Lollar unveils the Eldorado – a humbucker that is designed to be split for single-coil tones

There is no shortage of options for top-quality aftermarket electric guitar pickups but finding a humbucker that sounds as good as a single-coil can be tricky. 

Often, those split-coil tones have some of the spank but lack the oomph of a full single-coil pickup. Lollar Pickups might have the answer.

The new Lollar Eldorado is designed to function as a moderate output humbucker – its DC readings show 9.0k for the neck 'bucker, 10.4k at the bridge – and perform perfectly well as a full, grown-up Stratocaster or Tele-style single-coil tones when you split it.

Lollar says the Eldorado “strikes a perfect balance between humbucker, and split single-coil tones.“ Its tone profile has a noticeable bump in the midrange, with “good upper harmonic balance and clarity.“

If it is more common for pickup manufacturers to talk about a specific sound and style for each of their designs, with the Eldorado, Lollar says anything goes. The Eldorado is designed to be versatile, with no fizz or harshness in high-gain settings, and a balanced frequency response. 

The idea being, that if you fit one of these in your guitar, you might not need to pack so many guitars with you when you go to play a set. 

Priced $200, the Eldorado is available now. See Lollar for more details.

Lollar El Dorado

(Image credit: Lollar)
Jonathan Horsley

Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.