Review: Tom Holmes Pickup

[Mark Guest]

I replaced a defective pickup on my L-5 Wes Montgomery the other day with an
H450 from Tom Holmes. Wow! This pickup is *great*. The pickup arrived
earlier than promised...a very nice surprise. Apparently, Tom builds the
pickups from the ground up, mixing the alloys for the magnets, etc. He
claims not to be a player, just a technical guy with a streak of
perfectionism. He's a very easy guy to like and trust. I chose the pickup
partly through the recommendations of rmmjg'ers (thanks, Pat), the fact that
several boutique luthiers are using his stuff, and his association with one
of my favorite players, Lenny Breau.

I have had a houseful of visitors since getting the Holmes pickup, so I've
not had the opportunity to really spend time with it in a variety of
settings, but here's what I've found so far.

Scenario #1, which we'll call "Solo Guitar Air Gig" (held in a spare room at
home), featured the Holmes PU mounted in the aforementioned L-5 strung with
flatwound D'Addario Chromes (.013), run through a single six foot .155
George L cable to a newish Polytone MBII with the stock speaker replaced
with a heavy-duty PAS speaker. The settings on the MBII were set at 12:00
(flat). I found the tone sweet, creamy, like butter...no, make that creamery
butter. You get the idea. Very nicely balanced right out of the box. I've
not touched the pole pieces. Individual notes could be clearly distinguished
in close voicings, and it was very easy to get a "breathy" kind of tone,
especially when playing octave single line fingerstyle solos (using
fingerpads, not nails). I understand why Lenny liked these pickups, as they
sound great whether the strings are played very softly, or driven hard with
a heavy pick.

Scenario #2, "Big Band Rehearsal" sees the same setup with the addition of
an Ernie Ball 6166 volume pedal and an additional 12' George L cable. Volume
set *much* higher than the previously discussed "Air Gig". Same sweet tone
is in evidence, but it's hard to appreciate the subtle tonal characteristics
with four trombones pointed at your head. And the trumpets...ayeee! The
Holmes pickup seems to have a nicely compressed sound with no edge to it.
Shredders need not apply. FWIW, I put a DiMarzio on the L-5 when I ran out
of patience with the radiophonic Bennedetto. The transition from the edgy
DiMarzio PU to the Holmes is truly inspiring. The DiMarzio sounded OK, but
you kinda had to work at it. The Holmes gives great tone effortlessly.
Well-balanced without the upper register honkiness/sparkle/shimmer that I
hear on many PAF and PAF style pickups.

Visually, the pickup is gorgeous. The gold plating is very deep and rich
looking, and everything appears very neat. The tone is so sweet that I'm
inspired to play better than before...the drawback, of course, is that I
*still* don't sound like Lenny. What's a guy gotta do??

Bottom line...buy one if you are interested in replacing your humbucker.
Recommend Holmes PU's to your friends, neighbors, and relatives. Those of us
that like to buy import budget archtops will really appreciate the
difference that the Holmes pickup will make. The money is not too much, and
the tone is heavenly.

My .02 worth.

Invoice follows

--
Mark Guest
JazzerWB at JahWho dot com

[Pat Smith]

YAY Mark. I am really happy you like the pickup. Tom has been a friend
since i bought my first Holmes guitar in 1980 and he is just a great
nice guy and a fine craftsman.

[Mark Guest]

Hi Bill,

I'll look it up later today and post Tom's contact info on the newsgroup
under the review. I hope that Tom sees lots of business from the group. The
pickup is great. I believe my benedetto was damaged when I bought the
guitar, so I can't offer a fair comparison. I have tried Kent Armstrong's
PAF pickup, which I didn't much care for (but then, I don't like PAF's)

--
Mark Guest
JazzerWB at JahWho dot com

--- Bill Jenison <bil...@meganet.net> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bill Jenison" <bil...@meganet.net>
> To: "Mark Guest" <Jazzerw...@yahoo.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 6:57 PM
> Subject: Re: Review: Tom Holmes Pickup
>
>
> > Where do you get his pickups. You've got my
> interest now as I'm looking
> for
> > something to replace the humbucker on my Ibanez
> Howard Roberts guitar.
> How
> > would you rate it compared to Bennedettos?
> >
> > Thanks

[Mark Guest]

Tom's number is 615-876-3453. He sells direct. I believe that his stuff may
be also be available retail in some stores.

--
Mark Guest
JazzerWB at JahWho dot com

"Mark Guest" <Jazzerw...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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