB33, and I was no different. The finger ramp was particularly helpful in keeping my right hand in check, whether I was attempting Garrison’s multi-finger strum style or plucking closed-voice chords.
The BTB33’s sounds resemble its fellow BTB models. With both pickups balanced and a flat EQ, the bass produced a voice with warm mids and a ding in the top end. Soloing the bridge pickup and boosting the mids at 450 Hz formed a barking tone that will satisfy fusion fanatics. The neck pickup on its own had a smoother timbre, but pushing the robust bass EQ helped transform the bass into a boom machine.
Onstage, the size and shape of the BTB33 made for no stress on the back and shoulder. My only real grievance is that the 1st string didn’t cut through the band as well as I had hoped. Boosting the mids helped a bit, but I still ended up spending most of the time on the bottom four strings. I experimented with chords during a jam of the jazz standard “Footprints,” which added some extra support to the guitarist playing the melody. When I played octave patterns around the upper portions of the fretboard during a bass solo, I was able to cop a nice jazz-guitar sound. The overall experience with the BTB33 was definitely rewarding, but with a 5-string bass in hand, I did find myself missing the opportunity to drop those low and deeply satisfying 5th-string bombs on the audience.
The VerdictThe BTB33 Volo is a cool take on Ibanez’s BTB formula. Bassists who are developing their solo voice or experimenting with chords will find this an ideal instrument for exploration. The build and components are impressive, and when you also consider that a Matt Garrison Fodera would set you back several thousands of dollars, the $999 price tag is pretty damn easy to swallow. So if you’re seeking a smaller instrument that’ll help you push your musical voice to the front of the stage, the Volo is worth a test flight.
Watch the Review Demo:
Dingwall Combustion NG-2
Since the 1990s Sheldon Dingwall has forged his own instrument-design path, inspired in part by the Novax fanned-fret system. Periphery bassist Adam “Nolly” Getgood considers Dingwall’s designs the ideal tool for preserving his sonic footprint within his band’s ultra-dense instrumentation, so he and Dingwall collaborated on the NG-2.
Within the Periphery
The NG-2 looks like the bass equivalent of an Italian sports car. A sleek, gloss-black finish protects our review model’s two-piece alder body. The sporty look carries over to the pickguard’s unique shape and carbon-fiber-like patterning. A rigid five-piece maple neck supports a maple fretboard. Fanning across the ’board are 24 banjo frets that deliver a fast feel. Thanks to the fanned-fret arrangement, each string has its own scale length, ranging from 34" for the 1st string to a mighty 37" for the 5th.
through the ensemble.
The NG-2’s engine combines Dingwall and Darkglass electronics. Two Dingwall FD-3N pickups are positioned close together to maximize punch and note definition. Instead of a blend control, Dingwall employs a 4-way rotary selector to engage different pickup combinations. The first setting solos the neck pickup. The second puts both pickups in series for a fat, aggressive sound. The third position configures the pickups in parallel, and the fourth solos the bridge. Despite the pickups’ proximity to each other, they reveal noticeably different character with each turn of the selector switch.
The NG-2 also houses a Darkglass preamp with 3-band EQ. The preamp’s design is the result of a three-way collaboration between Dingwall, Nolly, and Darkglass that pushes the frequencies Nolly likes for growl and girth. The bass frequency is set higher than most bass EQs (at around 70 Hz). Mids are centered at a familiar 500 Hz. There’s no treble attenuator, but a hi-mid control with a 2.8 kHz cutoff. An active/passive switch lets you bypass the preamp.
Ratings
Pros:
Great tones. Inspiring playability. Fantastic 5th string.
Cons:
Hard-to-reach notes high on the fretboard. Limited options for 37"-scale 5th strings.
Tones:
Playability:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$1,500
Dingwall Combustion NG-2
dingwallguitars.com
Canadian Power
The NG-2 feels incredibly comfortable and balanced. The neck is fast and smooth, with a radius that lets the fretting hand maintain a natural position while shifting along the fanned frets. Making the transition to fanned frets is a relatively seamless affair. My only ding (no pun intended) is the somewhat limited access to all the strings when playing at the top of the fretboard.
