Base plate material

[Achiles]

How much would base plate material alter the final sound
of a pickup?

[LtKojak]

It depends... humbucker or single coil?

[Achiles]

Itīs humbucker.Nordstrand,Tom Anderson are using forbom,a guy here in Brazil is using fiberglass board(pci).

[David Schwab]

A conductive metal baseplate can possibly reduce some of the high end. Brass seems to have more of an effect than nickel silver. I don't know if anyone has done an A/B comparison of a pickup with, and without a metal baseplate.

I suspect Nordstrand, and Tom Anderson use forbon because they mainly make single coils, so it's easier than dealing with metal parts. I installed a Tom Anderson humbucker in a guitar recently. It was a nice sounding pickup.

Bill Lawrence and EMG also don't use metal baseplates on their humbuckers.

[kevinT]

Itīs humbucker.Nordstrand,Tom Anderson are using forbom,a guy here in Brazil is using fiberglass board(pci).

Nordstrand uses GJ baseplates on their regular humbuckers. They do laser cut thier own forbon for single coils, bass pickups, and custom work.

[David Schwab]

Nordstrand uses GJ baseplates on their regular humbuckers. They do laser cut thier own forbon for single coils, bass pickups, and custom work.

Oh those are new then ... they only used to have this humbucker:



The Tom Anderson pickups are very nicely made.

[kevinT]

I consider that one to be one of their custom pickups.

I know they've been producing humbuckers with plastic bobbins since 2005.

[David Schwab]

I'm just saying that was the only guitar humbucker on their site until just recently. Since they are best know for their bass pickups, I've looked over their site on numerous occasions. This was my first time seeing the other humbucker and P-90.

It made sense though since all their other pickups are made in the same fashion, and they have their own laser cutter.

[kevinT]

Just providing a time frame from what I know for sure.

They do some pretty wicked bass pickups.

[Zhangliqun]

I don't know if anyone has done an A/B comparison of a pickup with, and without a metal baseplate.

Have not done it with a humbucker but I have done it with Tele bridge pu's. I've made some with and without baseplates and the no-platers were very noticeably brighter and louder.

Of course, we're talking copper-coated steel here and not the brass or nickel-silver so it's a different animal to a large degree, but I would think there would be a noticeable difference with no metal plate on a humbucker too, depending on the baseplate material. Just not as pronounced as a steel plate.

[hariossa]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand from what I have read that a conductive-non-magnetic baseplate will add more inductance, so it will decrease the pickup's resonant peak amplitude.

But what is the real difference in sound from the different metal materials?
How a copper baseplate affects tone compared to a brass or german silver one?

[copperheadroads]

good question , has anyone made a humbucker base plate from copper ? shouldnt be hard to do , you can find some pipe at the hardware store that should work

[hariossa]

My guess is that the more conductive the metal, the more inductance you get (lesser highs), but I haven't made any experimentation.

[Joe Gwinn]

My guess is that the more conductive the metal, the more inductance you get (lesser highs), but I haven't made any experimentation.

No, the inductance will be reduced (due to eddy current shielding), unless the conductive metal is ferromagnetic (where it can go either way, because we have conflicting effects). It's easily tested - measure the inductance of a coil or guitar pickup well away from anything conductive. Lay a sheet of copper (or aluminum) on the coil or pickup, and measure again.

[hariossa]

Thanks Joe for your reply, I'm trying to get into how a pickup works and how tone is affected by the different factors, I've read more than I've experimented.

Again, as I've read, the effects of eddy currents will make the pickup to loose a bit of midrange while the resonant peak will move towards the lower side, that will also mean a less bright pickup (with less body) thanks to the baseplate.