Lollar’s gold foils are available as single pickups and as matched sets of neck-bridge and three-position. Jason Lollar has gone through great pains to chase the dragon into his foils. These thin pickups have a lot going on inside with no room for error – not something your average weekend winder can take on. The Teisco-style pickups (which Lollar modeled) tend to be brighter and more sought-after than the DeArmonds, though one is in danger of entering cork-sniffing territory with such comparisons. The two most well-known variants, the Teisco-style units used by Ry Cooder (in his modified Stratocaster, aptly named “Coodercaster”) and the DeArmond “double moustache” foils found on some Harmony guitars of the ’60s, have noticeably different tones. But not all vintage gold foils were made equal. Gold-foil pickups are so named for the piece of foil (typically stamped in a grid pattern) installed between the coil bobbin and metal cover. And the tone? Vintage Ry Cooder or David Lindley, with a healthy dose of Hound Dog Taylor. Jason Lollar has rectified this problem with a reproduction Teisco-style gold-foil pickup that sports all of the Godzilla flash of the Asian originals infused with the magic and skill of one of the most renowned boutique pickup makers in America.

These pickups may look like the grille of a ’59 Eldorado, but Teisco aficionados will tell anyone that original gold foils are not nearly as reliable as an old Cadillac, reflecting an era when “Made in Japan” were code words for inconsistency. Info: Gold-foil pickups are exotic beasts – just like many of the 1960s Japanese-made Teisco guitars that sport up to four of them crammed between neck and bridge.

Teisco del rey gold foil pickup