Tones are deep, punchy, and aggressive. While position 1 doesn’t quite transform the NG-2 into a P-style machine, it conveys similar characteristics. The second position provides a monstrous sound with loads of punch and top end that could make StingRay loyalists do a double take. The fourth setting nails the burpy bridge sound, particularly with a boost in the bass and mid controls.
The NG-2 excels onstage. Using the rotary switch’s second position, the bass’s strong voice cuts through the loudest performers while supporting the band with just the right amount of definition. The preamp is voiced perfectly, whether boosting the bottom for big, blooming lows, or turning up the mids for more assertiveness. Highs are abundant, and the hi-mid control is effective for mellowing them out or adding extra bite.
My fellow musicians lauded the NG-2’s strong voice, especially the sound of the 5th string. Its consistency and power punched through the ensemble, particularly on tunes like the Time’s “Jungle Love.” For gentler jams, cutting hi-mids and soloing the neck pickup produced a deep, articulate tone that was spot-on for songs like “Let’s Stay Together.” Be it slapping or 16th-note bass lines, the NG-2 was responsive and a joy to play overall.
The Verdict
The NG-2’s playability, tone, and 5th-string power outperform some basses that cost two or three times as much. It’s more than just a rock bass—while its timbres may not cater to all old-school preferences, it can handle almost every musical situation with authority. If you haven’t yet found your ideal 5-string, I recommend taking the NG-2 for a test drive.
Watch the Review Demo:
G&L MJ-5
After making marks with his namesake company and Music Man, Leo Fender established G&L with partner George Fullerton (G&L stands for “George and Leo.”) From 1979 till Leo’s death in 1991, G&L improved on past designs and innovated new ones. This year, the Fullerton, California, company released the new MJ-5 5-string bass, which combines G&L’s M-series designs with Jazz-style humbuckers.
Dressed for Success
The MJ-5’s body is alder, and our tester was decked out in a 3-tone sunburst finish. Six bolts support a quartersawn maple neck topped with a rosewood fretboard. The medium-jumbo frets are uniformly dressed with the aid of a Plek machine. The neck’s satin finish is nice and smooth.
The MJ-5 delivers modern yet classic tones via a pair of G&L bi-coil alnico 5 pickups. They may look like typical J-style pickups, but they’re actually split-coil hum-canceling pickups. G&L’s 18V “MJ-spec” preamp processes their sounds. Unlike the switches and knobs found on the company’s L series instruments, this system strips things down to a 3-knob, 3-band configuration. The EQ points are centered at 40 Hz for the bass, 600 Hz for the mids, and 8 kHz for the treble.
Rounding out the appointments are two company signatures: a heavy-duty Saddle Lock bridge, and the distinctive G&L headstock, here with Ultra-Lite tuners. Like a fresh engine in a Cadillac, the MJ-5 looks clean, sophisticated, and totally classic.
Ratings
Pros:
Flexible, familiar sounds. Cozy neck. Classic looks.
Cons:
Hum-canceling pickups might not please vintage connoisseurs.
Tones:
Playability:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$1,462
G&L MJ-5
glguitars.com
Traces of Familiar Faces
The MJ-5’s 12" radius and 1 3/4" nut permit hindrance-free movement. The bass maintains a comfortable playing orientation, but those who like to wear their instruments positioned at a high angle may find the MJ-5 trying to settle back to a lower one.
With the pickups blended, I dialed in a great slap sound with a bit bass and treble boost. The neck pickup alone delivers a familiar fatness that J-style aficionados will appreciate. Meanwhile, Jaco disciples should get the vibe they seek by soloing the bridge with some bass and mid boost. Most important, you can obtain clear, articulate sounds with the preamp set flat. The pickups don’t precisely replicate vintage Fender sounds, but they get very close, and any differences are a small price to pay for eliminating 60-cycle hum.
The MJ-5’s qualities projected nicely onstage, and its familiar tones fit right into the mix. The mid control is attractively voiced—not too honky or harsh—and a boost here helped the MJ-5 cut through the band.
