I think I may have settled on a sidewinder design for my custom bass

[Chris Turner]

So, I wound up another sidewinder using 2 C8 mags with the EMG-style bobbins from Mojo, and used a 1/4" steel keeper with some set screws for pole pieces. My last sidewinder used a 3/8" steel keeper, and wasn't quite as "lively" as this pickup. I'm digging it a LOT with the smaller keeper.

Each bobbin has 6000 winds of 43AWG. The pickup sits right about where a Ricky 4003's bridge pickup sits, which is where the 36th fret would be. Man, these sidewinders can be bright!... as evidenced in the clip I've attached. I play a few licks, each twice, with the first run through having the coils wired in parallel, and then again in series.

[big_teee]

So, I wound up another sidewinder using 2 C8 mags with the EMG-style bobbins from Mojo, and used a 1/4" steel keeper with some set screws for pole pieces. My last sidewinder used a 3/8" steel keeper, and wasn't quite as "lively" as this pickup. I'm digging it a LOT with the smaller keeper.

Each bobbin has 6000 winds of 43AWG. The pickup sits right about where a Ricky 4003's bridge pickup sits, which is where the 36th fret would be. Man, these sidewinders can be bright!... as evidenced in the clip I've attached. I play a few licks, each twice, with the first run through having the coils wired in parallel, and then again in series.

Thanks for sharing your data!
That is real rare around here.
I'm sure you have compared them to regular ceramic buckers.
Care to elaborate?
Sound clip sounds good.
T

[Chris Turner]

Thanks for sharing your data!
That is real rare around here.
I'm sure you have compared them to regular ceramic buckers.
Care to elaborate?
Sound clip sounds good.
T

I don't mind sharing data like this... I don't do this for a living, and I'm not doing anything radically different from what anyone else might already be doing. I just have a love for tinkering and do this for fun.

If you wanted me to elaborate on comparisons to other ceramic humbuckers, I'll have to disappoint you. I'm not sure I've personally heard too many ceramic humbuckers that I know of, with the exception of some EMGs I heard in a Czech-made Spector bass I played once. That was too long ago to make any really valid comparisons. This pickup is basically the same pickup as what's pictured in the attachment to this post, but the keeper is less massive, and the set screws are necessarily smaller too.



I'm 99% sure I'll be using a set of these in my custom, but will wait until I've put another together so I can hear they'll interact with each other... probably in the 70's Jazz bass positions.