FX Pedal Planet Online Store has recently added the highly sought after Haven by Bagulay Guitars OMNIA passive humbuckers to its inventory. These exceptional pickups, meticulously crafted by hand by Till Westphal, offer a fresh approach to capturing the authentic essence of your instrument. Unlike traditional pickups that may impose their own tonal character onto your sound, the Haven OMNIA range is designed to preserve and showcase the inherent personality of your guitar. It's as if they act as a "transparent" booster, allowing your instrument's true character to shine through.

In a conversation with Till Westphal, we delved into the craftsmanship behind each Haven pickup. Till's dedication and commitment to quality are evident as he meticulously handcrafts each pickup, ensuring exceptional attention to detail. With this level of craftsmanship, the Haven pickups offer a unique and unparalleled sonic experience, allowing guitarists to explore the full potential of their instruments.

By embracing the concept of transparency, the Haven OMNIA pickups offer a sonic palette that complements and enhances the individual characteristics of your guitar, rather than overshadowing them. This approach opens up a world of tonal possibilities, giving musicians the freedom to express themselves fully and authentically.

With the arrival of the Haven OMNIA pickups at FX Pedal Planet Online Store, guitarists now have the opportunity to experience the exceptional craftsmanship and tonal clarity that these pickups bring to their instruments. It's a testament to Till Westphal's commitment to excellence and his unwavering passion for creating pickups that capture the true spirit of each guitar.

Hi Till, thanks for joining us and supplying FX Pedal Planet Online Store with the OMNIA passive humbuckers.  How long have you been making pickups and how did you get into it?  

Hey, thanks for having me!  I started making pickups in 2020.  At that point I hadn't played a lot of guitar, but had some years of experience on bass.  I have been a sound engineer and recordist artist for more than ten years I know what I expected for great guitar tone.  Plus, I am into music electronics and have lots of experience with a soldering iron.

Basically, after Dirk (Baguley Guitars) and I had a couple of beers at JPTR FX’ anniversary party, we started geeking out and agreed that many hot pickups lacked clarity.  Followed by wild brainstorming to rethink conventional designs with the technological possibilities of modern days.

Apart from that I have always wanted to contribute to making the world a more creative place and building pickups ticked all the boxes.

What were the first pickups you made and did they sound OK?  

Actually, the first couple of weeks of development and research happened on paper and in simulation only.  This process was essential because I wanted to create something new and innovative from ground up.  So, the first Haven OMNIA pickup prototype already was a Quad Coil, which sounded crisp and nice, but had an unusably low output.  The modern design evolved so much that it does not share much with its ancestor, but hung on to the approach and nailed the goal.

Since setting up Haven Pickups, what has the response been like from customers and the industry?  

Every day I am totally overwhelmed by the positive feedback we get on tone, usability and customer care.  People love it and I love geeking out with people which they appreciate a lot.

Of course, people aren’t used to bright humbuckers, so they have to adapt their signal chain to make it work, just like you have to tweak your rig when switching from a Les Paul to a Strat. This was something I used to worry about, but it seems to really convince people.  I have heard Haven OMNIA pickups on a couple of album productions now and this is honestly the most humbling and gratifying part of my job.

On your website, there is reference to conventional pickups forcing their frequency response on the instrument.  How did you set about creating pickups that would solve this?  

Well, pickups are a vast topic, way too complex to cover it in two sentences.  But, in essence, it is the combination of component choice and construction.  For example, Neodymium, as pickup material, has not been explored enough in my opinion.  Its dynamic response is ridiculous and a whole new world compared to ceramic magnets.  Plus, almost everything on this pickup is custom made with a specific purpose – from the high permeability blades for balanced projection, frequency response to the PCB baseplate, which facilitates installation and configuration.  Let alone the use of 3D printed parts to facilitate development, iteration and construction.

How long does it take to make a set of pickups and what are the challenges during the build?  

I would estimate the total production time per pickup to roughly one hour.  The main challenge is the high number of different steps, which need to be carefully planned and executed because any mistake can ruin the outcome.  At that point, I basically have to start from scratch.  But, the actual assembly is nothing compared to the development process of a new product.  Haven OMNIA pickups took around 18 months to become a truly finished and well engineered product. 