The 5th string produces satisfying lows. Chromatic fretboard walks sound clear, with each pitch easily distinguished. Like any great J-style bass, the MJ-5 performed well in a wide range of styles, from R&B tunes like “Respect” to zydeco jams to a spontaneous rendition of Van Halen’s “Panama.”
The Verdict
G&L’s MJ-5 has the essentials most bassists desire: comfort, flexibility, and familiarity. Onstage or in the studio, the hum-cancelling electronics sound pleasing and are easy to operate. It should be mentioned that this is the only U.S.-built bass in this 5-string roundup, and the instrument has plenty to offer for a hair under $1,500. Whether you’re a 4-string player ready expand to 5-string, or simply seeking a new road-ready workhorse, the MJ-5 should definitely be on your audition list.
Watch the Review Demo:
Spector Legend5 Neck-Thru
Stuart Spector has been crafting high-end basses since the ’70s. He diversified his product line in the ’80s with an affordable Korean-made series, whose latest offering is the Legend5 Neck-Thru, a slick 5-string offering loaded with Aguilar electronics.
Ghost in the Shell
The Legend5 Neck-Thru’s boutique looks belie its $1,400 price tag. The maple body wings of our tester were topped with a bubinga veneer. Players who prefer natural looks will most likely dig the attractive figuring and satiny feel. (The Legend Neck-Thru is also offered in a faded blue-gloss finish over a figured-maple top.)
and speed in mind.
Between the wings is a 3-piece maple neck stiffened by graphite rods and topped with a rosewood fretboard. While Spector has historically relied on his own and EMG for electronics, he chose to equip the Legend5 Neck-Thru with DCB humbuckers and an OBP-2 preamp from Aguilar.
Playing the instrument immediately reveals the quality of Spector’s craftsmanship. Whether playing seated or strapped, the body balances almost perfectly. Players accustomed to a traditional 34"-scale length may find the 35"-scale odd at first, but the extra inch greatly benefits the 5th string’s response.
Ratings
Pros:
Versatility. Attractive natural looks. Solid 5th string.
Cons:
The scale length may take some getting used to.
Tones:
Playability:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$1,399
Spector Legend5 Neck-Thru
spectorbass.com
Shifting your fretting hand into higher positions, you feel the neck gradually taper to a flatter profile. Despite a slight bump in the neck around the 6th fret, the shape invites quick position shifts with minimum effort. With its 1.75" nut width and .66" string spacing at the bridge, the Legend Neck-Thru was clearly designed with hand comfort and speed in mind. I only wish the cutaways were even deeper so I could better reach the top of the fretboard.
Brutal Legend
Sonically, the Spector is a growler. The combination of Aguilar electronics and the long scale deliver quick attack with strong articulation. The lower notes of the 5th string speak with punch and definition, and the first five frets deliver impressive clarity. Engaging both pickups produces a sound that reminds me of a bass voice in an a cappella ensemble. Soloing the neck pickup and boosting the bass EQ creates a buh-like tone that bassists have come to know so well. (If you leave your trusty P at home, this configuration gets very close to replicating that sound.) Finally, the soloed bridge pickup produces a mid-heavy snarl that lent my bass lines presence and power.
The Spector works great live. I needed a little time to adjust to the long scale, but occasional glances at my left hand eventually established muscle memory. The preamp solved any sonic issues, from boosting the bass EQ for increased fundamentals, to pushing the treble to cut through the band. The switch from bridge-pickup aggression for tunes like “Uptown Funk” to neck-pickup punch for Motown-influenced jams was seamless. And after the set, I felt no fatigue due to the instrument’s long scale.
The Verdict
The latest addition to the Legend series offers neck-thru construction for the cash-conscious bassist while adding a new voice to the Spector family. I found the Legend5 Neck-Thru to be an attractive 5-string axe that’s highly adaptable to many musical situations.
