Universal Audio Astra

What if you could have the classic studio modulation of a 1976 bucket-brigade chorus, a legendary '70s rackmount studio flanger, and the optical tube tremolo of a '60s American amp — all in one pedal on your board? That's the Universal Audio Astra Modulation Machine. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

In this episode the UAFX Astra takes center stage, running into my Prisma Guitars Sunset loaded with Lollar Novel Foil pickups in the bridge and neck.

Universal Audio built the Astra around their dual-engine UAFX processing platform, and the modulation models are genuinely end-to-end circuit emulations rather than approximations. Three onboard modes plus two additional downloadable effects cover the full classic modulation spectrum:

Chorus Brigade — UA's complete circuit emulation of the legendary Japanese bucket-brigade gray chorus stompbox, circa 1976. Lush, thick, saturated chorus with vibrato mode available — the most authentic recreation of this pedal's preamp section and BBD chip ever placed in a stompbox.

Flanger/Dblr — the only end-to-end circuit emulation of the legendary late-'70s rackmount bucket-brigade studio flanger/doubler. Organic whoosh, complex doubling textures, and a density that goes well beyond anything a conventional flanger can produce.

Trem 65 — stem-to-stern model of tube-driven optical tremolo from classic 1960s American amps. The real amplitude tremolo feel — the same movement and depth you get from a vintage circuit, not a digital simulation of it.

Free at registration: the Phaser X90 and Dharma Trem '61 — a MXR-style phaser and a uni-vibe-style tremolo that round out the palette significantly.

Dual-engine processing means you can run two instances of the same effect simultaneously — two bucket-brigade units at once, or two tremolo circuits — for a full stereo spread of complex, layered texture. Live/Preset modes, silent switching, preamp coloration, and true/buffered bypass complete the package.

The Prisma Guitars Sunset — built from reclaimed hard rock maple skateboard decks by designer Nick Pourfard — with Lollar Novel Foils in both positions brings the kind of clear, harmonically complex single-coil voice that makes every modulation effect sound three-dimensional rather than flat.

🎛️ Universal Audio Astra Modulation Machine: https://www.uaudio.com/products/astra-modulation-machine

🎸 Prisma Guitars Sunset: https://www.prismaguitars.com/collections

🎸 Lollar Novel Foil Pickups: https://www.lollarguitars.com/novel-foil

🔊 Benson Amps Vincent: https://www.bensonamps.com/amps/vincent

Gibson SG Humbucker Hunt & Mods (Gibson SG Standard '61 Reissue)

I'm on a hunt for the Perfect Humbucker for a Gibson SG Standard '61 Reissue - and I'm making some other mods too! What do you think I changed so far? Thanks a ton for checking the channel out, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE and leave a comment if you dig the content! Also, follow on Instagram and say what's up in the DMs! www.instagram.com/edgeofbreakup

I picked up this Gibson SG Standard '61 Reissue a few months back and I've been getting to know it, and adjusting it for the feel I want. I have set it up both both slide and standard tuning / action, and I have found that the Gibson Burstbuckers are pretty great, especially with some heat cooking with your amp - so today we are gonna be looking at the tones you can get from those stock pickups.

Unfortunately, I did find that the guitar's tuning stability was quite lacking, so I replaced the tuners with @StewMac Locking Kluson Tuners which helped but didn't get me all the way there, so I am going to get the nut replaced with a @StewMac Bone nut, looking to learn to do that on the job! Maybe I will share a video... we'll see. I also replaced all the wiring with @Emerson Custom SG Wiring Kit, and added an Emerson Custom Treble Bleed to both volume knobs to preserve my top end when turning volume down. Finally, I replaced the stock stop tail/saddle/bridge with a Callaham stainless steel kit.

In the future, I am going to be dropping in some Fralin Pickups, Lollar Pickups, Seymour Duncan and Sonic Pickups to compare with this video! I am pretty stoked on comparing the results, and seeing if a new nut helps the tone and tuning stability as well! Thanks for checking it out!

