Welcome to LeoSounds.de
LeoSounds pickups are completely handmade and represent a highly individual, custom-made sound machine. They can make every pale Strat or Tele shine in a totally new sound-quality, every low-cost guitar will be 100% revalued.
As such these pickups offer you the chance to setup a very individual guitar, one of the reasons why some of my customers are small-shop guitar-builders. Due to the fact that they are completely handcrafted, Leosounds Pickups certainly are subject to small differences - so you can be sure to buy a unique specimen.
News
Vintage Player PAF "Gregor Hilden Signature"
In cooperation with German guitarist Gregor Hilden we've designed a new Vintage-Player PAF humbucker set.The Vintage Player PAF "Gregor Hilden Signature" set can be purchased exclusive from Gregor Hilden Guitars
Upcoming Products: Vintage Player PAF
Musikmesse 2009 in Frankfurt: PremierGuitar Interview with CEO Michael Pantleon / LeoSounds
Musikmesse 2009 in Frankfurt: LeoSounds will take together with Bernd Meiser / BSM and Burkhard Lehle / Lehle-Gitarrentechnik - Hall/Level 4.2 - Stand B31, 01.April - 04.April - 2009 Frankfurt/Main Messegelände.
Dec. 2008: Vintage Player Strat Series expanded by two signature sets - Irish-Tour and Fireball, my homage to two different guitarists that are rated highly by myself.
Japan: Exclusive sales for Japanese market since end of 2008 is Kojiro Sato / Aquamusic Japanwww.aquamusic.jp
LeoSounds Vintage Player sets tested in Premier Guitar magazine
20 Dec. 2007, LeoSounds Pickups have been reviewed at Premier
Guitar Magazine. Please find the full review here
Review
PG or alternatively here Review
PG html. Reviewer Douglas Baldwin: ...had me playing
far longer than required for mere product analysis – always
a sign of a great product.....You may be hearing the sound of
LeoSounds in your axe very soon....
LeoSounds Vintage Player sets tested in German Gitarre&Bass magazine
In issue 08/2007 of Germany's No1 guitar magazine, Udo Pipper gave our Vintage Player Classic Stratocaster Pickups a test run. We are very pleased with their outstanding score.
G&B: "The 1956 Vintage Player set is modeled on the historical guidelines of Fender, right down to the smallest detail. the material of the magnets, the magnet wire and basepleate are true to the historic specifications. These pickups prove, that Michael Pantleon, founder of Leosounds has no problem with the supposed contradiction between Twang and Warmth . This PU set sounds amazingly ballanced, open and musical.
The review of the Vintage Player 1966 Classic set was also spectacular.
G&B: "The 1966 Vintage Player set comes with the histrorically correct gray bottom, violet magnet wire end the exact lenght of the magnet rods (staggered). It delivers the typical Hendrix sound with haunting highs while the perfomance stays smooth and pleasant in every situation.
With these pickups, Leosounds effortless establishes himself on the top position amongst German pickup makers.
Especially with their moderate price, they are a more than a promising competitior to the established pickup products from overseas."
G&B Pickup Test with LeoSounds
Germany's No1 guitar magazine Gitarre&Bass performed a vintage Strat pickup test
(G&B 03/2006).
LeoSounds took part with 3 sets within a contest of 25 sets overall.
G&B: "...compliments go to South Germany. Offering high quality boutique-pickups at
such low prices
is new on the market..."
Can be reviewed in the march issue of Gitarre&Bass magazine - another outstanding article
by Udo Pipper.
(Tested: 60s Standard, 62-ST Classic, 62-ST Overwound)
User comments
Stratocaster RedHouse set
"I thought about to sell this guitar because it does not sound good
(dull). I tried different pickups before (Fender Mex, Barfuss SRV and
Noiseless), but this set is the best I ever had in this guitar. Now this
guitar is my favourite and I would not sell her.
