Relay Lipstick

What it is

Relay Lipstick is a humbucker-based guitar with a middle lipstick pickup that reshapes the selected humbucker sound. The bridge and neck humbuckers are the main voices. The lipstick is there to contour them, not replace them.

Pickup interaction

Category: Shaper.

The middle lipstick is not a standalone voice and is not independently controlled. It is added with the push-push volume control after the 3-way selector has chosen bridge, bridge + neck, or neck.

That matters because the guitar still behaves like a familiar two-humbucker instrument. The extra control gives you a second pass over the sound: more high-end contour, more harmonic texture, and a little more air without the weak, reduced-output feel of a basic coil split.

Controls

3-way toggle

1. Bridge
2. Bridge + neck
3. Neck

Volume (push-push) - Adds the lipstick shaper. The bridge also gets a partial split and level compensation so the added texture stays integrated.

Tone (push-pull) - Alternate voicing contour.

How it behaves

The humbuckers provide the core sound: bridge for drive and definition, neck for a rounder response, both together for the familiar center position.

With the lipstick engaged, the selected humbucker voice is redirected instead of replaced. The bridge loses some hard edge and gains texture. The neck opens up and gets less closed-in. The combined position gets more elasticity and high-end movement.

Choose Lipstick if you like humbuckers but want more nuance without turning the guitar into a complicated switching puzzle.

Who it's for

Blues, rock, alternative, and indie players who want a guitar that responds to touch and cleanup. Output is not the point here. The value is keeping the power of humbuckers while adding a controlled way to change their surface and feel.