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Where does the term humbucker come from?

April 10, 2025 • Gibson • guitar • humbucker • pickup • sheptone • sheptone pickups

The first documented use of the term humbucker appears in a 1957 Gibson ad and was most likely coined by Seth Lover, who had designed a double coil pickup that eliminate or “bucked” the hum often encountered with single coil pickups of the day.

I Speak Publicly on the Vintage Guitar Podcast

April 07, 2025 • guitar • josh vittek • vintage • vintage guitar

Here is a link to a podcast interview I did last week with Vintage Guitar Magazine retracing how I got to where I am today. It was fun and I enjoyed actually having the opportunity to talk with James Patrick Regan outside of our typical NAMM chaos. Let me know what you think. Thank you so much to the entire Vintage Guitar team for all of the support throughout my career.

Lead Time Updates

December 02, 2024

Updated lead times!

Black Friday is HERE!

November 25, 2024

Black Friday is here!!!!

We’ve Got a Winner

November 20, 2024

Congratulations Edward Goforth! You have been selected as this month’s winner. You get to receive your choice of one set of Sheptone pickups or strings at no cost. Please reply to the separate email I sent you with what set you want, the options you’d like, and your complete mailing address. Thanks for subscribing to the newsletter. Be good. Do good. Play your guitar.

outstanding !

what a great sounding pickup ! over the years i bought a lot of sheptone
pickups , installed them in guitars from cheap chinese up to gibsons , theyall improved massive , super responsive , most of the big brands products sound a bit dull and lifeless compared to sheptones , crazy overtones , pinch harmonics are screaming at you !

Really vintage tone 335

Both 6T8 have a fast, dynamic response at any volume. Both overdrive and distortion work equally well. Warm and harmonious sound. Great.

Sweet sound tele pups!

I replaced fender 64pure vintage pups with sheptone A2tele.
This pickup set sounds sweet so if you like jazz, blues, solo guitar and so on, you can enjoy the tone. If you like punchy tele sound, I recommend you go to sheptone A5 tele set. I think this goes better with swapash body and maple fingerboad!

Great Sounds

I purchased a set for my Warmoth build, and they sound just great! Clean or overdriven, they have a certain clarity to them that I like. And they never sound harsh to my ears. I have them wired like a 50's LP, and with a phase switch wired on a push pull pot. I can get all kinds of sounds out of these. Thank you!

An amazing and unique set of PAFs, and a standout builder.

The Sheptone Blue Sky set is an exceptional pair of PAFs. The neck is somehow both airy and woody, and also smooth and creamy. It never gets muddy but delivers very smooth and round tones.

The bridge, in my opinion, is a very special pickup that really stood out to me. I have never experienced such a vocal sounding and expressive bridge pickup in my life, it just does everything I want it to do and more. It's like a 52 tele on steroids without an ounce of harshness in the treble. Roll back the volume and it doesn't lose any heft, and gets you even closer to a single-coil like sound. It's insanely inspiring.

On top of that, Josh is super helpful and available to answer any questions you may have. Truly top notch customer service.

Where does the term humbucker come from?

I Speak Publicly on the Vintage Guitar Podcast

Lead Time Updates

Black Friday is HERE!

We’ve Got a Winner

Let customers speak for us