Split Strat Pickups

[Stan H]

Anybody tried this, end-to-end coils each covering 3 poles? I know that Nordstrand does it with his humbucking J pickups but I don't think that I've ever seen Strat pickups made this way.

-Stan

[madialex]

Curtis Novak has been doing them for sometime now

I have done a few but not really crazy about the tone, they are ok for a bridge pickup to give it a little more balls but all the positions are way to dull and dark when used together and not much strat quack tone left.

Here is the link to Curtis's site.

http://www.curtisnovak.com/pickups/hc-strat/

[steve]

Anybody tried this, end-to-end coils each covering 3 poles? I know that Nordstrand does it with his humbucking J pickups but I don't think that I've ever seen Strat pickups made this way.

-Stan

If I understand you right, Evans pickups in Canada used to make pickups like that.

http://www.synapticsystems.com/studios/evans/evans.htm

I had a set, but sold them. They were quiet, but I didn't like the way they sounded.

steve

[Possum]

Novak

I've seen some designs like that, I've heard that there's some phase problems where the two coils meet, and then its 44 gauge wire which will never sound like a true strat pickup, plus the coil cancellation which kills all the good strat stuff..Suhr's dummy coil is about the only good solution....

[steve]

I've seen some designs like that, I've heard that there's some phase problems where the two coils meet, and then its 44 gauge wire which will never sound like a true strat pickup, plus the coil cancellation which kills all the good strat stuff..Suhr's dummy coil is about the only good solution....

Possum,

Just as a heads up, it looks like you're missing a period in the URL in your sig line. It doesn't work as is.

steve

[Possum]

sig

thanks.....duh.....

[Possum]

just checking

see if it works now.......

[steve]

see if it works now.......

Okay now

steve

[Mark Hammer]

I visited the Evans manufacturing site in the late 80's and had a nice long chat with Rod Evans and his business partner. The pickups were indeed 3-pole coils laid end-to-end inside the Strat-sized cover. The flatwork was rounded on one end and at an angle on the other, to permit them to nestle snugly, ying/yang style, inside the cover. The players I've heard them on, notably Jeff Healey and Colin James, always struck me as having too strident a tone for my tastes, but then I have no idea whether that was what they were aiming for and used amp settings and pedals to achieve, or not. Given the limited listening I've done, I can't comment with any certainty of what sort of generic tone one might expect from such a form factor.

As for dropouts, I guess the question gets bounced back to bassists. Do split Precision Bass pickups (which are also two coils in series, just not as close together) yield audible dropouts?

[David Schwab]

As for dropouts, I guess the question gets bounced back to bassists. Do split Precision Bass pickups (which are also two coils in series, just not as close together) yield audible dropouts?

No, they don't, but they do overlap more because the coils are larger and offset... i.e., you couldn't fit them in a narrow cover like a Strat or Jazz Bass pickup. I do hear a tonal difference from one set of strings to the other on a regular P bass, but if you reverse the positions of the two coils I think it sounds more balanced.

But there are a lot of bass pickups with split coils in Jazz Bass covers. I think DiMarzio made the first one, with the Model J, and then Schaller made a copy. Bartolini makes a few too, as well as Nordstrand. The vintage toned split Nordstrands got a good review in bass player, saying they were almost identical to the true single coil Jazz pickups.

My experience playing the Jazz bass style split pickups is you don't hear any dropouts while bending or playing.

I've been meaning to try out some strat pickups this way. I would think if you wind with 42, and do each coil as half a normal strat pickup, the sound should be similar. Another idea for phase problems due to the magnets would be to keep all the magnets the same polarity, and have the coils out of phase. This would only work if all three pickups were the same construction, as they wouldn't mix with a normally phased pickup.

I have had P bass pickups like this, and they do cancel hum, but if combined with a normal single coil, like a Jazz bridge, half the strings sound out of phase.

[Chicago]

Hello,
I had the "Bass Version" bought here for repairs, ( a Fralin )
The owner had string to string volume issues.

The only cure was to gauss each magnet, higher or lower, inorder to match with the other strings.

I now understand why the 2 coil P-Bass overlaps like its does.

So If one was to make these sometime in the future,
It would be wise to gauss each pole's volume to mate with the other strings volume levels.

Beers'
CT

[David Schwab]

Hello,
I had the "Bass Version" bought here for repairs, ( a Fralin )
The owner had string to string volume issues.

The only cure was to gauss each magnet, higher or lower, inorder to match with the other strings.

I now understand why the 2 coil P-Bass overlaps like its does.

So If one was to make these sometime in the future,
It would be wise to gauss each pole's volume to mate with the other strings volume levels.

Beers'
CT

That's interesting. Personally I never found a problem with string levels. Granted the Model J has adjustable poles, but I never adjust them. But it makes sense since those poles are being charged by two bar magnets.

I suppose if the rod magnets were not equal that would cause a problem!

[SK66]

The dropout largely occurs only between the D/G strings due to the opposite polarities pulling the magnetic field down in a "quick return". This could probably be adjusted for by increasing their heights. Another option may be to use same polarity and just electrically reverse coils and then winding the coils to minimize the thinness caused by the resulting out of phase condition. I think a "softer magnet" design would also help in minimizing this affect.