Matt Bascetta-House of Tone Pickups

Hi Matt, Welcome to Review Zoo!

Please can you tell us a bit about House of Tone Pickups?

House Of Tone was thought up around 2013 with myself and my good friends and tone heads Nick Leech, Bob Grocott and Luke Gardner. My background is a guitar and violin maker and repair and restoration specialist. I was lucky to get to work on a lot of great vintage guitars over the years and get to know a lot about their pickups and wiring. As I went deeper down the tone rabbit hole I started to think making pickups would be fun and we could design some really great stuff and that eventually turned into House Of Tone which took over from the repairs and custom builds and became the focus of the business. Now we manufacture all kinds of pickups and wiring looms as well as take on pickup rewinds and repairs.

What got you into making Pickups?

After years of doing vintage guitar restorations I really came to appreciate the nuances of what makes a great electric guitar sound like it does and different from another. That got me to start delving deeper into why they sound like they do.and that just sparked a real interest in the design and construction of pickups and wiring circuits for guitars.

How long have you been making Pickups for?

It's been almost 9 years since we launched House Of Tone and before that we were prototyping and working on the actual winding skills and techniques for about 18 months.

Where are you based?

Everything is made in our workshop in the centre of Chester, UK.

Can customers visit and order on site?

Yes, our website, www.houseoftonepickups.com, had loads of information on our more standard models and options as well as a link to the SoundCloud page for sound clips and our YouTube channel with some demo videos and customer videos as well as magazine reviews and our artist list.

There's a contacts form as well as our email address and phone number and because everything we make is so customised we just ask customer to message with what they're interested in and any questions and then we can discuss options and build times and the get the order raised.

Where do you currently ship to?

We ship all over the world to most any country.

What’s your favourite Pickup you make?

I've always loved the 1960 S-Types strat pickups but more recently the new HybridBucker is becoming a new favourite.

Do you make pickups for 7 string Guitars and above?

Yes, we make single coils and humbucker 7 strings and humbucker 8 strings in all kinds of different voicings. We can also make slanted multi scale 7 and 8 string humbuckers.

Do you take custom orders, if so, what sort of choices do customers have in customisation?

Yes, in fact a large part of what we do is custom orders. Our Instagram page shows off a lot of the custom builds we do. We're always happy to take on all kinds of projects.

Who are your favourite bands?

I've always had big love for The Back Keys and a lot of the hill country blues like Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside and Charles Caldwell. There's always a lot of Freddie King. Lately I've been really into the Quaker City Night Hawks, Eddie 9V and we've been working with Dom Martin a lot who has a great new album out that we've had on in the workshop quite a bit. Then there's always Sigur Ros which are just amazing.

Favourite albums of all time?

That's a really hard question! The Black Keys' Rubber Factory and Chulahoma albums for sure. Sigur Ros' Brackets album and Quaker City Night Hawks El Astronauta. I feel this list changes every 5-10 years though.

What do you enjoy doing when you're not making Pickups?

I love to cook...and then eat  and of course a bit of wine with the food!

Is there anything in the pipeline you’d like to share?

We will be announcing some great new endorsees soon as well as our first brand ambassador. There is also a new pickup that is in the making with the help of a nearby university that is quite different from the standard so watch this space.

Where can we go to find out more and order House of Tone Pickups?

Please check out our website, www.houseoftonepickups.com, as well as our Instagram page for more info and feel free to get in touch with any queries or to make an order.