The Axebuilder Obsidian is a high output, true single coil, Strat pickup. Its clean tone is warm and dark, yet still glassy. Not dull or muddy sounding like other high output pickups can be. Neck and Middle position are full & punchy. Similar in tone to a P90, but with that Strat sparkle. Positions 2 & 4 on a traditional 5-way switch still retain the classic Strat quack. 

    The Obsidian bridge position pickup has been fine tuned to have plenty of output, but still has a lively, responsive feel. It is actually similar in tone to humbucker. Crank up the gain to hear the obsidian really shine! Check out the dirty and high gain demos below to hear them in action!

    Please note that while these pickups are high output and sound great with overdrive and distortion, they are true single coils and still have 60 cycle hum. The middle pickup is RWRP for hum canceling in positions 2 & 4 on a standard 5-way switch, but positions 1, 3, & 5 will still have single coil 60 cycle hum. A noise gate is recommended for high gain drive.

   500k pots are recommended for use with these pickups. This makes them a great choice for humbucker equipped HSS or HSH guitars. 500k pots give these pickups a little more high end response and bite. All demos below are recorded in a Strat with 500k pots. It is just a recommendation and not necessary. Stock 250k pots still work well.  

 Pickup Specs:

Magnet Type = Alnico 5 
Bridge DC resistance = 12.6k
Middle DC resistance = 12.1k
Neck DC resistance = 11.4k

 Sound Samples:

    Obsidian Hi-Gain demo song. All tracks are recorded on a Strat equipped with obsidian pickups in the bridge, middle, & neck positions. Bridge pickup solo starts at 0:12. Neck pickup solo starts at 0:25.

     5-way clean demo starting with the neck pickup and working down through the other positions ending on the bridge pickup.

0:00 - Neck Pickup
0:22 - Neck & Middle Pickups
0:46 - Middle PIckup
1:16 - Bridge & Middle Pickups
1:48 - Bridge Pickup

      Dirty 5-Way demo of our high output Obsidian Strat pickup with medium overdrive. We did not use a noise gate on this track. So if you listen closely, you can hear the single coil 60 cycle hum in positions 1, 3, and 5.