Conventional pickup builds take longer, by the way.  But, I am going to adapt the constructions to more modern approaches bit by bit, for example by introducing PCB baseplates.

What is the average week like in the workshop?  

On one hand, there is lots of cuddling with dogs, listening to good music, talking to friends and fooling around on coffee breaks.  On the other hand, people push each other really hard to work well and having a good atmosphere for focused work.  It’s brilliant to regularly play high end instruments and the vibes are really good around here since everyone is friends with each other.

What other types of pickup do you make and do you make pickups for bass?  

I do conventional pole piece pickups and rail pickups too, and most of them are voiced as hotter output models with good cleanup, which is my personal preference.  But, I have done all sorts of custom jobs including various single coils, Tele, Strat, P90, and of course, bass pickups for my personal basses.  Plus, multiple others, Musicman style humbuckers, soapbar pickups, conventional stuff just as well as Haven OMNIA adaptations for bass.  The most crazy one so far was a six coil humbucker for a friend’s six string bass with a mad active filtering circuit.

How easy is it to install Haven pickups, or should they be installed by a tech?

On the soldering side of the Haven OMNIA pickups cable it’s like a conventional four wire pickup.  So, if you are handy with a soldering iron, and have the wiring manual on hand, it’s a breeze.  On the pickup side it’s a plug, which you connect to the pickup’s pin system.  This has two advantages.

On one hand, you can guide the cable through the cavities to your liking, solder it in place and then plug it into the pickup without exerting mechanical stress on the pickup by jerking on the cable.  On the other hand, if you ever want to switch the pickup with another Haven pickup, it works without soldering.  

The active variants are plug and play compatible to active Fishman and EMG systems.  No soldering here.  

I would say that most people would manage to install Haven OMNIA's themselves without a problem and I’m always there for remote support in case anyone needs it.  

What types of pickups do you prefer and/or use?  

Honestly, I can’t pin it down to a single model since I am constantly switching my gear up.  My guitars must have seen a soldering iron more often than fresh strings. 

For example, I am currently using a Seymour Duncan Nazgul with a series/parallel switch in the low tuned guitar I use for metal.  It's a hot and characterful pickup, which actually features a lot of bite and definition when switched to parallel and delivers all the chugs in series. 

But, I love the balance of a good rail pickup just as well, and since I’m mainly a Helix user, which allows profound signal alterations, it makes sense to have a more neutral sounding signal to make it more versatile.  An Haven By Baguley Guitars Omnia is the perfect choice for this.

On bass, I enjoy open, modern humbucker pickup sounds with a tight low end and growly low mids as well as a bity top end.  Total Warwick fanboy here.

You work next door to Chris and the team at JPTR FX.  Can it get noisy with Chris cranking a few amps and pedals?  

The problem is actually him shouting at the coffee machine. No, I’m kidding.  There are a couple of dogs at the workshop and we depend a lot on good hearing ourselves, so there’s always a TwoNotes Captor in use. Amp volumes never exceed a healthy level, and if something needs to be heard in a loud context, we try it in Chris’ rehearsal room on his 250W beast of an amp with hearing protection and without dogs.

Finally, what music and bands do you listen to?  Have you any new bands and sounds that you like?

In the course of the last decade my music taste has really opened up and expanded in almost all directions.  Back in the day, I used to (exclusively) listen to lots of extreme and progressive metal.  But, right now, it’s all sorts of Neo Soul, Fusion and Jazz all the way to death metal.  I love music, which is creative, explores limits, breaks expectations with beautiful and creative production.  My current top artists are Sungazer, Jacob Collier and Sleep Token.  All their recent works have been eye opening for me.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Till Westphal of Haven Pickups and Dirk of Baguley Guitars for their invaluable contribution to this feature. If you're interested in learning more about the exceptional Haven by Baguley Guitars OMNIA passive humbuckers, including availability and pricing details, we invite you to click the link below. Explore the world of these meticulously crafted pickups and discover how they can enhance the sonic character of your instrument.

Click here for more information, availability, and prices of Haven by Baguley Guitars OMNIA passive humbuckers SHOW ME MORE.

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