Kent Armstrong is a legendary pickup maker who has built Brian May spec Burns Trisonic- pickups for decades. His son Aaron now makes hand-wound pickups for the BMG Super model.
I recently contacted Aaron about the possibility of purchasing some of his pickups. He responded that I could, but that I should also consider his father's Korean-made Burns Trisonics, which are no longer being produced, but of which he had a limited supply of "new old stock."
Aaron and I had a back-and-forth by email which — for me — was very educational.
A set of three Kent Armstrong Burns Trisonic pickups includes one pickup that is reverse wound and reverse polarity (RWRP). Brian May modified his middle pickup so that when the middle pickup is selected in combination with either or both of the other pickups in phase, a hum-cancelling effect is created, reducing noise and hum in the output of the guitar.
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| Kent Armstrong Burns Trisonic Pickups |
All three Kent Armstrong pickups are wax potted (i.e., dipped in a pot of wax) to prevent them from picking up vibrations in the air (i.e., sound waves) and becoming microphonic. Brian May used Araldite, an epoxy adhesive, on his neck pickup to dampen vibrations and also to eliminate the ferrous metal base plate, giving the neck pickup a different sound than the others. When Greg Fryer restored the Red Special in 1998, he wax potted the pickups.
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| Photo © Greg Fryer |
Aaron agreed that replacing the base plate on the neck pickup of the Korean-made Burns Trisonics set would make a difference and, along with a supply of the pickups, provided me with some non-magnetic base plates.
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Inside a Kent Armstrong Pickup |
I installed a set of the modified Kent Armstrong Pickups in this converted BMG Special LE. They sound great!
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| 2022 BMG Special LE Natural |