The owner is a nice guy and answered all my questions. I saved my guitar
with this pickupset and now I have the sound I searched for." - Michael
on Harmony Central
"My uncle, who's a pro guitarplayer, changed the pickups for me. He
compared my upgraded strat with 2 of his Fender strats. (one from 64',
one from 72').
There were a lot of diffent styles that he tried out (BB King, SRV, Buddy
Guy, Jimi, Led Zeppelin, Free, Rory Gallagher, some slide-guitar and so
on and so on ... ), and he compared them with every pickup one at a time.
He was really amazed how they competed that well. He couldn't stop playing
at first, because he couldn't believe that such cheap pickups (they are
really cheap if you compare them with other brands!) made such a big difference.
Another thing that surprised him was that my guitar, which has a multiplex
body (it's a cheap guitar) sounded as good as his in ash and alder."
- Anonymous on Harmony Central
Stratocaster 1962 ST Overwoundset
"The pickups sound strong, punchy, clear and are very touch sensitive.
I'm not into all this noiseless stuff but having a RWRP middle PU doesn't
hurt either. The only downside is, that the bridge pickup alone is a lot
harsher than the other positions. On the other hand it sounds very nice
in combination with the middle PU. So if you don't need the bridge PU
alone these pickups are as good as any of the well known boutique products
out there ... for a great price. IMO they are higher quality PUs than
the Seymour Duncan SSL-1s for the reasons I described above. BTW: I ordered
them with non staggered pole pieces for no extra charge ... delivery took
less than a week for custom made PUs and the folks at LeoSounds are great!"
- Herbert on Harmony Central
Stratocaster 60s Standard set
"Killer-price for a handmade quality custom-product. Michael Pantleon
gives you the tone you want for 1/3 of the price of known brands. I feel,
I have to order also a set of his standard PUPs. By the way: his pre-
and aftersales service is excellent!" - Rudolf on Harmony
Central
"If it were destroyed (which is not very likely) I would definitely
buy it again. Excellent sound for a fair price! Try it!" - Joachim
on Harmony Central
Telecaster MudCat set
"Those LeoSounds MudCat pickups - from www.leosounds.de - are GREAT:
the neck pickup is very transparent (no mud at all) and has quite a bit
of punch, the bridge pup is very ballsy and raunchy, fat, but still with
quite a bit of twang; if usually P90s are described as half-way between
humbuckers and single-coils, these ones could be described as half-way
between P90s and Tele-single-coils. Perfect for rockabilly, blues, rootsy
rock, can still do country (though LeoSounds have twangier vintage-style
ones for that).
I usually play mostly clean, but with these I also like the dirty sounds
- raunchy, gutsy, ballsy, aggressive, but not fizzly, buzzy, cutting -
perfect.
The pickups also react very well to turning down the tone pot - I find
the tone pot useless with most guitars, but here it gives quite a variety
of sounds, turning it down on the neck pup with the amp on full power,
I can get a great singing lead sound, but still with a bit of dirt, very
bluesy, great." - RomanS on Harmony Central
Telecaster FatCat set (custom order)
"It is the best pickup I had in this guitar so far and it is unlikely
that I try anything else. My experience with Vintage Specs Telecaster
Bridge models is that most of them are too bright for me. Therefore I
do not think that any of the boutique models from Fralin or Lollar would
suit my taste. Michael is a great guy. I bought a different model (MudCat)
from him through eBay and did not like it because it was way too bright
for me. He almost went out of the way and offered to wind me a stronger
pickup. What a great job he did! And you really cannot complain about
the price as well!" - Stephan on Harmony Central
GrowlDogs humbucker set
"This pickup delivers a great balanced sound. Very nice clean sounds.
Even in high gain situations it's not noisy at all. Gives a wonderful
defined distortion. Just think of Jim Matheos sound.
The low frequences are not as strong, what I think is of advantage. It
does not get muddy and you're sound is very defined in the band situation.
And just consider the incredible price. Moreover Michael Pantleon is a
very nice person and you can get a real custom made pickup for half of
the price of a stack PRS." - Sebastian on Harmony Central