Some names in the guitar world live in the light.
OTPG aka “Over the Pond Guy” lived in the shadows.
Before boutique winders turned themselves into brands and before every builder had a social feed to promote their work, there was a quiet figure somewhere across the Atlantic winding some of the most haunted, alive, vintage-correct PAF recreations anyone had ever heard.
Players didn’t mention OTPG to brag.
They whispered his name like a secret that only serious ears were allowed to know.
He never shared his real name.
Never posted a workspace photo.
Never built a mailing list or a hype machine.
His disappear-into-the-background approach made people more curious, and curiosity always brings out two groups: the ones who understand tone and the ones who are threatened by it.
As always happens with shadowy brilliance, rumors started swirling.
A small group of jealous competitors even pushed the idea that his pickups were made in China, a common childish claim athat only revealed how little they knew about the sound of a real late-50s humbucker. Players who actually lived inside tone, the ones who knew what bloom and harmonic color should feel like, dismissed that rumor instantly. You can’t fake that breath. You can’t manufacture that voice. Anyone with a good set of ears knew better.
OTPG wasn’t the first or only mysterious figure in the winding world to use a trade name
Willi Stich created a legacy as the musician Billy Lorento and then as a pickup designer at Gibson in the 1970s before he launched Bill Lawrence Pickups.
Don Mare, used the name Buck Cannon and perhaps other names to keep people guessing about his Telecaster “secrets”.
And the winder known as Virgil Arlo spent years operating behind closed doors, letting players discover the magic one guitar at a time, without ever revealing his real name.
OTPG was cut from the same cloth.
Private.
Singular.
Obsessed with the qualities that matter and completely uninterested in the circus that surrounds them.
He made PAFs for players who could feel the difference.
Not for followers.
Not for spec chasers.
For the kind of musicians who know in one note whether a pickup is alive or too stiff.
He didn’t make many sets.
His reputation became enormous.
And what he left behind turned into the kind of lore only real players understand.
That is why OTPG still matters.
His identity was never the point.
The tone was.
Its not uncommon to see OTPG pickups for sale at Reverb for ebay selling in the $2,000 range. Here are some listings, click on the links below to find out more.
$2300 – OTPG PAF – Humbuckers (ZEBRA).
$1900 – OTPG PAF – Humbuckers (BLACK).
$1000 – OTPG PAF – Legend Series (VINT NICKEL).
The pickups sound amazing, as the prices would indicate. Below you’ll find the most relevant forum posts about OTPG. As with any high-end guitar item, you’ll find people that love them. You’ll also find jealous forum posters that can’t afford them bash the quality and value. You know they are not serious guitarists when they start talking about cheap mass produced pickups being as good or better than OTPG Humbuckers, enjoy:
https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/over-the-pond-pickups.391913/
https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/over-the-pond-guy-pickups.105686/?utm_source=
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/are-virgil-arlo-groupies-crazy.1017405/page-2#post-10310926
https://marshallforum.com/threads/closet-jimmy-page-les-paul-2-pickups.20307/
OTPG PAF Humbuckers 