I read this at another forum. I wont mention the author nor where it came from. Personally I thinks it's a big ol pile of hype..Opinions please...
Quote:
"The Keystone neck without the cover is very much like a strat sound."
That's because Bill has factored in the inductive effect of the metallurgy incorporated in the pickup cover. Remove it, and you compromise the design.
Most pickup manufacturers, wind their pickups and place a chrome plated brass cover over it, often purchasing them when ever and where ever they can be found, with little or no consideration of what the metal does to the sound.
Many are of the opinion that since brass is non-ferrous, and non magnetic, it will have no effect on the voice of the pickup; nothing could be further from scientific fact. Even Stainless steel, which some use, can impute it’s effect on the sound ranging from completely neutral in some alloys, to grossly overpowering, as can your choice of shielding material.
More applied science goes into the pickup leads on Bill’s pickups than most manufacturers incorporate in the total electrical design running the gamut from the plucked string to the moving voice cone in the speaker.
The Keystone is the product of a specific mathematical formula(s), as are all of Bill’s pickups. When you remove the cover, you no longer have a Keystone, you have a modified whatever.
It is the application of considerable research into the manufacturing that has delayed the new pickups. Bill is a perfectionist, it’s either correct, or it’s rubbish, there is no middle ground, that because the pickup is produced on a Scientific Calculator before wire ever gets wrapped around magnets.
When I spoke to Bill Saturday, he was in the process of correcting an issue resulting from his tool and die maker’s faux pas. The new stuff should be on the way about now.
The reason Bill’s pickups tend to be quieter than others that seem similar in construction is his understanding of how RF interference interacts with the electro magnetic substance of the pickups. He simply designs around the noise. Wait till you “don’t” hear the new stuff.
Quote:
"The Keystone neck without the cover is very much like a strat sound."
That's because Bill has factored in the inductive effect of the metallurgy incorporated in the pickup cover. Remove it, and you compromise the design.
Most pickup manufacturers, wind their pickups and place a chrome plated brass cover over it, often purchasing them when ever and where ever they can be found, with little or no consideration of what the metal does to the sound.
Many are of the opinion that since brass is non-ferrous, and non magnetic, it will have no effect on the voice of the pickup; nothing could be further from scientific fact. Even Stainless steel, which some use, can impute it’s effect on the sound ranging from completely neutral in some alloys, to grossly overpowering, as can your choice of shielding material.
More applied science goes into the pickup leads on Bill’s pickups than most manufacturers incorporate in the total electrical design running the gamut from the plucked string to the moving voice cone in the speaker.
The Keystone is the product of a specific mathematical formula(s), as are all of Bill’s pickups. When you remove the cover, you no longer have a Keystone, you have a modified whatever.
It is the application of considerable research into the manufacturing that has delayed the new pickups. Bill is a perfectionist, it’s either correct, or it’s rubbish, there is no middle ground, that because the pickup is produced on a Scientific Calculator before wire ever gets wrapped around magnets.
When I spoke to Bill Saturday, he was in the process of correcting an issue resulting from his tool and die maker’s faux pas. The new stuff should be on the way about now.
The reason Bill’s pickups tend to be quieter than others that seem similar in construction is his understanding of how RF interference interacts with the electro magnetic substance of the pickups. He simply designs around the noise. Wait till you “don’t” hear the new stuff.
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