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The hunt for the perfect humbucker starts here. Before we swap anything, let's hear what the Gibson SG Standard '61 Reissue sounds like with its stock Burstbuckers — after some meaningful mods along the way. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

This is the first episode in a running series: the search for the best humbucker for a Gibson SG Standard '61 Reissue. Over the coming videos I'll be dropping in Fralin, Lollar, Seymour Duncan, and Sonic pickups to compare directly against this baseline. But first — the stock setup, and what I've already changed on this guitar.

The Gibson Burstbucker set that ships with the '61 Reissue is genuinely capable, especially when you push an amp into its natural compression zone. Today's demo runs through the Benson Amps Vincent across its clean channel, pushed gain settings, and full dirt channel, and you'll hear exactly what the Burstbuckers can do in each context.

The guitar has already had a few key modifications. Tuning stability on the stock guitar was lacking, so I replaced the tuners with StewMac Locking Kluson units — an improvement, though a bone nut replacement is also in the works. All the wiring has been replaced with an Emerson Custom SG Wiring Kit, with Emerson Custom Treble Bleeds added to both volume knobs so rolling back the volume actually works the way it should. The stop tail, saddle, and bridge have been replaced with a Callaham stainless steel kit for better intonation stability and sustain transfer.

The Burstbuckers with these mods and a quality wiring harness tell a meaningfully different story than the stock out-of-the-box experience. This is the reference point for everything that follows — watch, listen, and let me know in the comments which pickup you think is going to win the hunt.

How I Learned to Love My Stratocaster Bridge Pickup - The Kingtone SRV Switch -

The Story of How I Learned to Love My Stratocaster Bridge Pickup

Be sure to subscribe, and follow me on Instagram for more great guitar content!

Check out my installation of the Kingtone Switch into my Stratocaster here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HPDrjlXNWo

Check out my demo of the Blues Power, MiniFuzz GE, and 1968 Vibe here: https://youtu.be/yyQyAKzdyMo

Check out my demo of the Kingtone Heavy Hand here: https://youtu.be/cBJaKg_e8Nc

Check out my demo of the Kingtone Soloist here: https://youtu.be/zvndhlSKci8

The Kingtone SRV Switch replaces your Strat's neglected secondary tone pot, and gives you 6 clickable knob positions that deliver a progressively warmer high end and EQ benefits of the SRV/Albert King variety to emulate that classic Texas Blues sound that Jesse Davey / Kingtone Guitar hold dear (you can find his Youtube channel at  @jessetwohands ).

If that wasn't enough, it also includes 16 different treble bleed configurations that you can select during installation of the switch to get your guitar's volume knob clean up just right for your level of glassy, treble-y greatness - or even disable a treble bleed if that is your thing! This Switch actually makes me LOVE my Strat bridge pickup for the first time ever, it thickens it up so much and really gives that biting, singing Albert tone!

Here I am showing what the Kingtone SRV Switch is capable of with various levels of gain with the  @Benson Amps  Vincent both with it's pushed clean channel, as well as with the brilliant Kingtone MiniFuzz GE slamming the Benson hard - and of course I run through those tones with the volume knob turned down as well, so you can hear the characteristics of my favorite treble bleed SRV Switch setting, which is a preset Jesse named "Lindy".

For this video, I have the Benson grille mic'd with a combo of Royer R121 and SM57, and the back of the Benson open back 2x12 cab mic'd with a Royer R10 - all of that is running into my  @Universal Audio  Apollo x4 and mixed in  @Ableton  Live 11. My Strat is in D Standard, and I am using  @Stringjoy  Signature 12's on the guitar.

How to Swap Out Your Humbuckers with Other Pickups - Lollar Novel 90 and Novel Foil

Wondering how to swap out your humbuckers with other pickups? I made this installation guide to help others understand how to approach swapping out Humbuckers with Lollar's Novel Series of pickups, which allow you to try other pickup species in the context of a guitar with humbucker routes without any issues irreversibly modifying the guitar.