Watch the Review Demo:
MTD Kingston Saratoga Deluxe
Michael Tobias’ handcrafted offerings are the instruments of choice for a number of notable players, while his overseas-built Kingston series provides bassists a taste of his innovations at a more comfortable price point. Bringing hints of MTD’s classic characteristics, the Kingston Saratoga Deluxe—the luthier’s most recent offering—spruces up the style and sound of the original Kingston Saratoga, yet still comes to the party at under a grand.
Kingly Build
The Kingston Saratoga Deluxe’s contoured J-style body is constructed of basswood and capped with a nice piece of flamed maple. The deep cherry burst finish of our test bass adds fire to the flamed top and also colors the matching headstock.
The maple neck has an asymmetrical neck profile—a hallmark of MTD design since the late ’70s—so it was no surprise to see (and feel) the comfy, fast shape on the Saratoga Deluxe. A rosewood fretboard fronted the neck of our tester, but those seeking brighter sounds can opt for a maple fretboard or fretless ebony fingerboard.
Another MTD staple is the Buzz Feiten tuning system, intended to provide better intonation and tuning stability. MTD also outfits the Saratoga Deluxe with a quick-release bridge for on-the-fly string changes and optimum transference of string vibrations.
A pair of passive J-style hum-canceling pickups feed the signal to a 3-band, 9V preamp. A switch lets you choose between active or passive modes, and also offers a way to keep playing if the battery dies unexpectedly. In passive mode, a tone knob stacked within the volume dial provides subtle shaping control.
The MTD Touch
Strapped up, the Kingston Saratoga Deluxe was easy on the shoulder and back, and it rested at a comfortable playing angle with zero neck dive. The 34" scale and asymmetrical neck make for a great combo by offering smooth transitions to all areas of the fretboard. Unplugged, the notes of the open 5th string and its first four frets had plenty of low end, but they did leave a little to be desired in terms of definition.
Ratings
Pros:
A comfortable, modern-sounding bass that’ll give players a satisfying sample of MTD’s upper-echelon offerings.
Cons:
Somewhat underwhelming 5th string. May not satisfy J-style purists.
Tones:
Playability:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$999
Company
mtdkingston.com
After a quick re-soldering of one of the mid-control wires that had a loose connection, the Kingston Saratoga Deluxe was ready to display its tones. With everything set flat, the instrument hinted at MTD timbres—lots of glass and plenty of ass. The single-coil pickups convey more of a modern vibe than a classic-J voice, and the 3-band preamp is geared for contemporary tones. This axe’s specialties are glassy highs, present mids, and deep lows. Though the Kingston Saratoga Deluxe’s electronics package could be initially perceived as a slapper’s delight, I was able to dial in barking, bridge-pickup tones and solid dub-style thump.
The characteristics displayed at home transferred to the stage, where the bass produced excellent scooped, supportive sounds that were well suited to funk and R&B. The bass delivered punchy, zing-infused thumping and popping on “Never Too Much” by Luther Vandross and Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again).”
The Saratoga Deluxe’s bridge-pickup tones fit best within an ensemble that consisted of a keyboardist, guitarist, and drummer. The sound from blending both pickups equally with the EQ flat tended to get a little lost in the mix, but a simple boost in the mids and lows with this configuration maintained the Kingston Saratoga Deluxe’s presence in the band. And while I would have liked a bit more clarity from the 5th string’s lower notes, it did provide a big low-end that filled the room nicely.
The Verdict
The Kingston Saratoga Deluxe takes samples from MTD’s handcrafted instruments and works them into a budget-friendly package. Its playability is pleasing, and its sounds cover a variety of styles from modern gospel to metal. If you’re seeking a taste of Michael Tobias’s designs, yet want to save a whole lot of coin while doing so, this bass is worth a good look.
Watch the Review Demo:
A mix of futuristic concepts and DeArmond single-coil pickups, the Musicraft Messenger’s neck was tuned to resonate at 440 Hz.
Until its untimely end, Musicraft made roughly 250 Messengers in various configurations: the mono-output Messenger and the flagship Messenger Stereophonic, both of which could come with the “Tone Messer” upgrade, a built-in distortion/fuzz circuit. The company’s first catalog also featured a Messenger Bass, a wireless transmitter/receiver, and various models of its Messenger Envoy amplifier, very few of which have survived, if many were ever made at all.
