Something About Harry Harry Häussel is a jovial middle aged man, who is a precision mechanic by trade and vocation. He has been involved in repairing / rewinding pickups since 1985 and is currently supplying top caliber guitar builders such as Nik Huber, Claudio Pagelli, Teuffel, Ruokangas with exceptional quality transducers. Undersanding the success of the tone of his pickups lies in understanding how the components all fit together to build the overall tone: from the alloy of the baseplate, to the formulation of screws and polepiece slugs, to the thickness of the silver alloy pickups covers..... There is much more to Tone than the simple question: what's the DC resistance? What kind of magnet does Harry use? And definitely ther is more in store for those who don't adhere to quick'n'simple explanations like "ceramic magnets sound too harsh", "the higher the resistance the muddier the tone", etc. Harry can produce anything from a '59 PAF clone, to a 10 pole single coil, to a jazz pickup, to 4 / 5 / 6 string bass pickups in any J / P / MM / Bartolini format (just allow for the proper amount of time to get the stuff done, please!). Over the last months here are some of the one-offs I've been personally involved in - rewinding of broken Barden pickups, remake of a set of p.ups for a Gibson Nigthawk, getting a custom jazz-rock set to the owner of an ES-175, getting a P90 HB wound for a rosewood neck Klein electric, designing with Harry the famous P90Plus for Nik Huber's acclaimed Dolphin Junior electric... Please do drop me a line if you have any special wind you wish to try out, overwinds, underwinds, crazy things - it will take some time, but I can guarantee that none of our jobs has ever come back for a refund... I suppose it speaks volumes about the quality of Harry's top-notch work.

Breaking News December 2006 More Tone Stories I finally received my Ruokangas VSOP (i.e. "strat" guitar). I pulled all the plugs as far as flirting with ice-picking disaster. First of all I went for a maple neck and 'board, to which I added stainless steel frets, and I topped the whole thing off with a Wilkinson steel-block trem, and Harry Haeussel "harrybarden" p.ups. I will readily admit that I did ask myself wether I had exaggerated in going for a Totally Hi Freq Plank - the risk was indeed there. I found myself instead playing a guitar that possesses a beautiful high end shimmer in the "single" positions (1,3,5) and a clucky warmth in the intermediate ones. The 2 p.up combos are very useful when playing thru distortion, as they are pleasantly dark vs. the single p.ups. A very nice side effect: I have a tone on the bridge p.up alone. If I trun it all the way down I get just a hint of a resonant peak, which becomes pleasantly pronounced when I'm in position 2 (bridge+middle) and combining with the mid p.up with the tone control all open. Brilliant! I have 2 great tones at disposal at the flick of the selector, and all using just one stomp box (either a new series OCD or the Visual Sound Route66). Bravo to Juha and bravo to Harry!! Uncle GroOve is a helluva happy camper :-) May 1st, 2006 Joe Barden is Back And In Business! It will seem strange to many of the visitors that I should be celebrating - after all we had some success by selling a similar product, right? Well, it ain't so. First of all because Joe was really unlucky - hit a hard patch, and it took him quite some time to get himself back on his feet. I / we respect anybody who makes an effort to swim back to the surface of things. Nothing to do with "success", it has more to do with the human ability to spring a comeback and get himself a new lease on life. Secondly, because Harry's and Joe's blade pickups are quite deifferent beasts, despite playing in the same category; while the Barden p.ups are renown for (and sometimes rejected because) of their extended hi-fi range, Harry's manage somewhat to give up some hi-fi effect in favour of a more traditional and noiseless tone. If you ask me - I think that some months down the road we'll be seeing folks with mixed Barden-Häussel sets... these will turn out to be interesting times indeed!! April 24th, 2006. Harry and I would like to thank all of you who have so patiently waited all this time for the "harrybarden" pickups to become reality. They're here - selling fast - so my next order to Harry is already coming up.... Rrrready, Harree-eee??? I would also like to thank a very special customer, who I'll call J.E. - a man of excellent taste who ordere that beautiful Orca, up there, complete with a set of Harry's "PG" classics. As you can see, the neck pickup is turned the right way 'round - just like on the Les Paul that made Peter Green and Gary Moore's artistic fortune! Taking orders now, on a per-user basis, but will make them more widely available in the coming months. Oct. 8th, 2005. A word of notice about the "harrybarden" pickups: over the course of the last months and especially since I've launched this site and commented on various US and EU forums, I've received many e-mails asking for more details, production datelines, etc. I've also received mails that hint to the fact that some people think that Harry's blade pickup will be some kind of replica / clone / copy of Joe's original design. This will NOT be the case. Joe's work - while not exactly groundbreaking - is unique in many respects, and Harry and I both respect this fact. The "harrybarden" will be tonally "as close" as one can get to a true Joe Barden Deluxe but in many small visible details will indeed differ from a Barden - we are NOT trying to build a "fake" Barden pickup. Having said this, where are we today? Harry is currently circulating 2 test sets, the blades of which have not been nickel plated, while he is waiting for the delivery of a built-to-spec galvanic plating machine (the blades would inevitably rust if they were not treated). You all will be personally informed once the pickups are finally available for delivery, in the menatime please accept my thanks for your queries and your support to this interesting (and hopefully successful) quest. BREAKING NEWS - THE PETER GREEN PAF!! Are you looking for a different tone in you Nik Huber Orca, les Paul or other humbucker equipped guitar? Go for the Peter Green PAF - the real deal complete with flipped mag and turned around polepieces (screws face the bridge). The neck will sound "different" - because of the way the poles and slugs are turned around - while the middle position will yield some incredibly delicious out-of-phase tones. This is the REAL out-of-phase tone, because it is due to the magnet orientation and not to a wiring trick!!! Peter Green Tone

