X-ray'd

[belwar]

So I'm working on bass pickups right now for an upcomming bass and i'm looking at various designs trying to find whats going to work best for my particular bass. I know very little about basses and so have been trying to learn what all the different styles of pickups bring to the table. I've settled on the form factor to use, but not the guts. I'm going to use that big music man style humbucker in the bridge and a P-Bass in the neck, or this so called "Harmonic sweet spot" which I have to figure out. anyway, I digress..

I've been looking at some old Lane Poor bass pickups and I think the concept of them is pretty cool. David King was kind enough to help me track down a set and they should arrive in a day or two. I thought it would be difficult to learn much from them, because of thier epoxy casing, but my dad gave me the idea to have them X-ray'd. Aparently he tried it onces in the 80's on an acoustic pickup and it worked like a hot damn. He could see everything from the coil to writing on the coil wrapping tape.

Has anyone here ever tried it? How did it work for you?

bel.

[StarryNight]

That's some extreme stuff man. I did a google search and the closest I came up with is this. Do you have to date an X-ray technician to get one of these? or
"Doctor, my knee hurts but while I'm getting an x-ray maybe I can squeeze in this little gadget..."

[belwar]

heh. I'm a migraineur and get horrible headaches three times a week (At least one caused by Spence) and im good friends with my Neurologist. He's a headache researcher with a full lab, and he's a wood geek and guitar player.. So I figured "what the hell" and I asked if he'd do it. He said sure no problem!

bel

[David Schwab]

I've heard that the Lane Poor pickups used multi-stranded magnet wire. The way it was described to me was that it was "braided or twisted" looking.

The main thing with the Poors is they were underwound pickup to be used with a preamp.

[Joe Gwinn]

I've heard that the Lane Poor pickups used multi-stranded magnet wire. The way it was described to me was that it was "braided or twisted" looking.

Sounds like Litz wire.

Use of litz wire is not necessary in pickups at audio frequencies.

[Sheldon Dingwall]

I haven't looked at a pickup, but I had a guitar neck X-ray'ed once because I thought the truss-rod had run out of threads. It turned out to be just a little glue blocking things.

In my case, I had a guitarist friend that ran the lab at the local University hospital.

[David Schwab]

Sounds like Litz wire.

Use of litz wire is not necessary in pickups at audio frequencies.

That's what I figured.