Van Zandt Pickups was started by W.L. Van Zandt in the late 1980's, but he had been repairing pickups around the Dallas/Ft.Worth area since the early 1960's. Mr. Van Zandt worked for years as a machinist and played guitar in country bands since the 1950's. He started rewinding the magnets on pickups for friends and other players, and pretty soon he had a small business going as his reputation grew by word of mouth. He would pickup broken pickups from different shops in the area and then return them, better than they were originally.

W.L. then started making a few pickups and when players heard the sound of Van Zandt's hand wound home made pickups, they wanted a set also. Being a perfectionist every detail had to be perfect from the wire, and magnets, down to the soldering, he would not sacrifice quality just to produce more pickups. He once bought a winder that would produce 6 pickups at a time, but he was not satisfied with the quality. That time saving winder was soon under a tarp in the corner of his workshop. The tradition and the legacy continues with Van Zandt pickups.

• Bridge pickup has flat pole pieces (no stagger)
• Built to capture the 50's and early 60's sound
• Very mellow on front pickup with bright back pickup when mixed in center position gives both top end and bottom
• W.L. was a 50's tele man and captured that sound