To hear the full demo and A/B comparison of Lollar's Low Wind Imperial Humbuckers vs the Novel Foil Neck / Novel 90 Bridge I installed, check this video out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aunENT57KcA

Check out Lollar's Novel Foil Pickups here: https://www.lollarguitars.com/novel-foil

And the Novel 90 Pickups here: https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-humbucker-pickups/novel-90

Place an order for a Prisma Sunset or one of their other amazing custom builds here: https://www.prismaguitars.com/collections/guitars/products/sunset-series

Jump Straight to the info you need using these chapters: 00:00 Intro and background on my obsession with Lollar and Prisma 02:48 Quick A/B Comparison of Novel Series vs Imperial Humbuckers in Pickup Positions and Levels of Gain 05:52 Extended Deep Dive with Lollar Low Wind Imperial Humbuckers 13:38 Extended Deep Dive with Lollar Novel Foil Neck and Novel 90 Bridge

One of the key components of my tone journey on guitar was my discovery of Lollar pickups. I have Lollars in every single non-vintage guitar that I own, and I’m constantly blown away by their quality, tone, feel, sparkle, body… I could go on.

Another one of my favorite companies in the music space is Prisma Guitars. Prisma make amazing instruments using really interesting materials, among them reclaimed hard rock maple from skateboard decks! An amazing and sustainable design element, from the minute I saw Prisma’s offerings I knew I had to have one dating back to NAMM 2017 or so. A couple years back, I was planning out my first build from Prisma and going back and forth on specs with owner and designer Nick Pourfard. At the time I was lacking any Guitars with humbuckers, and so I really wanted to take the success I had had with Lollar pickups in my single coil Guitars and try out the humbucker side of the aisle.

This time around I was fixated on his sunset model, which is a beautiful Offset Design named after the district in San Francisco, where he used to operate before we locating to San Diego a couple years ago. I’ve been playing Lollar low wind imperial humbuckers and this guitar since I got it, with a treble bleed on the volume potentiometer and I’ve really enjoyed it however overtime as I’ve gotten to understand the different pedigrees of guitars out there, I began to grow curious when I realized that most solid body alder guitars don’t expect to see humbuckers, and of course I know in the space there is no manual and no wrong way to do it, if it sounds good it is good. But I wondered what if I could put some other pick ups into this guitar and hear how they combine with the Tonewood and see if there are any other interesting fits out there?

The only obstacle on my way was that the routes for humbucker routs.

So imagine my enthusiasm when I discovered that Lollar actually makes a series of diverse pick up styles but in a Humbucker rout compatible form factor which they call the “novel series.” Over the last series of years I’ve been growing to love gold foil pick ups as well as P90s and I was stoked to see that they offer both of these species of pick ups as the novel form factor. Thanks a ton to Lollar for sending these pick ups over! So, I made an install video here where you can see the process of dropping these into a humbucker routed guitar (it’s very easy), but in this video we’re gonna be focusing on an A.B. comparison and I want you to let me know in the comments which configuration you like better, the Lollar low wind imperials humbucker‘s I originally had in the Prisma Sunset guitar versus the novel 90 Bridge and novel foil neck from Lollar. Honestly I love both sounds, but which would you keep in the guitar?

——

Want to put a Gold Foil or a P-90 in your humbucker-routed guitar without touching a router? Here's exactly how to do it. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

In this video, I walk through the full process of swapping out humbuckers for Lollar's Novel Series pickups in my Prisma Guitars Sunset — and include a full A/B comparison between the Lollar Low Wind Imperial humbuckers and the Lollar Novel Foil neck and Novel 90 bridge that replaced them.

The Lollar Novel Series is built around one core idea: bring popular single-coil pickup voices to any guitar with standard humbucker routing. Drop-in installation, same 2.75" x 1.50" footprint, no modifications, no routing, no permanent changes to the guitar. If you've been hesitant to try a Gold Foil or P-90 because your guitar is humbucker-routed, the Novel Series removes every obstacle.

The install itself is straightforward — this video shows the full process, and it's as simple as any standard humbucker swap. The Novel Series uses the same mounting hardware and the same routing depth. Two wires per pickup and you're done.