“To this day, even fans will sometimes call the decision to use DeArmonds the Messenger’s ‘Achilles’ heel.’”
Upon its release, the Messenger was a mix of futuristic concepts and DeArmond single-coil pickups that were more likely to be found on budget instruments than pricier guitars such as these. The Messengers often featured soapbar-style DeArmonds, though some sported a diamond grille. (To this day, even fans will sometimes call the decision to use DeArmonds the Messenger’s “Achilles’ heel.”) The Stereophonic model, like the one featured in this edition of Vintage Vault, could be plugged into a single amplifier as normal, or you could split the bridge and neck pickup outputs to two separate amps.
One of the beloved hallmarks of the guitars are their magnesium-aluminum alloy necks, which continue as a center block straight through the tailpiece, making the guitars relatively lightweight and virtually immune to neck warping, while enhancing their playability. Thanks to the strength of that metal-neck design, there’s no need for a thick heel where it meets the body, granting unprecedented access to the higher end of the fretboard.
This Stereophonic model could be plugged into a single amplifier as normal, or you could split the bridge and neck pickup outputs to two separate amps.
The neck was apparently also tuned to have a resonant frequency of 440 Hz, which, in all honesty, may be some of that 1967 “whoa, man” marketing continuing on through our modern-day guitar discourse, where this fact is still widely repeated on forums and in YouTube videos. (As one guitar aficionado to the next, what does this even mean in practice? Would an inaudible vibration at that frequency have any effect at all on the tone of the guitar?)
In any event, the combination of that metal center block—resonant frequency or not—the apple-shaped hollow wooden body of the guitar, and the cat’s-eye-style “f-holes” did make it prone to gnarly fits of feedback, especially if you engaged the Tone Messer fuzz and blasted it all through the high-gain amp stacks favored by the era’s hard rockers.
The most famous devotee of the Messenger was Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner, who used the guitar—and its Tone Messer circuitry—extensively on the group’s string of best-selling records and in their defining live shows, like the Atlanta Pop Festival 1970 and their sold-out run at New York’s Shea Stadium in 1971. But even Farner had some misgivings.
The Messengers often featured soapbar-style DeArmonds, though some sported a diamond grille.
In a 2009 interview, he talked about his first test-run of the guitar: “After I stuffed it full of foam and put masking tape over the f-holes to stop that squeal, I said, ‘I like it.’” He bought it for $200, on a $25-per-pop installment plan, a steal even at the time. (He also made it over with a psychedelic paint job, befitting the era, and experimented with different pickups over the years.)
When these guitars were new in 1967, the Messenger Stereophonic in morning sunburst, midnight sunburst, or mojo red would have run you $340. By 1968, new stereo models started at $469.50. Recent years have seen prices for vintage models steadily increase, as the joy of this rarity continues to thrill players and collectors. Ten years ago, you could still get them for about $1,500, but now prices range from $3,000 to $6,000, depending on condition.
Our Vintage Vault pick today is listed on Reverb by Chicago’s own SS Vintage. Given that it’s the stereo model, in very good condition, and includes the Tone Messer upgrade, its asking price of $5,495 is near the top-end for these guitars today, but within the usual range. To those readers who appreciate the vintage vibe but don’t want the vintage price tag, Eastwood Guitars offers modern reissues, and eagle-eyed buyers can also find some very rare but less expensive vintage MIJ clones made in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Sources: Reverb listing from SS Vintage, Reverb Price Guide sales data, Musicraft July 1, 1967 Price Schedule, 1968 Musicraft Catalog, Chicago Music Exchange’s “Uncovering The Secret Sounds of the 1967 Musicraft Messenger Guitar,” MusicPickups.com article on the Messenger.Submarine Pickups boss Pete Roe at his workstation.