Single Coil Pickups Harry's single coils are available in the following "flavours" - excellent and extraordinary (ok, I'm pulling your legs a bit): Stratocaster Sets Alnico II Alnico V True Spacing (the polepieces are spaced out differently for each position) Mixed Alnico V/II (alnico 5 on the bass side ,and alnico II on the treble side) Stacked (Humbuckers) Big Mag (6.5 mm polepieces - like a P90 in singlecoil format) The Harrybarden (twin blades, noise cancelling, available in normal or hot version w/ceramic mag). The regular version is wound to a cool (but NOT wimpy) 5KOhm, while the HOT runs at appx. 16K. A compromise (in a good sense) in the region of 8-9 KOhm is doable too. All pickups available in Classic or Blues (=overwound), with traditional or square baseplate, flat / staggered / radiused polepieces (follow the neck profile). All sets feature a RWRP middle pickup. Left hand winds available. Optional: metal baseplate, coil tap, wood / pearloid tops. Telecaster Sets Broad (alnico II bridge, alnico V neck) The Harrybarden (twin blades, noise cancelling, available in normal or hot version w/ceramic mag - see above) Tele Big Mag (6.5 mm polepieces - like a P90 in Telecaster format) Optional: gold or nickel cover for neck pickup

Humbucking Pickups Harry's humbuckers come in two flavours - open or closed (seriously). Oh yes - they sound beautifully split so feel free to experiment! VIN - Vintage Alnico II, smooth and liquid. Beautiful for a neck position. VIN B - The bridge position, in alnico V this time VIN + - Another bridge version, fuller, more output, hotter than a traditional PAF HOT - Bluesy, middy, thick but without losing definition. Packs enough punch for metal riffs HOT Spezial - Weaker magnet than the preceding sibling. Smoother yet defined PERL - Sparkly and airy like they used to wind 'em in the good old days TOZZ - Heavy metal, high output, still retains transparency, rich in harmonics TOZZ XL - When "more" still isn't enough... CLASSIC - If you don't have 2-3000 dollars to spend on a pair of real '59 PAFs, these are the next best thing (2 conductor cable). Alnico II mags. All humbuckers come with 4 conductor cable (except the Classic set), in your choice of black, white, cream, or zebra bobbins. Polepiece distance: neck 49 mm, bridge 51 mm, trem 52.5 mm. Optional: gold, chrome, nickel, black, 7 string (black bobbins only)

P90 Pickups Different twists on the theme are available for this venerable, classic type of pickup, the sound of which is a cross between a true single coil and a regular humbucker. Don't be afraid experiment and to mix say a P90HB in the neck with a regular HB bridge - there will not be any noticeable drop in volume at all! Traditional P90 - Soapbar style, alnico II magnet Traditional P90 - Soapbar style, alnico V magnet P90HB - Fits in your humbucker rout, alnico II or V, metal cover HBP90 - a humbucker that fits in your P90 rout. Most of the regular HB "flavours" can be adapted to this pickup

Jazz Guitar Pickups These pickups are enclosed in an 8mm thick ebony enclosure and are shielded with copper foil. Metal clips are supplied for mounting to the fretboard end or to the pickguard. Alternatively you may choose to glue them to the top of the instrument. 7 String versions available. Jazz Single Coil - one single coil, ebony enclosure Jazz Humbucker - double coils, ebony enclosure, "jazzy tone" Jazz Noiseless Single - 2 windings for each of the 3 polepieces

Pickups for Electric Bass
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