The Novel Foil at the neck is Lollar's Gold Foil design in humbucker form — 44-gauge wire on a rubberized ferrite magnet, crystal clear top end, massive harmonic overtones, and a wide dynamic range that makes a tube amp work for its breakup character naturally. The Novel 90 at the bridge brings P-90 grit, Alnico 2 magnets, and an open, less mid-heavy character than a traditional P-90 — clarity and chime without losing bite.

Against those, the Lollar Low Wind Imperial humbuckers are warm, round, and vintage PAF-voiced — a completely different sonic world from the same guitar. Which one wins? Watch and let me know in the comments.

Check out Lollar's Novel Foil Pickups here: https://www.lollarguitars.com/novel-foil
And the Novel 90 Pickups here: https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-humbucker-pickups/novel-90
Place an order for a Prisma Sunset here: https://www.prismaguitars.com/collections

Swap Out Your Humbuckers! Lollar Pickups Novel Foil & Novel 90

Swap Out Your Humbuckers? You've gotta try the Lollar Pickups Novel Foil & Novel 90!

One of the key components of my tone journey on guitar was my discovery of Lollar pickups. I have Lollars in every single non-vintage guitar that I own, and I’m constantly blown away by their quality, tone, feel, sparkle, body… I could go on.

Another one of my favorite companies in the music space is Prisma guitars. Prisma make amazing instruments using really interesting materials, among them reclaimed hard rock maple from skateboard decks! An amazing and sustainable design element, from the minute I saw Prisma’s offerings I knew I had to have one dating back to NAMM 2017 or so. A couple years back, I was planning out my first build from Prisma and going back and forth on specs with owner and designer Nick Pourfard.

At the time I was lacking any Guitars with humbuckers, and so I really wanted to take the success I had had with Lollar pickups in my single coil Guitars and try out the humbucker side of the aisle. This time around I was fixated on his sunset model, which is a beautiful Offset Design named after the district in San Francisco, where he used to operate before we locating to San Diego a couple years ago. I’ve been playing Lollar low wind imperial humbuckers and this guitar since I got it, with a treble bleed on the volume potentiometer and I’ve really enjoyed it however overtime as I’ve gotten to understand the different pedigrees of guitars out there, I began to grow curious when I realized that most solid body alder guitars don’t expect to see humbuckers, and of course I know in the space there is no manual and no wrong way to do it, if it sounds good it is good.

But I wondered what if I could put some other pick ups into this guitar and hear how they combine with the Tonewood and see if there are any other interesting fits out there? The only obstacle on my way was that the routes for humbucker routs.

So imagine my enthusiasm when I discovered that Lollar actually makes a series of diverse pick up styles but in a Humbucker rout compatible form factor which they call the “novel series.” Over the last series of years I’ve been growing to love gold foil pick ups as well as P 90s and I was stoked to see that they offer both of these species of pick ups as the novel form factor. Thanks a ton to Lollar for sending these pick ups over! So, I made an install video here where you can see the process of dropping these into a humbucker routed guitar (it’s very easy), but in this video we’re gonna be focusing on an A.B. comparison and I want you to let me know in the comments which configuration you like better, the Lollar low wind imperials humbucker‘s I originally had in the Prisma Sunset guitar versus the novel 90 Bridge and novel foil neck from Lollar. Honestly I love both sounds, but which would you keep in the guitar?

——

What if you could drop a Gold Foil or a P-90 directly into your humbucker-routed guitar — no routing, no modifications, no drama? That's exactly what Lollar's Novel Series makes possible. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

In this episode, I'm doing an A/B comparison between my original Lollar Low Wind Imperial humbuckers and the Lollar Novel Foil (neck) and Novel 90 (bridge) in my Prisma Guitars Sunset — a stunning offset guitar built from reclaimed hard rock maple skateboard decks in San Diego, California.

The Lollar Novel Series exists to solve a real problem: single-coil players with humbucker-routed guitars. Lollar developed the Novel lineup to bring their most popular single-coil pickup voices to standard humbucker footprints — same 2.75" x 1.50" housing, drop-in installation, zero routing required.

