Stop Chasing Tone. Unlock Your Guitar's True Voice.
The Sheptone® Tribute™ Humbucker Set: Handcrafted strictly by turns, one at a time, on my bench. Pure, unfiltered, three-dimensional vintage tone.
Handcrafted on My Bench • Lifetime Craftsmanship Warranty • Built in the USA
“They're the only PAFs I like… great sound ! ! !”
– Peter “Max” Baranet, Max Guitars
You’re Not Imagining It. Your Guitars Tone Is Being Throttled.
You know the feeling all too well.
You’re staring at your favorite guitar - the one that fits your hands like a glove, it feels just right - but every time you plug it in, something gets lost in translation.
You find yourself constantly tweaking the EQ knobs on your amplifier, swapping out overdrive pedals, and endlessly chasing a sound that always seems just out of reach. You fight for clarity on your neck pickup, only to end up with a muddy mess. You switch to your bridge pickup for definition, only to get hit with a harsh, icepick frequency that pierces your ears.
It’s exhausting.
But here is the truth that guitar brands will never tell you: the bottleneck isn't your hands, and it isn't your amplifier. The tone truly does come from the equipment you use, and right now, the stock, mass-produced pickups installed in your guitar are acting like a heavy blanket draped over your speaker cabinet. They bury your dynamics, flatten your expression, and throttle the true voice of you and your guitar.
You shouldn't have to fight your guitar to be heard. It's time to dial it in once and for all.
Your Hands. Your Amp. Unfiltered.
The Sheptone Tribute Set is my number-one selling P.A.F.-style humbucker design for a reason. They are engineered specifically to tear down the wall between your hands and your speaker cabinet.
Imagine plugging in, striking a single chord, and suddenly hearing your guitar completely elevated. The heavy blanket is gone. You now have a pure, three-dimensional, unfiltered pathway from your fingertips directly to your speakers. When your pickups are working with you instead of against you, you instantly sound better.
Here is the magic of the psychological chain reaction: when you sound better, you play better. You stop overthinking your gear and you start trusting your instincts. You dig deeper, you push your phrasing further, and you take creative risks you wouldn't have dared to try before.
And when you play better, you feel better. Playing becomes effortless and you remember exactly why you fell in love with guitar in the first place. You are completely, utterly limitless.
BUY MY SET TODAY - $858.00 USD
“Sheptone humbuckers are the best”
- Hiroshi Sato, Image Guitars
Anatomy of Vintage Perfection
True, master-tier tone isn't magic. It’s a matter of physics, historical accuracy, and meticulous bench discipline. Anyone can buy premium raw materials, but the magic lies in how the coils are tensioned and wound.
Here is how every single physical component of the Tribute Set works together to elevate your sound:
- German Nickel Silver Covers (1959-Spec): Plated without a copper underlayer, keeping your top end 100% transparent. Your sound stays completely true to the golden era without losing a fraction of treble clarity.
- Rough-Finished, Degaussed Alnico 5 Magnets: Artfully aged and degaussed to soften harsh spikes, delivering the wide, organic dynamics and articulate note separation of a vintage pickup that has been played for decades.
- 42AWG Plain Enamel Wire & Custom Butyrate Bobbins: Wrapped around my proprietary bobbins, every coil is wound strictly by the exact number of turns with meticulous tension management rather than relying on a generic machine timer or counter.
- Vintage Braided Wire & Baseplates: Built with period-correct long-legged German nickel silver baseplates and standard 49.2mm pole spacing for effortless drop-in replacement.
DC Resistance Spec: Because I wind strictly by turn counts to preserve exact coil geometry, DC resistance typically settles naturally around 8.0kOhms for the bridge and 7.6kOhms for the neck, giving you a tight, punchy bottom end that never gets muddy.
35 Years in the Trenches. One Uncompromising Obsession.
When you order a set of Sheptone pickups, you aren't buying from a corporate conglomerate or an automated factory floor. You are tapping into 35 years of relentless tone chasing.
My journey started on the repair and production floors at Carvin Corporation, eventually working up to the final testing room, personally frequency-sweeping and listening to thousands of X-100B amplifiers and speaker cabinets. My obsession with sound was so intense that I was once fired for playing too much and testing too slowly because I refused to let a mediocre tone pass my bench…they ultimately hired me back!
Over the decades, as General Manager of Kahler Tremolos, serving on the NAMM Presidential Advisory Board, and collaborating with guitar royalty—from Steve Vai and Joe Walsh, to Slash and Derek Trucks, from Kerry King and Billy Gibbons all the way to the Rolling Stones, I learned exactly what world-class ears demand from their gear.
Beyond the artists, I have worked closely with, for, or represented some of the greatest innovators in the history of guitar such as Hartley Peavey, Dean Markley, Gary Kahler, Andy Johns, Bill Lawrence, and Lowell Kiesel. Lowell was winding pickups on a sewing machine for his own lap steel in the 1940’s!
BUY MY SET TODAY - $858.00 USD
“The best sounding pickups out there.”
— Tom W., Verified Buyer
What professionals are saying:
“We love your pickups”
– Volt Guitars
“The Tributes are my favorite pickups, ever!”
– Dan Rigsby, Grit Brothers Guitars
“Humbucker heaven. The clarity and warmth are unlike anything I've loaded into my Les Paul.”
— David G., Session Guitarist
“They sound fantastic! Inspiring! The moment I plugged in, my playing changed.”
— James H.
Built for Those Who Know the Difference
My bench is small and there are only so many hours in a day. I am a one-man operation. I value absolute quality over mass-production volume.
If you want mass-produced, budget friendly pickups, there are plenty of good factory options on the market. But good isn’t good enough for me. If you are ready to stop chasing tone, elevate your playing, and unlock the true artistic expression of your guitar, the Tribute set is waiting for you.
The Sheptone Guarantee
Every pickup I craft comes backed by a LIFETIME CRAFTSMANSHIP WARRANTY against manufacturing defects. Gear you rely on to make a living should last you a lifetime.
They will be the last set of humbuckers you ever buy. Unless, of course, you own more than one guitar.
BUY MY SET TODAY - $858.00 USD
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Q: Will the Tribute Set fit my standard Gibson or Epiphone spacing?
A: Yes. The Tribute set uses traditional vintage P.A.F.-style 49.2mm pole spacing and standard long-legged baseplates designed to fit directly into standard humbucker routing and mounting rings.
Q: What potentiometer values do you recommend with these pickups?
A: I recommend 500k audio-taper potentiometers for both volume and tone controls to allow the full, unfiltered high-end transparency of the German nickel silver covers to pass through to your amplifier.
Q: Are these pickups wax potted?
A: Potting is optional. I build and prefer them unpotted, just like the originals. But if you are playing on loud stages, potting is a must. This eliminates unwanted microphonic squeal at high stage volumes while preserving the open, airy, 3D dynamics of an unpotted vintage original.
Q: How long will it take to receive my set?
A: Because I am a one-man operation and each set is handcrafted strictly in the order received, shipping times vary based on current bench workload. You will receive direct updates as your set moves to the winding bench.
Ready to Stop Chasing Tone?
Don't let stock pickups hold your playing back for another day. Take control of your sound, elevate your playing, and feel completely limitless every time you plug in.
BUY MY SET TODAY - $858.00 USD
Handcrafted on My Bench • Lifetime Craftsmanship Warranty • Built in the USA
