After getting my Dean Soltero, I wanted to upgrade a couple of things on the guitar. One of main things was the pickups. My typical go to pickup is usually the Seymour Duncan JB but I was thinking of trying something a little different this time. I did some research on some of the boards and the name Motor City Pickups kept coming up so I head over to Motor City Pickups to read up on the different offerings. After reading through a few models, the Afwayu caught my attention. The main thing that really intrigued me was that they were described as working great in both high gain and low gain situations keeping chord work clear and uncompressed with a tone that had depth and presence. Now that sounds like a pickup that would fit me perfectly. I decided to give them a call to ask a few more questions and actually got a hold of Wade the owner. He was such a pleasure to talk to, patient with my questions and was very knowledgeable about pickup construction. I also learned that couple of my favorite guitar players Ty Tabor and Jerry Cantrell are actually are using the Afwayu’s. After our conversation I was pretty confident that these would be a cool set to check out, so I got a set that arrived early this week and had my bud Brian drop them in. So did they live up to what I was expecting?

Let me say first that quite honestly after so many years of trying different gear, not much just really knocks my socks off. Yes, some things I get are better than others but many times it isn’t a “Oh wow!” reaction. We’ll when I plugged the Dean into my VHT Deliverance, hit a few chords chords and did a few runs I was like “Oh wow.. these lived up to the hype.” They instantly took a decent sounding stock guitar to a great sounding guitar. As described, the pickups worked great in low and high gain settings with all the notes in the chords jumping out. The low end stayed tight and top end was present but not harsh at all. The main thing I can really say about them is they are clear through out the whole tonal spectrum. Being a single coil in the neck position type of guy the one thing I don’t particularly care for with humbuckers in the neck is some of them can be muddy and flubby. The Afwayu in the neck was very nice and fat but still clear with no mud and had a sweet top end. The bridge at 16k is a little hotter than I typically use but it was as well very clear and brought out the natural growl of the guitar.

Overall I think Wade is offering some very nice pickups that are worth checking out if you are in the market for some new pups. I know I’ll getting a few more for my other guitars.

Check them out here Motor City Pickups.

My guitar of choice is typically a strat style guitar. I do like other styles of guitars for their tones and I was needing Les Paul style guitar for demo’s that I have plans for doing. Anyway after looking around and asking some friends for advice I was lead to check out the Dean Soltero. The Soltero was designed by Dean Zelinsky and has that dean V Neck. Right off the bat I really liked the looks of the Soltero and to be honest I dig the looks more than a Les Paul. Within the Soltero line there are an American, Japanese, and Korean mad line. Since this would be a secondary guitar I didnt want to drop a big chunk of change so I decided to go for the Korean line and chose the “Scar Cherry” color. I typically don’t buy guitars without playing them first but at this price point I decided to take a chance and order a new one from a place I could return it. After un-boxing the guitar I looked it over for fit and finish flaws. Well, I couldn’t find any. The frets were finished off very well with none of them were had any over hang. The string alignment was very good and to my surprise the maple top wasn’t a veneer thin layer over cheaper wood. It actually is a decently striped for an import. The only negatives I could say is I wasn’t into the pick-ups but to be honest I tend to replace most of my pick-ups no matter the cost and I replaced the mini pots for full size 500k pots. You may wonder what pups I pup in there. Well lets leave that for a later post.

Overall, what a great guitar! I’ve owned guitars for over three times as much and this one is really great. It may even make me re-think my strat fetish.

Get a great deal in a Dean Soltero from Music 123 here:
Dean Soltero Standard Electric Guitar trans brazilia