Something Completely Different

A Rusting Nail

Well, I've been thinking about this one for ages, but I'm finally going to get my act together and do it...

I've got a lovely old Strat neck and body, and it is soon to be covered with rusting iron. (I know I was going to use this elsewhere, but I'll come back to that.)

Anyway, along with the rustiness, it is going to have a couple of really interesting humbuckers.

The first is an old favourite of mine, the IronGear Alchemist 90 - basically their P90-in-a-humbucker-tin - which is one of the best I've used and generally sounds great in a Strat.

The bridge pickup is a hand wound Wizard 'Novatron' which I can't wait to try. I've talked about these before, but I've finally taken the plunge.

A Wizard Novatron - a Resonator in disguise?

Wizard describe them, thus:

"Something really very different, from the stunningly unusual looks to the unique almost resonatoresque tone these pickups are way out. With low dc resistances these pickups have a clarity and hollow tone seldom found in humbuckers. Despite this turn up the gain add some crunch and they take being driven hard extremely well, being able to cut through when other humbuckers turn to mush. Handwound wire 42 gauge wire and Alnico V magnets these are only available in standard 50mm spacing.

A fabulous pickup for those who want something unusual and want to stretch their limits, the bridge dcs at around 7k ohms and the neck at 4.5k ohms."

Which I think will be rather natty and should offer some interesting tones, methinks...

I think I'll got for Les Paul controls - twin volume, twin tone - so that it has the best chance of getting the most I can out of them...

So there we are, The Rusting Nail One, coming to an Emporium near you, very soonish.

Hopefully.

---- UPDATE ----

Well, typically after I said about this, I had jumped the gun and Andy - the magician at Wizard - gave me a call to point out that his Novatron pickup really needs to be in something with Gibson spacing, to get the best out of it. (There was a clue in the text I nicked from their website). So The Rusting Nail One will now be an SG rather than a Strat...but still have the same finish...

He also tells me it has a really cool Leslie Speaker sound to it, which should be amazing methinks...

Which, in summary, is probably a good thing all around...

Though what I do with The Strat now, hmmm...