In the 1977, Edward Van Halen was playing the earliest (white with black stripes) version of his most famous guitar.  In the bridge position of that S-type guitar, he installed a 1963 Gibson P.A.F. ("patent applied for") humbucking pickup that he had removed from his Gibson ES-335.  He had removed the pickup's cover, and explained that he had immersed the pickup in hot wax so that, at high volumes, unwelcome squeals and other feedback would be greatly reduced.

With that pickup installed, and his Marshall Super Lead 100 amplifier dimed, he used that guitar on most of the guitar tracks on his band's first two albums (especially the tracks on which he used a Fender tremelo system to dive-bomb notes).

The ToneSlinger '77 Blackstripe is the product both of theory and of experimentation on a real amplifier; an amplifier played at the high volume that was required to make the amp sound as it did both live and in studio.  ToneSlinger's Paul McKeever developed a method of tuning a pickup in a way that takes advantage of the tone-enhancing effect of comb-filtering: the sonic effect resulting when a humbucker's two coils have differing, but complimentary turns of wire on them. 

Four prototypes - nicknamed Luis, Samurai, The Gambler, and The Animal, in a hat tip to the main characters in the old spaghettie western movie "The Five Man Army" - were then put through their paces by Van Halen "brown sound" tone chaser Jim Gaustad, who made a video of the tests.  From that experiment, Jim concluded that "Luis" - the brightest of the four prototypes - was the one that nailed the right tone. 

Luis' formal product name now is the '77 Blackstripe humbucker.  It has the right look.  It has the sound.  It cuts no corners on quality. 

Each pickup is hand made and inspected by Paul McKeever.  From head, to hand, to heart...and right into the bridge position of your guitar.  Get yours today! 

PRICE: T.B.D.