Kent Armstrong Pickups

[guitarvegas]

I saw the posts asking about my pick-ups made abroad.
In answer to all, my Korean partner builds to my specifications faithfully. I use his parts here in Vermont to make conventional pick-ups like humbuckers and single coils. I also use them to prototype for customers wanting to have them made in Korea.

I can promise you that my Korean ones are every bit as good as the ones I would make here in my shop.


Most sincerely Kent Armstrong

Hi Kent, I spoke to you on the phone tonight. So good to hear this, because the floating pickup I bought was manufactured in Korea. So glad to hear that any quality is never compromised. I look forward to trying it...and I hope I love it.

[Electgumbo]

I have an Eastman El Rey 3. It supposedly has Kent Armstrong pickups in it. All I read is how bad this pickups are …. but the guitar sounds fine. Great even! It’s a bit of an odd duck not being a full sized Jazz Box. It doesn’t even have F-holes. But you plug the thing in and out comes this lovely sound. Maybe I don’t really know what I’m missing? True my ES-175 produces the quintessential jazz sound. But I don’t find the El Rey lacking anything once plugged in. People ask me about it whenever I play it out. I’m new here and will shut up now.

[Cunamara]

People- like me- love to opine and criticize. If something isn't expensive and boutique, it's not as good in many people's point of view. Sometimes mine.

As the post above yours points out, Kent Armstrong pickups made in Korea are hand wound to Kent's specifications. He thinks they are is good as the pickups he produces in Vermont and he even uses the same parts. They cost less than half as much. If your guitar sounds great plugged in, then it sounds great plugged in; who cares what the pickups are as long as it sounds good? And you have a very nice reference standard guitar against which to check the Eastman. If there was something missing, you would know. By the way, I've always liked that line of guitars from Eastman; they don't look like a copy of anything else which I really appreciate. I've never had a chance to play one.

In another thread, a forum member noted that he had an Asian-made archtop guitar and he was going to replace the cheap OEM pickups. When he pulled the pickups out, however, he found that somebody had already replaced them with Seymour Duncan Seth Lover pickups. But the perception of "cheap OEM" and "poor sound" was already there. Often we hear with our expectations.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I have an Eastman El Rey 3. It supposedly has Kent Armstrong pickups in it. All I read is how bad this pickups are …. but the guitar sounds fine. Great even! It’s a bit of an odd duck not being a full sized Jazz Box. It doesn’t even have F-holes. But you plug the thing in and out comes this lovely sound. Maybe I don’t really know what I’m missing? True my ES-175 produces the quintessential jazz sound. But I don’t find the El Rey lacking anything once plugged in. People ask me about it whenever I play it out. I’m new here and will shut up now.

Welcome! I agree with you completely. I have a factory fitted KA floater on my Eastman 810CE7, and it sounds wonderful. I spoke to Kent about buying a HW pickup from him for it, and he gave me the same widely quoted answer. He told me that he could make me one to accommodate my preferences if I wanted to change something about mine. But he told me I’d be wasting my money by replacing what I have with the same thing made by him because there’s no difference between them.

I’ve been looking for a good 7 string El Rey for a long time. They’re wonderful guitars!

[Electgumbo]

Thanks for your reply and your honesty. I just can’t find anything not to like about the El Rey. A business man in town had a huge guitar collection… maybe a 1,000. He finally ran out of room and his wife in insisted that most of them had to go… so he opened his own guitar shop and got one of my friends to operate it. He had quite a few Eastman’s which the college students bought up immediately.

So I was lurking around the shop when they brought in some more guitars and he said “ this is the last Eastman in the warehouse I could find”. So I peeked in the case and there was the red flaming El Rey. I knew it was mine even before I plugged it in. It had every thing I could ask for .. Ebony fingerboard, Jascar Gold frets, Kent Armstrong pickups… hollow like a feather weight Les Paul or PRS… actually it’s more like a Gibson 330 type thing. You can hear the sound of the chamber like a thin line would have. So I took it home that day. It’s a joy to play and I’m lucky to have found it… it like it was waiting all those years in a warehouse new in its case… just waiting… my friends with the Benedetto’s kinda grumble about how good it plays and sounds.

[GuyBoden]

I'm putting a Korean made Kent Armstrong HPAN-1 humbucker in the neck position of my tele style guitar.



I may have had a Kent Armstrong HPAN-1 many years ago, but I can't remember.

[garybaldy]

I'm putting a Korean made Kent Armstrong HPAN-1 humbucker in the neck position of my tele style guitar.



I may have had a Kent Armstrong HPAN-1 many years ago, but I can't remember.

Quite some years ago I put one of these in the bridge position of a nice (except the pickups!) LP copy. FWIW it didn't work for me. I still have a KA filtertron type in the neck which is ok. I put an Irongear in the bridge. Ofcourse if you put the HPAN in the neck position of a tele it could be great.

[GuyBoden]

Ofcourse if you put the HPAN in the neck position of a tele it could be great.

Indeed, this is the mystery of "Guitar to Pickup to Amp chain". You just can't be sure what it will actually sound like.

Maybe, that's why many sensible Guitarists choose the tried and tested "Guitar to Pickup to Amp chain" formulas.