Pickups
Sully pickups are made from my favorite recipes I’ve used for years, and I’m happy to make them available to you now as an aftermarket option for your projects. You can learn more about all of our specific models below. Of course, these are the pickups available stock in our USA Custom guitars, and they can also be ordered as upgrades on our Conspiracy Series™ production instruments. All pickups are wax potted and loaded with Alnico 5 magnets (although they can be customized with Alnico 2, 5, or 8).
Humbuckers are wound with common wiring convention; black is hot, red and white are soldered together and can be used as a coil split, green and bare are soldered together and go to ground. Single coils use vintage cloth push-back wire and white is hot, while black is ground.
Note:
Pickups are made to order in small batches, please allow about 14 days turnaround.
Humbuckers
It's not just my favorite style of taco or a great alias, The Al Pastor has a warm, sweet PAF tone with plenty of clarity that's great for classic rock, blues, & more. Pro tip: the Al Pastor neck sounds great split!
4 conductor wire, classic/medium output (about 8-8.5k bridge; 7.5-8k neck). Alnico 5 magnets are the default, but if you'd like to mellow it out a bit with an Alnico 2 or 4, let us know.
The Secret Menu is an overwound version of the Al Pastor - it’s been one of our default bridge humbuckers for years. It handles distortion well, retains clarity, & cleans up like a champ. Total “best of all worlds.” Now available in neck position to pair with the hotter bridge pickups, like the Salty Bastard, C-Salt, Burnin-8, JardinAir
4 conductor wire, medium output (around 11k). Alnico 5 magnet.
A SECRET Secret Menu? The Sweet Action utilizes the screw coil of a Secret Menu and the slug coil of an Al Pastor for a unique and balanced “best-of-all-worlds” pickup with a focus on clarity.
Remember a prior Sully Sweet Action? I used to use that name for pickups in our Conspiracy Series lineup made by our Korean partners. That’s been retired in lieu of specific Conspiracy Series models based on our USA designs, so now when you see “Sweet Action” it’s always referring to this unique hybrid Sully Guitars USA pickup model.
4 conductor wire, hotrod classic output (around 9.7k). Alnico 5 magnet.
You ready, Shreddie? Modeled after an old favorite of mine, the Salty Bastard bridge humbucker is juiced up, but remains very responsive and cleans up nicely. If you’re looking for a little extra kick, the Salty Bastard is great for rock, metal or whatever, really. Probably my personal favorite. Pairs nicely with the Al Pastor neck humbucker.
4 conductor wire, medium/hot output (around 14k). Alnico 5 magnet.
The JardinAir bridge humbucker has a spice that reminds me of a "beef, dipped wit' sweet & hot." It's a bit of a flamethrower, but thanks to the Alnico 5 magnet it remains dynamic. If your priority is extra muscle for big sustain & easy legato, the JardinAir has you covered. Pairs nicely with the Al Pastor neck humbucker.
4 conductor wire, hot output (around 16k). Alnico 5 magnet.
See ya later, thatched roof cottages: it's time to Burnin-8. We took everything we loved about our Salty Bastard bridge humbucker & kicked it up a nacho with an Alnico 8 magnet. Still super responsive, still super rad, with a lot of extra kick. Great for rock, metal or whatever, really. Pairs nicely with the Al Pastor neck humbucker.
4 conductor wire, medium/hot output (around 14k). Alnico 8 magnet.
Sometimes you just have to be a little extra. The Redacted bridge humbucker throws subtlety out the window in exchange for easy harmonics, fat single notes, and a huge kick to the front end of your amp. We’ve been asked for an “over-the-top output” pickup for a long time, and the Redacted does that in spades, while still providing some nice cleanup with your volume knob. The Ceramic magnet doubles down on the huge, tight “wall of sound” while the Alnico 8 option provides extra mid push and smoother treble.
4 conductor wire, extreme output (around 20k). Choice of Alnico 8 or Ceramic magnet.
Slice and Dice! Our first ceramic pickup, we took everything we loved about the fan-favorite Salty Bastard bridge humbucker and made it razor sharp. A tight low end and great upper mid push make the C-Salt equally suited to rhythm and lead styles, while maintaining its medium/hot output that keeps it friendly for a wide variety of genres. Pairs nicely with the Al Pastor neck humbucker.
4 conductor wire, medium/hot output (around 14k). Ceramic magnet.
Single coils
Exactly what you'd want from a slightly-hotter-than-vintage single coil. Around 6.5k with Alnico 3 magnet. White wire is hot, black wire is ground.
The ideal middle pickup for fantastic notch position tones! Reverse wound, reverse polarity for hum cancellation in the 2 and 4 positions. Around 6k resistance with Alnico 3 magnet. White wire is hot, black wire is ground.
Sweet Texas tones! "The" neck pickup sound for many guitarists. Around 6k resistance with Alnico 3 magnet. White wire is hot, black wire is ground.
Our "Hot" single coils utilize the same winding as our classic models but are beefed-up with an Alnico 5 magnet for extra punch. Great choice for a little more meat in the bridge position of an SSS layout. Around 6.5k with Alnico 5 magnet.
Our "Hot" single coils utilize the same winding as our classic models but are beefed-up with an Alnico 5 magnet for extra punch. Still reverse wound, reverse polarity for hum cancellation in the 2 and 4 positions, the Green Pepper is a great choice for more pick attack in those notch positions, or helping "cut through" an HSH layout. Around 6.5k with Alnico 5 magnet. White wire is hot, black wire is ground.
Our "Hot" single coils utilize the same winding as our classic models but are beefed-up with an Alnico 5 magnet for extra punch. Perfect for a clear and defined neck pickup sound, and also works great in an HSS layout. Around 6k resistance with Alnico 5 magnet. White wire is hot, black wire is ground.
Huge Direct Humbucker A/B Comparison Video!
In this fantastic video by our artist Dave Sheldon, you can hear all USA Custom Series humbuckers in a mix with clean, crunch, high gain, solo, and split examples. It’s very high quality and you can use timestamps in the video description to navigate.
Even more demos/sound clips
Want to dive in to our specific models? Here are some more demos to get you started.