original Gibson pickups. As we all know, no two guitars are the same, because wood never grows in exactly the same way throughout its life. Even wood taken from the same tree trunk can have different acoustic properties. That is what still makes this work so fascinating — in reality, no luthier can know 100% what the final result will be, even though experience should give us the ability to get as close as possible. I can wholeheartedly recommend basically all APG pickups, but these are particularly well suited to Les Paul-style guitars, as I mentioned at the beginning. Have a nice sound!
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ven in a thick mahogany body. Compared to the popular SH-4, there’s less harshness in the upper frequencies while maintaining similar output, along with a noticeable low end that really hits hard with palm mutes. In my opinion, they’re in a similar league, with a slight edge to APG. Highly recommended!
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was basically given a complete overhaul. It turned out really great. And on top of that, you can have a good chat with Andrzej — he’s a really nice guy. Best regards!
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during the build process. Fast turnaround as well. Highly recommended.
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ith the option at the time to switch the operating mode of the bridge pickup. Back then, I was installing pickups from companies such as BKP, Lollar, Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, Kinman, Q-tuner and others — basically the absolute top of the standard and custom guitar market. I even had Kinmans and a set of BKP BlackDogs in one of my own guitars, which cost me a small fortune. So, once I had finished putting the client’s guitar together, I plugged it into an amp — and I simply couldn’t put the guitar down. Not because I had built some kind of masterpiece (it was a normal guitar, built with heart and to the best of my ability), but the sound coming from the speaker completely caught me off guard. The amount of harmonics coming from the speaker made me decide to get in touch with the person who designed these pickups. That’s how our collaboration began, and it continues to this day. I should add that APG has gone through further stages of development since then, resulting in other pickups that now power my guitars as well as those of other players. He’s a lifelong seeker of the Holy Grail, just like me. Obviously, the companies I mentioned above also make fantastic pickups. But with them, I don’t have the possibility of discussing the pickup parameters directly with Andrzej and having them tailored in such detail to a specific guitar and the client’s requirements. I think this is the most important thing — it saves us money when searching for the right pickup for our “axe”. The fact that Andrzej Poliakow used to build guitars himself (and has returned to that profession in recent years) means we can discuss all the parameters of the guitar in relation to the pickups. Sometimes you have to convince a client that their vision for the construction of the guitar will not work well for the sound they want to achieve, and that is also part of our job — to explain it properly. I’m very happy to have the possibilities I mentioned above, because the client ends up with a guitar configured specifically for them. And then they have years of playing ahead of them — playing a guitar like that can completely disrupt your daily routine 🙂 because it’s hard to put it down. And the wives get angry 🙂 But what can you do — the guitar is the greatest love, and no woman can replace it. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of the guitar that started our friendship... which is a shame. But I’ll post photos of other guitars I’ve built with APG pickups! Cheers! 🙂
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copy of a Gibson Marauder and turn it into a Gibson S-1-style guitar, so I wanted to make sure the experiment wouldn’t end in disaster — the shorter Gibson scale, different body material and weight (mahogany), etc. Let me tell you — every time I speak with this man, the experience is fantastic. He is an incredibly kind person with extensive knowledge in this field and a real passion for what he does. The pickups sound fantastic. They are extremely clear, very responsive to articulation, and all positions are very well balanced. P.S. I recently bought another old Japanese guitar in which the bridge pickup unfortunately wasn’t working. So I called Mr. Andrzej and asked if he could take a look and see what could be done to repair it. The man makes his own pickups and is now also starting a company where he will be building guitars under his own brand. He could easily have brushed off some random guy with a broken pickup by simply saying he didn’t have the time — but he didn’t. He had no problem telling me he would take a look and see what could be done. I wholeheartedly recommend this man and his products.
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