Effects Bay

I have to say, one of the coolest things about this site for me is meeting new people that are passionate about what they do. When I say this, I could be referring to players, builders, dealers, etc.  They’re all very passionate and passionate about things that I’m very interested in as well.

A couple of weeks ago Brian Porter from Porter Pickups contacted me… and I’m glad he did. Here is a guy that is passionate about building quality pickups and I was excited to check out his site. All sorts of good stuff there, from a blog to a forum, plenty of sound clips and descriptions of what he does. Also he’s located in a neighboring state of mine!

As you may already know, Brian has generously donated pickups to another official EffectsBay.com give away. If you don’t know about the Porter Pickups custom pickup give away, please check it out! For those of you that have already entered, but want to learn more about Porter Pickups, below are a couple of Porter Pickup demos courtesy of achrisisaac:

Here is a demo of the Hand Wound Classic Humbuckers – Gibson SG:

Here is demo of the Hand Wound Single Coils – Fender Telecaster:

If you get a chance, check out PorterPickups.com. They’re also on Twitter and Facebook. Follow them for more info via their newsletter.

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CONTEST IS CLOSED

I’ve given out pedals, enclosures, cables.. so why not pickups! I’m really excited about this give away, and I think you guys will really dig this. Basically, Porter Pickups is willing to give a set of hand wound pickups, but rather limit the type, they’re willing to give away a custom set to the winner!

Porter Pickups has one Tele model, three Strat Models (50′s, 6o’s and Modern), five different Humbucker models, and they’re even offering a Porter Anthem PAF clones. Normally their sets range around $180 for most styles with the Anthem PAFs being a little more at $260.

The winner will be able to choose the model they want, covers/bobbins and they’ll wind it just for the winner. This way the pickups will match up with your style (wound hot.. not so-hot, etc).

Okay, so now we’ve established… this is a pretty cool give away, I now want to talk about Porter Pickups since they’re being so generous with this sponsored give away!

Porter Pickups is owned by Brian Porter and is located in Boise, ID. They have a wide selection of pickups ranging from humbuckers to Strat replacements to P90 replacements to Tele replacement to his Custom Series PAF pickups.  Porter will also do custom orders as well. Along with offering great hand wound pickups, they also offer repair and rewind services for damaged or dead pickups, a good way to get your vintage guitar back in action!

PorterPickups.com has a ton of stuff to go over. Plenty of clips and info, along with info on dealers, builders and artists. I also see that Brian has his own pickup blog.

Okay, now to the give away. So how do you enter yourself to potentially win the Custom Porter Pickups Give Away?

First, be sure to follow EffectsBay on Twitter and/or Facebook to keep up to date with this give-away along with new give-aways.

Second, fill out the form below, in two weeks  (June 30th) I’ll randomly pick 3 entries as finalists. I’ll email the 3 finalists and the first one out of the 3 that emails me back will be the winner.You must enter a ‘valid’ email address, bounce back emails will be rejected. One entry per person (seriously people.. one entry per person). After the winner has been notified and all is good (I’ve retrieved mailing address, etc), I’ll coordinate with Brian at Porter Pickups to get the pickups built and  shipped to the winner.

This give away is open to everyone!

Remember to also re-tweet this post and help spread the word! If we continue to have success with these give-aways, I’ll be able to offer more and more… and we all love free stuff right?

So the question…. “If you’re the winner, what guitar will these pickups go in?”

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Yesterday, Dave G. sent me a email letting me know about a pickup give-away (thanks Dave!). Anyway, the pickup give-away is for Mayes Pickups, and in particular, the Trinity pickup for stratocaster or telecaster style guitars. I always like meeting new builders/developers related to guitar and bass, so I sent a email off to the owner of Mayes (Adam Mayes) to get some more info on the pickups. This is what he had to say:

The Trinity line of pickups are a 3k-ohm pickup in the Strat-style and between 3.0k- and 3.5k-ohm in the Tele-style.  They are a tri-coil passive pickup, meaning there are three independent coils in each pickup; one for the bass, mid and treble.

In its present phase, it is simply an improvement to the standard single-coil pickup.  It has lower resistance and smaller coils.  The result is greater clarity, texture of tone and sustain than a standard pickup.

It looks like he’ll be picking a winner every month. Simply send a email to with the name of the pickup of your choice in the subject line to win a Trinity. Winners will be drawn on the first of every month. Only one prize per person. Give away available for US residents only. Trinity pickups are $89.99/ea, so it’s a great opportunity to upgrade your tone.. or at least explore other pickup options.

For more information, please check out Mayes Pickups. On the site are some sound clips, etc. so it’s definitely worth a visit. Mayes Pickups also has a Facebook page.

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Jeremy from GearPipe.com (who has been a great help announcing EffectsBay.com give-aways in the past) just announced that they’re having their first exclusive give-away.

Geoff Moore, a pickup winding guru and the founder of Fervor Pickups has been generous enough to donate a set of his handwound Classic Strat pickups. True to the name, these pickups will give you that classic Stratocaster tone. Geoff describes them as “low/medium-output single-coils with a strong but polished, velvety-smooth tone.”

If you’re into pickup specs, here’s the lowdown:

* Sand-cast Alnico rod magnets (similar to those found in ‘50s-vintage pickups)
* Highest-quality copper coil wire
* Carefully cut black vulcanized fiberboard
* Nickel-plated eyelets
* Standard output: neck – 5.8K, middle – 5.6K, bridge – 6.4K

Normally, these pickups sell for $225, so this is a great give-away! To enter the give away, simply check out the Fervor Giveaway post at GearPipe.com!

Help spread the word!

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