Still, we think we know what pickups should sound and look like. Lucky for us, there have always been plenty of pickup builders who aren’t so convinced. These are the makers who devised the ceramic-magnet pickup, gold-foils, and active, high-gain pickups. In 2025, nearly 100 years after the first pickup bestowed upon a humble lap-steel guitar the power to blast our ears with soundwaves, there’s no shortage of free-thinking, independent wire-winders coming up with new ways to translate vibrating steel strings into thrilling music.
Joe Naylor, Chris Mills, and Pete Roe are three of them. As the creative mind behind Reverend Guitars, Naylor developed the Railhammer pickup, which combines both rail and pole-piece design. Mills, in Pennsylvania, builds his own ZUZU guitars with wildly shaped, custom-designed pickups. And in the U.K., Roe developed his own line of hexaphonic pickups to achieve the ultimate in string separation and note definition. All three of them told us how they created their novel noisemakers.
Joe Naylor - Railhammer Pickups
Joe Naylor, pictured here, started designing Railhammers out of personal necessity: He needed a pickup that could handle both pristine cleans and crushing distortion back to back.
Like virtually all guitar players, Joe Naylor was on a personal tone quest. Based in Troy, Michigan, Naylor helped launch Reverend Guitars in 1996, and in the late ’90s, he was writing and playing music that involved both clean and distorted movements in one song. He liked his neck pickup for the clean parts, but it was too muddy for high-gain playing. He didn’t want to switch pickups, which would change the sound altogether.
He set out to design a neck pickup that could represent both ends of the spectrum with even fidelity. That led him to a unique design concept: a thin, steel rail under the three thicker, low-end strings, and three traditional pole pieces for the higher strings, both working with a bar magnet underneath. At just about a millimeter thick, rails, Naylor explains, only interact with a narrow section of the thicker strings, eliminating excess low-end information. Pole pieces, at about six millimeters in diameter, pick up a much wider and less focused window of the higher strings, which works to keep them fat and full. “If you go back and look at some of the early rail pickups—Bill Lawrence’s and things like that—the low end is very tight,” says Naylor. “It’s almost like your tone is being EQ’d perfectly, but it’s being done by the pickup itself.”
That idea formed the basis for Railhammer Pickups, which began official operations in 2012. Naylor built the first prototype in his basement, and it sounded great from the start, so he expanded the format to a bridge pickup. That worked out, too. “I decided, ‘Maybe I’m onto something here,’” says Naylor. Despite the additional engineering, Railhammers have remained passive pickups, with fairly conventional magnets—including alnico 5s and ceramics—wires, and structures. Naylor says this combines the clarity of active pickups with the “thick, organic tone” of passive pickups.
“It’s almost like your tone is being EQ’d perfectly, but it’s being done by the pickup itself.” —Joe Naylor
The biggest difficulty Naylor faced was in the physical construction of the pickups. He designed and ordered custom molds for the pickup’s bobbins, which cost a good chunk of money. But once those were in hand, the Railhammers didn’t need much fiddling. Despite their size differences, the rail and pole pieces produce level volume outputs for balanced response across all six strings.
Naylor’s formula has built a significant following among heavy-music players. Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan is a Railhammer player with several signature models; ditto Reeves Gabrels, the Cure guitarist and David Bowie collaborator. Bob Balch from Fu Manchu and Kyle Shutt from the Sword have signatures, too, and other players include Code Orange’s Reba Meyers, Gogol Bordello’s Boris Pelekh, and Voivod’s Dan “Chewy” Mongrain.
Chris Mills - ZUZU Pickups
When Chris Mills started building his own electric guitars, he decided to build his own components for them, too. He suspected that in the course of the market’s natural thinning of the product herd, plenty of exciting options had been left unrealized. He started working with non-traditional components and winding in non-traditional ways, which turned him on to the idea that things could be done differently. “I learned early on that there are all kinds of sonic worlds out there to be discovered,” says Mills.
Eventually, he zeroed in on the particular sound of a 5-way-switch Stratocaster in positions two and four: Something glassy and clear, but fatter and more dimensional. In Mills’ practice, “dimensional” refers to the varying and sometimes simultaneous sound qualities attained from, say, a finger pad versus a fingernail. “I didn’t want just one thing,” says Mills. “I wanted multiple things happening at once.”
