HB Baseplates... brass or steel?

[Possum]

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He didn't reinvent the wheel, that pickup is actually MORE PAF vintage correct than alot, the original patent application and the original prototype are both all slug pickups, he didn't use a metal baseplate and used a hot ceramic magnet, its not a new idea, its probably very hot and pretty bright, put it on the Extech and that should give you some idea.

[belwar]

I'm curious to hear what it sounds like.

I wont know until I finish the guitar it's going in.

Tom is just up the street from me. Super nice guy who loves what he does. His pickups are an interesting breed; that is there is no middle ground. Either the tone is AMAZING to you, or not your cup of tea. I had an employee who had some junk tele copy that he remade with two humbuckers. He put an overwound lollar in the neck and a Tom Anderson in the bridge. To him the Tom Anderson was gods gift to tone. To me the Lollar was the superior.

[David Schwab]

He didn't reinvent the wheel, that pickup is actually MORE PAF vintage correct than alot, the original patent application and the original prototype are both all slug pickups, he didn't use a metal baseplate and used a hot ceramic magnet, its not a new idea, its probably very hot and pretty bright, put it on the Extech and that should give you some idea.

This one has an Alnico, it's one of the vintage wound pickups. But I agree as far as the double poles and no baseplate.

You can see where this pickup would fit a thick magnet, as it has two high wood shims and long poles, but it has a standard size Alnico in there.

The part about reinventing the wheel was about him not using a single commercial humbucker part, nor is he wiring the bobbins to the leads the way Gibson did it. This is like two Fender pickups next to each other.

[soundmasterg]

Just for technical reference, there are some interesting pickups out there which use steel base plates. So, the answer may be "probably not in most cases" but not "Never!".

One example is the Ampeg AMB-1 Scroll Bass. This is the later '68-'69 version of the Scroll Bass that did not have the infamous "mystery" diaphragm pickup under the bridge. The AMB-1 has a big black block of epoxy out in the middle of the pickguard. Inside are four separate round coils, one for each string, with a 1/4" dia x 1" long Alnico 5 magnet. The base of the pickup is bent out of 1/8" x 1/2" mild steel bar stock, and the bottom ends of the magnets are lightly pressed into holes in the steel. The magnets are all aligned south down, so it ends up making an unusual shape magnetic field. The coils are all wound the same direction, but wired alternately in series.

It's a very thick, warm sounding pickup that works well with the bass. The AMB-1 was prominently used by Rick Danko (The Band) and George Biondo (Steppenwolf).

Steppenwolf's bass player used a Rickenbacker bass on a lot of stuff too.

Greg

[Bruce Johnson]

Well, Steppenwolf's first bass player, Nick St. Nicolas, used both a P-bass and a Rick. George Biondo was Steppenwolf's bassist from 1969-1979 (From the Steppenwolf 7 album on). George played his AMB-1 almost exclusively, and it has a distinctive sound.

George lives here in LA, and still does some recording and session work. We've become friends, and he visits my shop now and then to talk basses. A quiet, kind, intelligent guy. Not your average rock star!

[LtKojak]

What purpose do the 3 holes serve? How do they work? I assume you are talking about this product.

http://schaller-guitarparts.de/hp122...kup-Frames.htm

Do you use them with a baseplate with 3 holes?

Yes, it serves to keep the p'up parallel to the strings.

[kmensik]

steel baseplate

Hi all. I have a Jackson JDR-94, which had awfully noisy Jackson branded humbuckers. After trying to to rewire it to 4 conductor lead I realized, that the baseplate was magnetic (zinc plated steel), and that was the cause of the noise (hiss, like static). It also acted as a short for the magnetic field, that was very weak on the slugs. Without the baseplate it was quiet.
Bad work, Jackson.
Does anyone have a similar experience?

[Possum]

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Are the Allparts baseplates the same as StewMacs? My last batch of StewMac baseplates looked like they'd been in a cement mixer then splattered with something oxidizing.

[belwar]

Are the Allparts baseplates the same as StewMacs? My last batch of StewMac baseplates looked like they'd been in a cement mixer then splattered with something oxidizing.

As far as I am aware, yes they are. I noticed the oxidizing effect myself. While I was at namm I had a meeting with Jay and he told me that the japanese pickup maker who makes the base plates has been changing them slightly. I noticed the pole screw hole size changing just just a hair.

[Possum]

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StewMac just raised their prices on baseplates it looks like, I'm going to switch back to Allparts for baseplates. The last StewMac ones were thrown into a bag and all banged up, they are all so dirty I'm sandblasting them to make them look better, they were really awful looking...