Psycho Builders
How crazy expectations led to the development of Manson’s offshoot hardware line, Psychopaf Pickups
Hugh Manson and the Manson Guitar Works team could tell us a story or three about the fun they’ve had working with some of the world’s top artists. But then they’d have to silence us… Instead, they share another story: “We outgrew the old Manson Guitar Works several years ago,” says Tim Stark, MGW’s head luthier. “It used to be at the original Guitar Shop in Exeter, but then we finally moved to our new premises in Ashburton, on the edge of Dartmoor, two years ago. It’s on bigger premises, but we’ve filled it already. It’s a nicer place to work, which enables us to get more done with such a small team of just four people.
“We put out around 350-450 guitars a year from our Cort Mods, Czech production and Custom pieces,” continues Tim. “The Czech-made models and the Corts make up the bulk with around 20 percent of production being Custom work. This is still very old-school and hands-on with just me working on each guitar from start to finish, which limits the amount of work we can do.”
The fact that so many custom builds have to be created in such a small time frame has led to the offshoot Psychopaf Pickup line, which Tim quips is, “just a small one-manin-a-shed production at the moment. But it’s great stuff.”
“Psychopaf Pickups emerged because Manson Guitar Works artists often needed a certain type of pickup for a guitar that had to be ready in just a day or two,” explains
“you’ve got authentic country twang, right up to full-destruction drop-tuned metal – really versatile”
Adrian Aston, CEO of both concerns. Simon Thorn was already winding pickups and then went on a winding course with Jason Lollar in the US. Almost every day he would bring a new design for us to try.
“When Lady Gaga’s team requested a guitar for the Super Bowl rehearsals [in 2017] we had just ten days to make two instruments and custom pickups for it. Tim produced the guitars and Simon made the pickups. It allowed us to create the pickup in the morning and test it the same day. We got them just in time for the rehearsals only to discover a keytar was now being used for the gig! Our ten-day build was clearly not fast enough. But it didn’t matter because we were knocked out by the result. Since then the line has expanded and Psychopaf Pickups established as a separate business.”
Skindred’s Mikey Demus was a great example of Psychopaf satisfying a ‘tone seeker’ through extensive development. The guitarist loved the raw powerful sound – for live use – of the bridge British Rail Hot Tea, which Simon had created, but in the studio Mikey wanted less output and more dynamics. And so the Iced Tea version, as featured on the MD-2, was developed.
“It has loads of bark, middle and gristle on top,” says Mikey, “but it also does the ‘Tele thing’ when you need it to. You’ve got authentic country twang, right up to full-destruction drop-tuned metal. Just like I wanted, really versatile.”
Mikey is equally enthused by the Benchmark – described by Simon Thorn as ‘the classic ’bucker that everyone knows, but this one goes to eleven’. “It has a really nice mix between thump and soulful, it does the blues thing great, and also cleans up really well,” adds Mikey. “I notice how different the tones get with a turn of the volume control.”
As we mention in our review, Psychopaf’s pickup names gave us a chuckle or two. “Simon is always presenting new pickups and sounds, and so we often have fun coming up with names,” continues Adrian. “The name of the company was in fact my idea. I felt what we were doing was creating a great-sounding pickup with classic designs and components that create great tone, but then we’d ‘Frankenstein’ the design with crazy outputs, different magnets and the like. That’s how our mega-output, but very detailed The Colossus! model was created, and, of course, the Mother Superior. We knew the look and crazy tone configurations we were after, but we wanted to build it with the very best components and sturdiest design we could come up with.”