The Novel Foil in the neck is Lollar's Gold Foil design in humbucker form. 44-gauge wire wound around a rubberized ferrite magnet, DC resistance of 6.2K at neck. Crystal clear top end, massive harmonic overtones, wide dynamic range that pushes a tube amp into natural breakup. If you've heard Lollar's Gold Foil in a traditional mount, the Novel Foil delivers that same character in any humbucker-routed guitar.

The Novel 90 at the bridge is Lollar's P-90 voice in the same form factor — Alnico 2 magnets, 11.67K output at bridge, designed to deliver P-90 grit and power with a slightly more open, less mid-heavy character than a standard P-90. Clarity and chime without losing the bite. Touch-sensitive in exactly the way a great P-90 always has been.

Against those, the Lollar Low Wind Imperial humbuckers are the reference point — a lower-output PAF-style humbucker with a warm, round, vintage character that the Prisma Sunset has been wearing since it was built. Both configurations are genuinely compelling, and this video exists to let you hear exactly what switching from one to the other actually sounds like in a real guitar.

The Prisma Guitars Sunset is one of the most interesting guitar platforms available — offset body, San Francisco-neighborhood named, built from reclaimed hard rock maple skateboard decks by designer Nick Pourfard. Sustainable materials, boutique build quality, and a resonance that makes every pickup swap a meaningful experiment.

Which one would you keep? Let me know in the comments.

How to Install the Kingtone Switch - The Best Guitar Mod You Can Make to your Strat!

So you want to know how to install the Kingtone Switch? I've made a brief video detailing the process with my Stratocaster. Full walk-through of the guitar tones is now live here: https://youtu.be/uNhDonLO5Mo

Phenomenal tones across all pickups, and a granular ability to customize the amount/character of the treble bleed when you turn your guitar volume down via the 4 dipswitches on the Kingtone Switch.

Full Demo Coming Soon! Grab a Kingtone Switch here: https://www.kingtoneguitar.com/product/king-tone-switch-srv/

The Stratocaster bridge pickup has a reputation problem. Too bright, too thin, too harsh. The KingTone SRV Switch fixes it — and this is the video that proved it to me. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

In this episode, I'm installing the KingTone Guitar SRV Switch into my Nash S63 in Sonic Blue, loaded with Lollar Vintage Blonde pickups on the neck and middle and a Lollar Special Strat Bridge, to show you exactly what this thing does to a single-coil Strat in the real world.

The KingTone SRV Switch is a passive replacement for the lower tone control on a Stratocaster — the one most players never touch. Designer Jesse Davey built it around a core insight: the standard Strat tone circuit is a blunt instrument. The KingTone replaces it with a six-position switch offering tonal settings focused specifically around SRV, Albert King, and BB King-style voicings, paired with 16 treble bleed configurations built in — all passive, no battery required, no PCB, just two wires and a world of new tone. The treble bleed circuit is always active in the SRV version, meaning your top end stays present and clear through the full sweep of the volume knob. Every position adds a tubey, hollow, fundamentally richer quality to the signal — fatness, warmth, and edge in exactly the right proportions. String bending becomes more articulate. Vibrato tracking improves. And the bridge pickup — the one you've probably been avoiding — suddenly sounds like the best pickup in the guitar.

That last part is what this video is really about. The bridge pickup on a single-coil Strat is often underused because it can be unforgivingly bright and thin. The KingTone SRV Switch changes that equation completely. In position 2, you get authentic SRV-voiced warmth and bite — the same round, thick, biting character that Stevie got by running heavy strings, low action, and cranked blackface Fenders. Passive. Instant. Reversible if you hate it, though you won't.

The Nash S63 in Sonic Blue is one of the great modern Strat platforms — aged alder body, medium C neck, and Nash's commitment to getting the vintage vibe right without overcooking the relic work. The Lollar Vintage Blonde and Special Strat pickups are perfectly matched for this application — pre-CBS voiced, scatter-wound, dynamically expressive. Together with the KingTone SRV Switch they form a genuinely complete single-coil tone package.