Joe Perkins's video: Don Mare Nancy Ron Ellis MidTall Pickups Oh Boy

Last week, I showed you an incredible handmade T-Style guitar that I scored at a local guitar auction. Made by Las Vegas luthier Mike McGuire, it's one of the most astonishing instruments I've ever picked up - it plays like butter; it's super light and resonant; and just feels 'right'. I needed to change the pots though, as it had proper Lefty ones - and whilst that's technically correct (and something very few luthiers ever think about!) I use standard pots in all of my guitars wired conventionally, so the stock ones worked backwards compared to everything else I play. I've since kitted it out with two 280k VIPots (I love those and use them in pretty much all of my guitars) and also put in a Luxe Blackguard reissue capacitor....it feels nice to treat guitars once in a while, eh? In that first video though, I was also debating swapping the pickups. Mike's handwound p'ups that it came with sounded brilliant (and I'm now running them in a different Tele) but I wanted to really make this instrument my own. Plus, I already had the Don Mare 2324 Nancy bridge pickup here - which is one of my favourite ever Tele pickups, but was sat on its own in a fairly budget guitar. So it felt right to rehome it into an instrument that was deserving of its quality. But I then had the problem of what to pair it with. Don isn't really winding anymore, so I needed to find the Nancy a friend from another manufacturer. So after a lot of searching, I decided to go right to the very top of the boutique pickup world (certainly in terms of price...!) and buy myself a Ron Ellis MidTall. These pickups are very vintage correct but with slightly taller pole pieces, giving it a little more bite and clarity...two things that a normal Tele neck pickup could really benefit from. Today, I wanted to revisit the McGuire T-Style, and show you how it now sounds with all the posh gubbins installed. And boy oh boy am I happy with the results...the electronics have taken a killer guitar and turned it into something properly extraordinary. What do you think? Mega blackguard tones? Or not for you? Comment below! Amps: - Morris Perplex'd 50W Plexi - Dr Z Z-Wreck - Vajra JTM45 - Dr Z Mazerati V2 - Orange Retro 50 Custom Shop - Dr Z Z-Master - Dr Z EZG-50 Amps running into a Zilla Studio Pro 2x12 cabinet loaded with Celestion AlNiCo Silver 100 & G12M Heritage Greenback speakers. Recorded with Aston Spirit Condenser, '70s Sennheiser MD441 and sE RNR1 ribbon mics, with a Schoeps CMC6 room mic. 0:00 Intro Playing 1:11 Intro 5:29 PLAYING 13:37 Outro jp@joeperkins.co.uk Vector images by freepik.com