ToneSlinger

08/31/2026

Another JKON artwork...this one with a pre-production ToneSlinger AFU Recoil. Whoever owns this: congratulations! You have the world's first 5150 reproduction that both looks and SOUNDS as it should. Celebrity work, JKON!

08/19/2026

UPDATE: The new '77 Blackstripe product page was just added to the ToneSlinger online store. They are not yet available for purchase, but if you go to the new product page for that pickup and click on the "Notify When Available" link (and provide your e-mail address), you will receive an e-mail when they are in stock.

In the 1977, Edward Van Halen was playing the earliest (white with black stripes) version of his most famous guitar. In the bridge position of that S-type guitar, he installed a 1963 Gibson P.A.F. ("patent applied for") humbucking pickup that he had removed from his Gibson ES-335. He had removed the...

08/13/2026

A gift to a talented luthier.

08/12/2026

Why not? Christmas will be here before we know it. I think a special run (maybe 25 units?) is in order, don't you?

I'm thinking that some of our faces would light up by the Christmas tree to find a 1980-modded Super D sort of pickup: the look *and* sound of the one that sat in a certain black-white-and-red guitar after it spent time in a Bee-hive (probably the same pickup: let me know your thoughts in the comments). The sound: same coils and asymmetric magnet that is in our GFW-80 pickup. Yes, the brass may change the sound a bit (for some people: noticeably) but - keep in mind that the original one would have done so as well.

Grub screws are already on the way. This little side-project is going to be fun.

08/09/2026

Among today's work: a Superb 70 in gold.

07/29/2026

Justin Kononovich sent me this photo of his in-progress Edward Van Halen 5150 guitar...into which he has installed the new ToneSlinger AFU Recoil pickup (a "broken coil pickup" tonal reproduction).

His work on period correct / authentic paint/finishes is second to none...which is why I've commissioned from him a Live Without A Net repro. The guitar (before being finished) is being recreated in painstaking detail by the great Donny Ward.

I thank both of these gents for making time to include me in their demanding schedules.