Why I like Tonerider pickups

I have a Tonerider Rocksong pickup in one of my personal Gaskell Explorers. The thing is a beast. I love it. But that is not the reason I like Tonerider pickups.

When it comes to single coil pickups, they have pole pieces. The height of each of the poles across the pickup is called the stagger. Humbuckers don't have staggered pole pieces. Some humbuckers have a single magnetic bar that runs the length of the pickup.

This staggered arrangement on single coil pickups is designed to balance the output of each string, especially on vintage-style guitars where string thickness and magnet strength can cause some strings to sound louder or quieter than others. By adjusting the height of each pole piece, the pickup can produce a more even volume and tone across all the strings.

Most single coil pickups you buy, if not flat-staggered, have a stagger that is for right hand guitars. Pickups with no stagger are fine for either a lefty or righty guitar. Single pickups that have a right hand stagger when put in a left handed guitar don't sound right. Unless you are going for the Jimi Hendrix, upside down right hand guitar sound. He mostly played upside down righties, strung left handed, and so too were the pickups in them upside down.

If you are a lefty guitarist and want to use a guitar with single coil pickups you need a guitar that that has non-staggered pickups or if possible, pickups with a corresponding lefty stagger.

Left handed single coil pickups? Yeah, not easy to find.

And that leads me to Tonerider. They make proper left handed staggered single pickups and at no extra charge. Can you envision the big corporate thugs like Gibson, Fender, or PRS going out of their way to fit lefty staggered single coils to their run-of-the-mill left hand guitars?

Tonerider is a UK company. Their products are made in the UK, not China or elsewhere.

I always say this: Support who supports you. Try Tonerider pickups.

NOTE. As you should expect, all Gaskell guitars with single pickups are always fitted with either flat-stagger pickups or proper left hand staggered pickups - standard.