Lollar High Wind Imperial Bridge Review
- Barış Şahin
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
I'm really into ~10K overwound PAF humbucker clones. If you don't have a really good Les Paul, or if you're playing a 25.5" scale super strat, standard-wind PAF bridge pickups can sometimes sound a bit too bright. Plus, you generally want a bit more “meat” in the tone at bridge, you know what i mean. It's nice to have a sound that, when you switch from elsewhere to the bridge or roll up the volume knob, says “I'm right here—hear me!” That sound should be bold, fat, yet clear&articulate. At the same time, I want to be able to control it—like reining in a horse, using the volume knob to shape the response and dynamics. It should be strong, but not so compressed that it loses the feel of the pick attack. That’s where many high-output bridge pickups fall short—they lose that subtlety. But if a pickup is designed and wound properly, it can truly offer the best of both worlds. These sit somewhere between traditional PAF-style bridges and modern high-gain humbuckers. To me, they're more versatile than either extreme, since the others tend to be more “focused.” There are lots of great pickups in this category—Wolfetone’s Marshallhead, Seymour Duncan’s Brobucker and Saturday Night Special, DiMarzio’s Virtual Hot PAF (even though it’s not architecturally identical) and Fortitude, Mojotone’s ’59 Clone Hot, Celentano’s Modern PAF, Fralin’s Modern P.A.F. Bridge, Ibanez’s V7 (even if it wasn’t originally designed for this), and Suhr’s Thornbucker II… And of course, the subject of this review: the Lollar High Wind Imperial. Let’s see what it’s all about.
The Test Guitar
My High Wind Imperial (shortly “HWI”) still sits on the bridge of my hand-made superstrat, ‘Goldie’, that has a Turkish alder body, a Q-sawn one-piece maple neck in a chunky Endur-Neck profile, Gotoh 510T-FE1 tremolo, 25.5” scale, steel frets, Bourns 500K volume and Alpha 500K tone pots, and 009-046 D'Addario NYXL0946 strings in E-standard tuning. The guitar has a Dimarzio Bluesbucker in the neck and custom wound middle (true single with coil tapping 5.5K/6.5K windings, now on 6.5K side is on) pickups. Its primary (unplugged) tone ranges from balanced to medium-bright.
Evaluation
Let’s read the official desciption first, as always;
“High Wind Imperial Humbucker
Get a thicker, fuller sound that will push your amp harder and faster than our standard Imperials while delivering a smooth tone and softer attack. We often recommend these for thin-bodied guitars like Gibson SGs.
Avg. DC: Neck 8.4K, Bridge 9.4K
Recommended Potentiometers: 500k
Recommended Capacitor: 0.022μF.”
…And, my measuremens are here;
Lollar High Wind Imperial Bridge Review
Magnet – Alnico 2
Advertised DCR: 9.40 K Ohm (Series)
Measured DCR: 9.39 K Ohm (Series)
Measured DCR: 4.72 K Ohm (Screw Coil)
Measured DCR: 4.67 K Ohm (Slug Coil)
Inductance @100Hz: 6.18 H (Series)
Inductance @100Hz: 2.52 H (Screw Coil)
Inductance @100Hz: 2.65 H (Slug Coil)
Measured C: -31.8nF (Series)/ -60.5nF (Screw Coil) / -62.5nF (Slug Coil)
Output: Vintage/Medium
EQ (B/M/T) – 7.0/7.0/6.4 (derived from official website graph, out of 10 instead of 5)
Gauss: 300G screw, 290G slug (measured at top center of D&G pole pieces)
Ambient Measurement Temperature: 26oC
As always, when we take a closer look at the pickup, there's nothing unusual or unfamiliar about it. It looks like a typical, traditional humbucker—screws and slugs, nickel silver baseplate, the usual stuff. The only standout detail is a small red plastic piece attached to the underside, bearing the model name and production year. There also seems to be a signature, probably from the winder.
The pickup's magnetic flux density is relatively strong for an alnico 2 magnet within. If we consider ~300 gauss as an average reference point, I’d say it’s very much within Alnico 5 territory. Now that I think about it, I can’t recall measuring any other pickup with this level of magnetic pull—except for the Duncan Pearly Gates
Since the coils look fat, i assume HWI has AWG 42 wire. Plus, according to the dcr measurement of the coils, there isn’t any mismatching in the winding.
If I had to describe the tonal character of the High Wind Imperial in a single word, I’d say it’s “dark.” I wouldn’t go as far as to call it lacking in clarity, but it’s definitely less bright than a typical 8.5K PAF clone. The lows are strong and somewhat rounded—not boomy, but there’s a slight sponginess to them. It actually reminded me, to some extent, of humbuckers with strong Alnico 2 magnets. There’s a noticeable emphasis on the low mids. The midrange is pronounced, but I should note that it’s not a nasal-sounding pickup. The highs are a bit recessed—not absent, but to say I never felt like something was missing would be dishonest. In that regard, pickups like the Virtual Hot PAF strike a better balance. HWI, actually, made me think of swapping the alnico 2 magnet with a full charged roughcast alnico 5. I may really try it...
