Ultrasonic Pickups

[modelo dos]

Not sure if this is the right place for this post, but not sure if it fits anywhere else, anyway...

Any of you guys have any experience with Ultrasonic pickups? I'm looking at at what I believe to be a Charvel Model 1A and the original singles have been replaced with these. Just wondering if they're any good. I won't have the opportunity to test them out, it's an auction item so I'm buying blind here.

Thanks in advance for insight (if any).

[jtr]

They're better than the original pickups . If you don't like them you could sell them people are always looking for them.

[Guitardude86]

Maybe rather low output, I found them great for cleans, quiet as a mouse.
Works great for Mark Knopfler to David Gilmour tones IMO.

[modelo dos]

Hey guys,

Appreciate the info. Well, I lost out on the auction (damn job really gets in the way of fun sometimes...), but I did find a little info abou them on the web. I recall seeing the ads for them back in the 80's in Guitar Player. Looks like they were made in Germany and are really good pickups, like you said, especially for the cleans. From what I gather, if the un-amped sound of your guitar sucks, these won't do much for you. In other words, they won't compensate for a crappy guitar and apparently work better with certain body woods. Oddly enough, basswood was mentioned as one they might not work well with, and I think the 1A's bod was just that...

[Guitardude86]

Here's the guitar I had with Ultrasonics. I traded it for something else, but anyway, you can see what they look like. At first I thought maybe they were EMG's, but they don't have any logo. Really the quietest guitar I ever had

[fsmika]

i have 2 ultrasonic humbuckers and a single

these are great pickups and im pretty positive old tom anderson guitars used them and there is a guitar world mag. with kirk hammett on the cover with a tom anderson with ultrasonics its right around the time ''And Justice For All"" came out . also they did have a logo in the middle of a white ""U"" inside of white square

[Vette200B]

First post, newby.
I have a Model 1A, purchased as pre-loved and the seller told me that the Ultrasonics are the original pickups. Maybe an option in 1987?
Anyway, they are in a single coil type guitar pickup format, but are humbuckers, can split or reverse phase if I could be bothered to mod. For me they are fine as is.
Discovered- Ultrasonic Made in W. Germany. Very, very rare pickup. These pickups, designed by Bill Lawrence, were made by a company that has since shutdown.

The sound is very clean and even over the spectrum, make the amp distortion channel sound cleaner than any other guitar played, unique.
If I could work out how to post/paste images into the message would do, and will in future.
Vette200B

[GuerillaPete]

Ultrasonic PUs are killer. Really quiet. Almost transparent at times - depending on which ones you have. If I can recall, Models Ref 1, Ref 2 & Ref 3 were single coil size. Ref 4, Ref 5, & Ref 6 were humbuckers. The higher the number, the hotter they got. I dug them when I first tried them out in 1990 or 1991.

[AutistMember]

[Genebaby]

Thanks for the installation scans!

I have a set of Ultrasonics I got in a Model 6 I purchased for major refin purposes in 2001. They are now in the Model 4 I put together for my daughter. They are the lower output versions and I was being an idiot with a guy a few years ago and should have bought the ones he was selling right near me, but I stuck with the ones I had.

They were never an option on a Charvel, especially a Model 1, they were put in after purchase.