SW10 Humbucker Pickup

The SW10 pickup is a side wound humbucking pickup that senses the strings at a single point, exactly like a single coil. This unique magnetic design provides the clear midrange and smooth highs of a single coil but is simultaneously as quiet as a standard dual coil humbucker.

The target tone of the standard SW10 was to achieve similar tonality to a 14-15K single coil, but I am also making a heavier wound version of the design that targets the tone of a 17-18K single coil.

The SW10 is available in 75 mm and 77 mm pole spacing and the standard wide mount and narrow mount bolt patterns.

Note that because of the coil arrangement the standard SW10 pickup height is 7/8 inch tall with another 1/8 required for the cable underneath. Because of this fact, the standard SW10 will not fit some steels, but if your steel will fit a pickup this tall the SW10 will give you true single coil tone and quiet operation.

NEW FOR 2025!

I have completed additional R&D and am now shipping a low profile version of the SW10 that is only 3/4" tall including space for the wires. This version uses 43 AWG wire to save some height but additional changes were made such that this version sounds identical to me in blind tests. It is also tweaked for a 98 mm body length which means it will fit steels with tight pickup pockets such as Carter and various others. Between the lesser height and shorter body this version should fit most any steel that uses the wide mount pattern, including the many steels where the changer supports extend into the pickup pocket taking up some of the available height.

Steeltronics utilizes on demand 3D printing for key components, therefore normal production time is 4 weeks for most orders.