Paul Carson Pickups
Paul Carson grew up in Memphis, TN, and moved around until settling in Springfield, MO, where he now resides. An early interest in music led him to study trumpet and trombone in school, but his moment of clarity came at his first Petra concert in 1982, where he said "the switch was turned on". At that moment he said he knew precisely that this was his purpose in life. After picking up the guitar, he began immediately to play in bands and on his worship team at church. He began writing, adding to his church's worship repertoire, and playing in other various musical projects.
His first big opportunity came in 1998 when he was recruited as a cowriter and touring musician by Mike Schmitz (writer for Greg X Volz's solo albums), and by Jonathan David Brown (producer of Volz-era Petra albums, among many artists) doing studio work for some of Brown's many projects.
In 2013, Paul and his daughter, Casandra, formed the band Paralandra to perform songs they had been writing together. They began recording music and touring the country. They quickly gained momentum and began playing on the national level, and have been on the rise since the release of their albums, Street Magic and The Body Electric, both produced by multi-platinum producer Elvis Baskette. Since then, Paralandra have not only had mutlitple charting songs, but have been extensively touring, playing festivals and stages all across the country.
In addition to Paralandra, in 2022 Paul joined as the guitarist of Classic Petra Resurrection, featuring classic members of Petra - Greg X Volz, Louie Weaver, John Lawry, and Greg Bailey. They have been playing live shows and bringing back the classic Christian Rock experience to a new generation.
"When approached by LSL to create a custom pickup design, I knew exactly what I wanted. I've always leaned towards a less-gainy pickup, with a bit of a round, bassy tone, but one that would still pop in the mix, sustain well, and clearly bring the harmonics all over the strings! After some back-and-forth with the makers at LSL, we came up with something simliar to the JB I had used for years, but cleaner and clearer, without sacrificing the gain and harmonic scream. It's truly unreal! I have literally ceased to use the clean side of amp, and exlusively roll my guitar volume knob for clean (or slightly broken up) tones. Between my volume knob and tone knobs, you'd think I have a built in pedalboard. Haha! There has been no looking back, as I have sound engineers constantly wondering about my rig, and shocked that there's no "secret bullet" amp or pedal to point to. Thanks, LSL, for bringing the best out of my guitars!"