Disclaimer: Please take a look at the video i’ve prepared for you (above): Please remember the aim of my videos is NEVER making the pickup to sound its best. There are countless numbers of videos with perfect sound, mix and editing. They all have the best sound. Always and on every pickup they demo sounds killer. That’s not what my videos are about. I usally tend to make all the variants on amp and recorder the same. Same settings, same distance, same camera etc. My goal is achieving something comperative with my other demo videos.
Now let’s compare it to some similar pickups... Starting with the Virtual Hot PAF—compared to the High Wind Imperial, the VHP is clearer and has more presence. The lows are a bit more pulled back in comparison. Among the other pickups I’ve reviewed so far, the one that comes closest might be the Mojotone ’59 Clone Hot. But even there, I’d say clarity was a bit better. Going way back, the Brobucker also comes to mind—but I’ve neither played it in my own guitar nor heard it recently enough to make a reliable comparison. That said, based on my memory and general impression, I’d say the HWI feels somewhat close to the Brobucker.
As for dynamic range and compression response... it's exactly how I like it. There's a slight natural compression—but it’s never overbearing. You can still clearly hear how your picking style or finger technique comes through the amp in a really sweet, musical way. Especially when the amp is set just a bit past the edge of breakup, you really start to appreciate how responsive the pickup is to your picking dynamics. It opens up your phrasing palette in a noticeable way. Super satisfying to play.
For the output, i would put High Wind Imperial in the moderate output category. Because it has more balls than your generic 8-8.5K PAF bridge clones.
Now, let’s talk about the High Wind Imperial and its strengths... First of all, this is an articulate hot PAF. It responds well to dynamic playing and doesn’t suffer from the lifeless feel that some overwound pickups tend to have. At the same time, it’s fat enough to satisfy. In fact, the High Wind Imperial might just be the “Tone Zone” of the hot PAF world. :) Because of that, if you have a 25.5" scale super strat with a slightly bright tone, and you're looking for something more articulate your good-ole JB or Tone Zone—something that doesn’t dominate your tone too much—but you also find traditional PAF-style bridge pickups too weak or lacking in body, then the High Wind Imperial might be exactly what you're looking for. It’s definitely worth your consideration.
Like many humbuckers of this caliber (hot PAF class i mean), the High Wind Imperial is far from being “limited” when it comes to versatility. I have no doubt you'll enjoy the unique flavor it brings when your favorite powerful prog rock melodies or heavy rock riffs come to life, It’s got the range to handle a lot more than just vintage-leaning tones.
Now, I can almost hear you asking—“So, are there really no downsides to this pickup?” As I mentioned earlier in the review, I did feel a bit of a gap in the high frequencies. I think I might actually prefer a version of this pickup with the same output but a slightly flatter EQ. In that sense, my curiosity about the standard-wind Lollar Imperial has definitely grown. That one might be more my thing. I just wish Lollar would send me one to try out...
The High Wind Imperial paired well with my Dimarzio Bluesbucker (DP163). I strongly believe that Air Classic neck will do fine. Moreover Seymour Duncan ’59 neck and pickups relatives with that can also do fine. HWI is not a difficult pickup to pair with.
Cleans? Pretty nice and sweet. I am the right expert to say solid words about it but i could achieved typical sweet clean tones in the favour of Slash, Duane Allman, Lynyrd Skynyrd etc. The clean tones of the guys played Les Pauls…
Conclusion
The Lollar High Wind Imperial Bridge is a well-crafted answer to a very specific tonal need: a hotter, fuller, yet still dynamically responsive humbucker that bridges the gap between vintage clarity and modern muscle. It doesn't aim to reinvent the PAF formula—it simply pushes it in a direction that feels more authoritative in the bridge position, especially on brighter or longer-scale guitars. While its slightly recessed highs may not satisfy those chasing airy, glassy top-end detail, the trade-off is a rich and saturated low-mid character that gives single-note lines and chords real presence. If you're after something more articulate than a Tone Zone or a JB, but meatier than a typical PAF, this might be right in your sweet spot. It's not the most balanced humbucker out there—but it’s definitely one of the more characterful ones. If your guitar needs a bit of extra attitude in the bridge without resorting to full-on high-output aggression, the High Wind Imperial could be your new favorite.
If you play rock or its subgenres, or southern rock, or blues rock, or power rock or something, or modern rock etc. I think it’s very unlikely that you won’t like HWI on the bridge, unless you are obsessed with clarity.
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