Hello Gearheads! Welcome back to another moment where I get to share with you incredible and interesting gear for the modern guitarist. Today, I’ve got the absolute pleasure to feature another wonderful set of pickups from whom I consider to be one if not the absolute best winders in the business… Ron Ellis Pickups! Ron was kind enough to guide me through what I wanted to hear in a set of Telecaster pickups and his recommendation couldn’t have been more spot on! The Standard neck pickup and the 50b bridge pickup have opened up my scrappy little parts Telecaster in ways I never thought possible.
Ron Ellis Pickups are quite possibly the best in the biz. The manner in which clarity meets warmth, presence and sweetness abound… there’s nothing quite like them! This is not my first foray into the Ron Ellis multiverse… Check out my previous feature on a wonderful set of Stratocaster pickups here: CLICK ME . The Standard & 50b are an equally surprising and eye opening experience as my first!
The Standard neck pickup was described to me as the quintessential Tele neck tone and I couldn’t agree more. There’s that magic warm pillow that responds so well to pick attack, the bite that’s available just under that sweet and soft bubble. You hit it hard and it will reward you, you pull back and the tone is sweet and round. Both pickups are very open yet somehow not bright or brittle. They sound natural and the touch to feel ratio is quite addicting.
The Standard is the gold standard when it comes to vintage-like Tele neck sound. It emulates the 50's Telecaster neck by utilizing the exact materials used in the early days of the Telecaster It has beautiful warmth, clarity, depth and an overall great feel.
The Standard is a great companion to our Blackguard 52T, Broadcaster 50B, and 60T for authentic vintage sound and feel. It's ideal for a restoration project, an early era telecaster, or any player looking to get a rich vintage sound.g to get a rich vintage sound.er, or any player looking to get a rich vintage sound.
The 50b bridge pickup is pure unadulterated 50’s Telecaster tone. You smack that pickup selector to the bridge position and WHAM! You’re faced with a rich and fat spanky jangle that I can only describe as what “we” all think of when someone refers to how a Telecaster sounds. It’s pure, open and harmonically rich. There are no dead or unbalanced spots. Telecaster bridge pickups have been historically overly bright and harsh to ear, which many have attempted to “fix” over the years by taming the transients or altering the frequency response but you always loose some part of that magic puzzle… when you muzzle. Not the cases with the 50b! Ron’s expertise in somehow preserving everything we love from the old and vintage pickup designs while merging them with modern usability and function is maybe one of the most impressive aspects of the Ron Ellis brand.
50B is a vintage recreation of the earliest broadcaster pickups. It has wonderful dimensional harmonics surrounding fundamental notes. The 50B Broadcaster has more harmonic content, compression, and bloom in the upper mids and top end vs the more fundamental 52T bridge. It captures the bite and energy of early 50s broadcaster pickups using exact materials found in those same pickups.
When you think of the 50B, think of Roy Buchanan, Keith Richards and Mike Campbell sounds. The 50B is well suited for rock, country, and for artists focusing on top-end tonality.
I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it every time I have the joy to play through a set of Ron’s pickups… they are the bridge between your guitar’s voice and the fingers behind the notes played. They truly bring out the best in one’s playing and the experience is unique and something I want out of every single instrument I own. The only prescription to that ailment is more Ron Ellis! I look forward to exploring more of the pickup line in the brand and cannot wait to share my experiences with you all!
In the demo below, I used a “parts” Tele and Ron Ellis Pickups (which btw is a Maple Musikraft neck and a Guitar Mill lightweight Ash body) in all of the tracks. I did use a variety of effect pedals and a few amplifiers to get the most out of the composition. Again, these pickups really do bring out the best in this guitar! I couldn’t possibly recommend them or Ron’s work anymore… even though I’ll find a way!
Thanks for checking this Gearheads Feature on the Standard & 50b set from Ron Ellis Pickups. If you’d like to learn more about Ron and his work please do check out these sites for more information.
https://www.ronellispickups.com
https://www.instagram.com/ronellispickups/
https://www.facebook.com/ronellispickups
Until next time Gearheads, please take a moment to Like, Subscribe & Share this Feature and I’ll see you all very soon!