TESLA: VR Extreme

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TESLA- VR Extreme
List: $220 (Neck/ bridge set)

DiMarzio & Seymour Duncan are arguably the popular names in passive replacement pickups. These are tried & tested products with a backing of countless professional players & endorsers alike. The mere mention of them would be enough to invoke pleasant tonal accounts which we would not hesitate to sample ourselves. Would you risk embracing a lesser-known manufacture, knowing the obscurity factor alone is liable for an indeterminate outcome? Have you ever heard of TESLA pickups?

Features/ build
The TESLA brand name is a proud Korean tonal confection. The VR tag here indicates the manufacturer’s Vintage Reflection series which the Extreme is a member of. The ‘Extreme’ consignment is quite a parody to the vintage moniker but you can quite picture what the humbucker offers; high output & forcefulness.

The Extreme is a ceramic magnet humbucker with excessive winding which makes it unsuitable for many direct-mount installations, so you have been warned. Its thicker physique isn’t a problem if your guitar employs a pickup bracket mount (Ibanez RG/ Fender pickguard compliant as well). The outer facing slit-head pole-pieces mean that if you wish to tinker with pole-pieces height, you can only do so for only one coil.

The brigde/ neck set comes packed in a black box supplemented with pickup height adjustment screws & springs. The pickups are neatly manufactured & the presentable packaging speaks volume of the manufacturer’s good intent; that’s before you hear what the Extreme has to offer.

Rating: 95%

Tone
The Extreme pair here is resident in an Ibanez S-series guitar for the tone check, both units are suitably height adjusted to give off a volume balance upon activation.

Clean, the Extreme sounds fat both in the bridge & neck positions. There is a certain treble bump (more marked in the bridge position) here that would relegate this pickup to be less musical than the typical lure of a vintage-voiced pickup. Nevertheless, this presence isn’t one to render excessive shrillness; the neck would still entice players who are particular with a certain strumming jangle. Paired with a suitable 12” amp driver, it makes a good jazz comper.

Moving on to the driven tones; this is really the Extreme’s staple. It is perhaps due to the extra winding which makes it more menacing with loads of drive pumped up. What you hear is single note clarity & impressive poke to supplement heavy distortion if that’s your thing. All metal proponents & players in need of a non-muffled output would love what the Extreme has in store, especially if you solo in the neck. The Extreme also cleans up well with the guitar volume knob backed off but it somehow couldn’t capture a blues crunch sizzle quite aptly; we’d leave that to the other, lesser output VR family members to manifest.

Tone test equipment:
• Amp: Sound Drive SG-612R/ Marshall JVM 410H
• Guitar: Ibanez S1620

Rating: 90%

Conclusion
Despite this appraisal, there would still be cynics out there who would deem the impressive/ Asian pairing to be somewhat personal & not representative of the legitimate bigger picture. Many of us wouldn’t come close to even consider a TESLA when there are other more renowned brand names with competitive prices to choose from. This is all understood as the cost of replacement units & its entailed service charges require us to tread the heedful path (better safe than sorry) because doing away with an unsatisfactory replacement is sheer loss in every way. The Extreme is recommended for players who are high gain/ drive mongers & insist on clarity to cut through the mix. Despite its slightly scooped & treble-enhanced inherent voicing, there is potent punch to be had from the Extreme. One would wish that a pickup this good could do better than be a one-trick pony but when was a specialist ever a jack of all trades?

Overall rating: 90%

Likes:
• Accepts high gain/ drive very well
• Clarity

Dislikes:
• Pickup’s physical depth is adverse to direct-mount guitars
• Cleans could have been more alluring in the bridge

Worthy competitors:
*Seymour Duncan Distortion
*DiMarzio Super Distortion

Product available at:
*Standard Value

PS: Thanks Mike @ SV for enduring my extensive testing...

[Midnight]

very nice review sub, wat about worthy rivals of this pickup?

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was in a hurry to leave the house- bits more added... :-)

[Noein]

yea man! got these pups installed in my guitar several months back, never failed on me, really great tone =) Rivals the SDs I might say.

[EugeneSmasher]

I know a really good guitar instrumental player, he literally swears by these pickups. After hearing them on his RG321MH, I'm nearly a convert too, they sounded light years better than the Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz he had in them before. After all, he lent it to me for some time before he refitted it with the Teslas :mrgreen:.

At the various times I went over to Standard Value for guitar setup, I mentioned that I might want a pickup change, and Mike suggested this pickup in the bridge position. I read somewhere this pickup excels in neo-classical shred, stuff that requires clarity even at ridiculous levels of gain.

Guess I know what pickup I'll be putting into my Ibanez's bridge position when the need arises.

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...they sounded light years better than the Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz he had in them before.

the VR Extreme sounding way better than the above-mentioned Duncans is subjective (JB & Jazz were inherently conceived by the manufacturer to propel certain tonal characteristics, very different from the Extreme's character) but this TESLA has indeed some of the best definition this side of planet passive pickups 8-)