Strange looking pickups are sometimes as interesting to me as strangely shaped guitars. Come to think of it, I could probably write several hundred words on interesting guitar pickups alone. Heck, I even like weird cases, but for now, let’s stay on topic.
In the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, there were all sorts of original pickups that came and went without having much impact on the guitar-playing world. Some have made comebacks of sorts, like Teisco gold-foils or Valco single-coils, but these represent just a fraction of the interesting stuff that was produced during the golden era of strange.
One such interesting example is the staggered pickup outfitting the guitar from Sekova in Photo 1. These Sekova-branded instruments were manufactured in the FujiGen factory in Matsumoto, Japan, and imported and sold through U.S. Musical Merchandise in New York, New York. First released around 1968, these guitars typically came in two colors (gold and redburst) and carried the model name “Grecian,” which was stenciled on the pickguard of the gold models.
This Grecian was typical of late-’60s FujiGen hollowbody construction. The same body shape and laminate bodies and necks could be found on a couple of different brands, such as the Heit Deluxe HBD and the Merlin Arthur Smith Country Squire. But on the Sekova Grecian we see things got a bit more, well, extreme. Take, for instance, the sharply cut headstock with the exaggerated lines. And how about the funky pickup (Photo 2) that you simply can’t miss?
I always refer to these as “stairstep” pickups, and in my crazier days of guitar hunting, this Sekova was high on my list. In fact, this exact guitar has the honor of being part of an eight-hour trek on the heels of Hurricane Sandy. Yes, I drove from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to buy this guitar as huge Army transports were rushing past me on the highway to assist with that massive storm. As I recall, I was off from work for a week after that storm hit, but that gave me a lot of time to try to figure out how this darn guitar worked.
Under the hood, the pickup reminded me of a single-coil that had been split into two separate sets of three pole pieces, which essentially meant a three-coil for the lower strings, and a three-coil for the higher strings. The switches on the upper bout turned them on or off, which was really sort of puzzling.
There is also another switch by the jack that apparently served as some sort of pseudo-stereo effect or a preset tone switch, but it had been disconnected and I never could figure it out completely. Either way, the guitar didn’t really sound that great thanks to the typically bad neck angle and the pickup(s) sitting quite far away from the strings.
After a few hours on the bench, I did eventually get the guitar to sound reasonably decent. Still, it was all about the pickup design for me, and I kept thinking about how novel and interesting it was. Since I am always interested in and searching for all things guitar, you can imagine my surprise when I later came across an early Gibson ES-300 with a similar pickup design! It appears that Gibson toyed with a slanted design using a blade-style pickup in the early 1940s, which then evolved into what looked like individual pole pieces under each string. What’s really interesting is that it seems like two smaller pickups mated together—sort of like two small P-90s—just like the FujiGen version.
I suppose this angled design might have its place somewhere in the vast musical kingdom, but like the passenger pigeon … well, you get it.
See this 1968 Sekova Grecian with its wild “stairstep” pickups demoed by Mike Dugan.
EBS BassIQ Blue Label Triple Envelope Filter Pedal
The EBS BassIQ produces sounds ranging from classic auto-wah effects to spaced-out "Funkadelic" and synth-bass sounds. It is for everyone looking for a fun, fat-sounding, and responsive envelope filter that reacts to how you play in a musical way.
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