Mills wanted something that split the difference between a humbucker’s fullness and the Strat’s plucky verve, all in clean contexts. But he didn’t want an active pickup; he wanted a passive, drop-in solution to maximize appeal. To achieve the end tone, Mills wired his bobbins in parallel to create “interposed signal processing,” a key piece of his patented design. “I found that when I [signal processed] both of them, I got too much of one particular quality, and I wanted that dimensionality that comes with two qualities simultaneously, so that was essential,” explains Mills.
Mills loved the sound of alnico 5 blade magnets, so he worked with a 3D modeling engineer to design plastic bobbins that could accommodate both the blades and the number of turns of wire he desired. This got granular—a millimeter taller, a millimeter wider—until they came out exactly right. Then came the struggle of fitting them into a humbucker cover. Some key advice from experts helped Mills save on space to make the squeeze happen.
Mills’ ZUZUbuckers don’t have the traditional pole pieces and screws of most humbuckers, so he uses the screw holes on the cover as “portholes” looking in on a luxe abalone design. And his patented “curved-coil” pickups feature a unique winding method to mix up the tonal profile while maintaining presence across all frequencies.
“I learned early on that there are all kinds of sonic worlds out there to be discovered.” —Chris Mills
Mills has also patented a single-coil pickup with a curved coil, which he developed to get a different tonal quality by changing the relative location of the poles to one another and to the bridge. Within that design is another patented design feature: reducing the number of turns at the bass end of the coil. “Pretty much every pickup maker suggests that you lower the bass end [of the pickup] to compensate for the fact that it's louder than the treble end,” says Mills. “That'll work, but doing so alters the quality and clarity of the bass end. My innovation enables you to keep the bass end up high toward the strings.”
Even Mills’ drop-in pickups tend to look fairly distinct, but his more custom designs, like his curved-coil pickup, are downright baroque. Because his designs don’t rely on typical pickup construction, there aren’t the usual visual cues, like screws popping out of a humbucker cover, or pole pieces on a single-coil pickup. (Mills does preserve a whiff of these ideals with “portholes” on his pickup covers that reveal that pickup below.) Currently, he’s excited by the abalone-shell finish inserts he’s loading on top of his ZUZUbuckers, which peek through the aforementioned portholes.
“It all comes down to the challenge that we face in this industry of having something that’s original and distinctive, and also knowing that with every choice you make, you risk alienating those who prefer a more traditional and familiar look,” says Mills.
Pete Roe - Submarine Pickups
Roe’s stick-on Submarine pickups give individual strings their own miniature pickup, each with discrete, siloed signals that can be manipulated on their own. Ever wanted to have a fuzz only on the treble strings, or an echo applied just to the low-register strings? Submarine can achieve that.
Pete Roe says that at the start, his limited amount of knowledge about guitar pickups was a kind of superpower. If he had known how hard it would be to get to where he is now, he likely wouldn’t have started. He also would’ve worked in a totally different way. But hindsight is 20/20.
Roe was working in singer-songwriter territory and looking to add some bass to his sound. He didn’t want to go down the looping path, so he stuck with octave pedals, but even these weren’t satisfactory for him. He started winding his own basic pickups, using drills, spools of wire, and magnets he’d bought off the internet. Like most other builders, he wanted to make passive pickups—he played lots of acoustic guitar, and his experiences trying to find last-minute replacement batteries for most acoustic pickups left him scarred.
Roe started building a multiphonic pickup: a unit with multiple discrete “pickups” within one housing. In traditional pickups, the vibration from the strings is converted into a voltage in the 6-string-wide coils of wire within the pickup. In multiphonic pickups, there are individual coils beneath each string. That means they’re quite tiny—Roe likens each coil to the size of a Tylenol pill. “Because you’re making stuff small, it actually works better because it’s not picking up signals from adjacent strings,” says Roe. “If you’ve got it set up correctly, there’s very, very little crosstalk.”
