Halcyon Review: Guitar World
25th February 2026
Halcyon Review Guitar World
We were thrilled to read a great review of the Mike Stringer Halcyon humbuckers from Paul Riario of Guitar World, which you can read here and we have posted in full below.
The Halcyon humbuckers were born out of an intense R&D session with Mike Stringer, Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood and Tim Mills during a stopover in the UK on Mike’s intense Spiritbox touring schedule. The brief was to create a humbucker set designed primarily for 7 string guitars tuned down to F# and to embrace not only Mike’s massive driven tone, but also his unique approach to using bridge and neck pickups together for his clean tones.
The review focuses on the way the humbuckers work in a six string Charvel with a five-way switch and coil tap, which Paul says allowed them to really "dig into these pickups' tonal range":
"Speaking of “killer,” my guitar tech — the guy who installed these Halcyons — informed us, “I’m just gonna warn you — these are the loudest pickups I’ve ever heard in a guitar. Make sure you put the dogs and kids in another room."
The Halcyons are built on a twin blade pole design which allows for even string to string balance, no matter the string gauge or tuning, whilst being extremely practical for multi-scale fitment too.
The bridge is powered by a trio of custom size ceramic magnets which help to control the bottom end response, working in conjunction with the hot wind to deliver an incredibly dialled in mid-range and high end attack. Paul comments that the twin-blade pole design allows both pickups "to maintain even string balance across various gauges and tunings — making these pickups particularly effective for drop tunings and in use on multi‑ or extended-scale instruments."
Utilising a more moderate wind, the neck pickup is powered by an isotropic Alnico V magnet to increase dynamic headroom and combine with the bridge for Mike’s ambient clean tones. Both pickups are designed to have exceptional coil split tones and work equally well wired in parallel. It's safe to say Paul was rather blown away:
"...the bridge pickup has a massive output unlike anything we’ve ever heard."
Paul Riario, Guitar World.
Thanks to Paul for such a great review, and make sure to check out our Limited Editions, where we create a limited run of our pickup range that are available until they sell out, like these pastel green Halcyons, made in our Cornish workshop here in the South West of England.
