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Pete called me today and informed me that he's officially "retired". Great news for him, but bad news for those of us who relied on his talent and experience in building amazing pickups at a fair price. He built at least a dozen or more pickups for me, many of them custom orders. He's a builder, designer, and an innovator, not to mention and incredible human being. He never promised anything he couldn't deliver, and always stood by his product with a money back guarantee, or a free re-build. I can't think of any winders that offer that deal. If you were lucky enough to deal with him, you know what I'm talking about; and if you have any of his pickups, hold on to them tight, they just became "collectors" items...
Cheers,
Arnie...Last edited by arnie65; 11-12-2024 at 04:16 PM.
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11-12-2024 03:48 PM
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Wow, Vintage Vibe!?!? Didn't expect to hear this. He's a one man institution. I've had a few of his HS-90's over the years, great pickups BTW. Wish I had a couple of his humbuckers and humbucking blades. Always was a pleasure dealing with him and yes, his prices were more than fair considering his willingness to fill custom orders and specs, overwinding, beautiful materials. This is kind of a blow to possible future pickup purchases for me. He could probably double his prices and wind at his leisure and still get overwhelmed with orders.
The man has left the building but you know what, he deserves a nice retirement. He's earned it. God bless you and many thanks for great dealings and great tones Pete. My best to the man!!!!
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Aw, that stinks. I mean, congrats to Pete on the retirement, but he was kind of special in the pickup winding business IMO. He had some unique and creative offerings vs many others.
I'm glad I got my "Filter'90s" when I did... I was actually going to put them in my Cabronita today
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Beauties!
Originally Posted by ruger9
Aw, that stinks. I mean, congrats to Pete on the retirement, but he was kind of special in the pickup winding business IMO. He had some unique and creative offerings vs many others.
I'm glad I got my "Filter'90s" when I did... I was actually going to put them in my Cabronita today
I checked the vintage vibe site. Closed due to Hurricane Milton? Was his shop damaged? My sister's area is still in recovery mode so I'm wondering if his place was badly trashed? I think he was south of St. Pete around Sarasota maybe?
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For some reason I thought he was in Hawaii!! Originally Posted by DawgBone
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He was well known in the FL scene 20 years ago. I first discovered a set of his HS-90's used in a shop called Mad Music around 2004-2005 on central avenue in St. Pete.I put them in a Hamer Vector V. You could've easily done a jazz gig with how fat and rich the guitar sounded afterwards. Was my first experience with his stuff as I was new to FL but locals were very aware of him being a killer pickup winder. Man everything changes.... Originally Posted by ruger9
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No apprentice or assistant to continue his legacy?
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Guess I better hang on to this one then.
Pete’s work was so amazing!
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His shop was ok, he just decided it was time to hang it up, he's moving to California... Originally Posted by DawgBone
Arnie...
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Originally Posted by ruger9
He was for awhile, but he moved to Sarasota, Florida a few years back.
Arnie..
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Amen! What model was your rail? A CC? Man that's absolutely gorgeous! Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
Guess I better hang on to this one then.
Pete’s work was so amazing!
I have a beautiful open top gold cover tortoise shell overwound P-90 he made me still waiting for the right guitar. He did some amazing work.
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Originally Posted by Mick-7
Nobody, and he's already got all his equipment packed and is not taking it with him!
Arnie...
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Can’t recall. Yes, a CC purposefully built to accentuate a sweet and mellow tone. All electronics of the guitar were upgraded and the new guitar turned out much better than expected. This was an 18” Wu, that many here thought was his ultimate build. I finished it off with a wide D’Aquisto style bridge compliments of the forum’s own Matt Cushman. We sure miss Matt around here! Originally Posted by DawgBone
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I've grown to appreciate rail pickups more and more all the time. That looks almost exactly like a Lollar DB I bought except it is hot and has two rails but the components appear identical. Hang onto it!!! Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
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That is terrible news!! I have a few of his pickups... I'll definitely hold on to them! Pete was my 'go to' for floating pickups... I love his floating CC style pickups, they are terrific.
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Well deserved, but I’m sad to hear it. Pete’s pickups have always impressed me and I’ve used quite a few of them.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Pete built some special custom pickups for both my Archtop Double CC Floater, and Humbucking Asat pickups as well. I also owned several of his stock offerings CC Rider for a Tele neck pickup, Humbuckers both where the magnets could be changed out easily!
He was always fair in price and a good guy to deal with! Much Respect!
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Oh my! One more fan will miss him! I ordered only one floating humbucker from him but it sounded perfect and looked good.
And the exitment of getting a package from Hawaii, oh my! Still warms my heart here in the cold Finland!
Pete, if You read this, thanks and enjoy Your free days!
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On the forum, there is a Pete Biltoft CC pickup for sale in the UK.
Here:
[UK] Pete Biltoft/Vintage Vibe Floating CC style
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I have several of Pete's pickups from various guitar experiments sitting in my parts drawer at the moment, including a pair of custom low-wind P90s, an HCC, a custom tortoise shell/gold dual blade humbucker, and a floating Charlie Christian/pickguard assembly. If anyone is interested, they're welcome to message me and we can work something out.
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Originally Posted by ruger9
Aw, that stinks. I mean, congrats to Pete on the retirement, but he was kind of special in the pickup winding business IMO. He had some unique and creative offerings vs many others.
I'm glad I got my "Filter'90s" when I did... I was actually going to put them in my Cabronita today
Just reporting back, I put these in my Cabronita Thinline, and they sound gorgeous! The neck pickup is especially sweet!
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Hi Andrew...I've an HCC in the neck of my Ibanez AF75 & it really is something. Originally Posted by andrew
I'd be interested in speaking to you about the HCC & the custom tort gold dual blade.
All the best
Nick
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What are the specs on the dual blade humbucker? Ohms? Tone vs something like a Seth or '57 classic? I spent way to much dough on gear recently but I was very close to asking him about one of those last year. Originally Posted by andrew
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Here's a picture of the custom dual blade pickup and the documentation that came with it. As you can see, it's an open top gold cover with gold blades (that may not be super apparent in the photo) and tortoise bobbins. I put it in an archtop that I thought was sounding too thin and it fattened it up nicely. It's a nice mix of the classic, low wind PAF and the Charlie Christian thing. I'd say about 75% PAF and 25% CC.
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A shame
I have a VV humbucker and CC pickup.
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