With his Submarine Pickups, Roe began by creating the flagship Submarine: a quick-stick pickup designed to isolate and enhance the signals of two strings. The SubPro and SubSix expanded the concept to true hexaphonic capability. Each string has a designated coil, which on the SubPro combine into four separate switchable outputs; the SubSix counts six outputs. The pickups use two mini output jacks, with triple-band male connectors to carry three signals each. Explains Roe: “If you had a two-channel output setup, you could have E, A, and D strings going to one side, and G, B, and E to the other. Or you could have E and A going to one, the middle two strings muted, and the B and E going to a different channel.” Each output has a 3-position switch, which toggles between one of two channels, or mute.
“I’m just saying there’s some unexplored territory at the beginning of the signal chain. If you start looking inside your guitar, then it opens up a world of opportunities.” —Pete Roe
This all might seem a little overly complicated, but Roe sees it as a simplification. He says when most people think about their sound, they see its origin in the guitar as fixed, only manipulatable later in the chain via pedals, amp settings, or speaker decisions. “I’m not saying that’s wrong,” says Roe. “I’m just saying there’s some unexplored territory at the beginning of the signal chain. If you start looking inside your guitar, then it opens up a world of opportunities which may or may not be useful to you. Our customers tend to be the ones who are curious and looking for something new that they can’t achieve in a different way.
“If each string has its own channel, you can start to get some really surprising effects by using those six channels as a group,” continues Roe. “You could pan the strings across the stereo field, which as an effect is really powerful. You suddenly have this really wide, panoramic guitar sound. But then when you start applying familiar effects to the strings in isolation, you can end up with some really surprising textural sounds that you just can’t achieve in any other way. You can get some very different sounds if you’re applying these distortions to strings in isolation. You can get that kind of lead guitar sound that sort of cuts through everything, this really pure, monophonic sound. That sounds very different because what you don’t get is this thing called intermodulation distortion, which is the muddiness, essentially, that you get from playing chords that are more complex than roots and fifths with a load of distortion.” And despite the powerful hardware, the pickups don’t require any soldering or labor. Using a “nanosuction” technology similar to what geckos possess, the pickups simply adhere to the guitar’s body. Submarine’s manuals provide clear instruction on how to rig up the pickups.
“An analogy I like to use is: Say you’re remixing a track,” explains Roe. “If you get the stems, you can actually do a much better job, because you can dig inside and see how the thing is put together. Essentially, Submarine is doing that to guitars. It’s allowing guitarists and producers to look inside the instrument and rebuild it from its constituent parts in new and exciting ways.”
In continued support of their 3x GRAMMY-nominated album Dark Matter, Pearl Jam will be touring select U.S. cities in April and May 2025.
Pearl Jam’s live dates will start in Hollywood, FL on April 24 and 26 and wrap with performances in Pittsburgh, PA on May 16 and 18. Full tour dates are listed below.
Support acts for these dates will be announced in the coming weeks.
Tickets for these concerts will be available two ways:
- A Ten Club members-only presale for all dates begins today. Only paid Ten Club members active as of 11:59 PM PT on December 4, 2024 are eligible to participate in this presale. More info at pearljam.com.
- Public tickets will be available through an Artist Presale hosted by Ticketmaster. Fans can sign up for presale access for up to five concert dates now through Tuesday, December 10 at 10 AM PT. The presale starts Friday, December 13 at 10 AM local time.
earl Jam strives to protect access to fairly priced tickets by providing the majority of tickets to Ten Club members, making tickets non-transferable as permitted, and selling approximately 10% of tickets through PJ Premium to offset increased costs. Pearl Jam continues to use all-in pricing and the ticket price shown includes service fees. Any applicable taxes will be added at checkout.
For fans unable to use their purchased tickets, Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster will offer a Fan-to-Fan Face Value Ticket Exchange for every city, starting at a later date. To sell tickets through this exchange, you must have a valid bank account or debit card in the United States. Tickets listed above face value on secondary marketplaces will be canceled. To help protect the Exchange, Pearl Jam has also chosen to make tickets for this tour mobile only and restricted from transfer. For more information about the policy issues in ticketing, visit fairticketing.com.
For more information, please visit pearljam.com.