Silent single coil

[David Schwab]

David, you're fast. Take a holiday and slow down a bit

That might be the one mind, I don't know but I'd have thought Mr.Duncan would have had the pickups bashed out well before now (it's dated Jan. 2007).

Thanks,

Rob.

I have a folder full of patents, so I already knew which one it was. What I need is to get away from the computer and get some work done!

Seymour only has one pickup patent for the older stacks. All the rest are by Kevin Beller. That must be the pickup, because I can't find any other patents or applications listed to Beller.

[Sock Puppet]

I have a folder full of patents, so I already knew which one it was. What I need is to get away from the computer and get some work done!

Snap!

I'm bouncing all emails from my primary account until after the new year as they have a tendency to steal my time. I'm much happier now - it's as good as an electric fence.

Too many Christmases spoilt with other people's problems.

I don't answer the phone unless it's my daughter.

Buggerem.

The primary account(if you want a little laugh) is krait (insert at) tiscali.co.uk.

As I say, buggerem.

Rob.

[Mike Sulzer]

Hi,

. these do not seem to have that soft spot between the G/D like my the Alnico's version has. Not quite sure why? Needless to say that they are dead quiet.

Cheers.

JB.

The offset certainly helps. If you are using a high permeability ceramic, it might help to confine the field to the area over the pole piece, resulting in less reduction in the field over the G and D poles.

[mk1]

In this video there is a bpssc on the guitar he will show with and with out it .

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX1ubW6Rw-4"]YouTube- Rice Custom Guitar #131[/ame]

I did not have time to complete my homemade version yet , but it's coming ...

[Possum]

...

Fralin makes a blade pickup with the offset idea if I remember right, there are two blades but they are at different horizontal levels.

[Possum]

...

So on this offset poles idea you have ferrite poles topped with steel slugs, I'm not quite understanding what you did there. I think you're probably getting pretty low guass at the poles which is probably why they are less bright than just alnico alone. cool idea...

[Mike Sulzer]

So on this offset poles idea you have ferrite poles topped with steel slugs, I'm not quite understanding what you did there. I think you're probably getting pretty low guass at the poles which is probably why they are less bright than just alnico alone. cool idea...

No, this is ferrite poles topped with small neo magnets. I use magnets somewhat smaller than jbf uses, and the field strength is between a humbucker and an alnico single coil. (This is my six coil pickups where the field direction alternates from pole to pole.)

I use a material with a pretty high permeability; I do not know what jbf is using. The permeability should affect the field strength, but I have not made measurements with different types of ferrite.

[jbforrer]

Hi Possum/Mike,

I'm much indebted to Mike for the details on the ferrite cores. I think it works well.

This is just a hobby to me, I'm not in the pickup-making business.

Attached is a picture of the parts of the pickup I made. The base material is from an old CD cover ... easy to score, snap, and file down. The ferrites cores are #73, like Mike described. The neo's are 3/16" by 1/16" (not 3/16 as said earlier)" #42 grade.

Here is is a test recording I made with the neck pickup. If you can detect any hum on the recording, it comes from my audio chain, not from the pickup.
http://www.johanforrer.net/Guitars/E..._recording.mp3

Thanks.

JB.

[Old Tele man]

Here is is a test recording I made with the neck pickup. http://www.johanforrer.net/Guitars/E..._recording.mp3

...got a 'clean' clip without all the reverb and echo? I'd really like to hear what just the pickup alone can do.

...small (tiny?) pole pieces should be VERY harmonic sensitive, that is, not smeared nor "averaging" of the string vibrations, as occurs with larger diameter pole pieces.

...I'm guessing almost "hollow-body" like tonality...but also "picky" against large lateral (string bending) movements.

[Mike Sulzer]

...small (tiny?) pole pieces

The magnets on top are 3/16" in diameter. The ferrite pole pieces below are about .2" diameter if they are the same ones I use. Were you looking at those nails that I think might have been used for alignment?

If anyone is wondering, the ferrite is not a permanent magnet; it has high permeability, that is, it responds to magnetic fields by becoming magnetized while the field is applied, but the magnetization disappears when the field is removed. This is similar to steel, but the permeability is higher. This ferrite material is somewhat conductive, much less so than steel. Thus the coils tend to come out higher in Q than with steel or alnico. Thus, it might be necessary to load the pickup with a smaller resistor to get a particular sound. One can use a lower value of vol pot, or just add a resistor in parallel with the pickup. The resonant frequency might also be a bit high with these slender coils. It can be lowered with some parallel capacitance if necessary.

[Old Tele man]

Were you looking at those nails that I think might have been used for alignment?

...guilty! I thought those 'alignment/assembly nails' were the actual pole pieces that would be positioned under the strings...duh!

[jbforrer]

You have good ears Old Tele man. I left you a PM to try out a loaner in your own environment and take your time to explore it.

Thanks Mike for clarifying the bit about the magnets. Attached is a picture of the ferrite/magnet assembly next to a 0.710" long, 0.185" dia, Alnico magnet.

Regards.

JB.

[Artur pickupmaker]

And the side winder designs?
They sounds like real single coils but without the hum, as some manufacturers says?

I still has not tried this kind.

[David Schwab]

And the side winder designs?
They sounds like real single coils but without the hum, as some manufacturers says?

I still has not tried this kind.

Yes, they do. I have some Lawrence L-250s in a guitar, and they sound very much like single coils. Not exactly like Strat pickups, due to the difference in wire gauge and all, but a nice bright single coil tone. Some of the old Firebird guitars had sidewinders too.

I've recently started making some sidewinder bass pickups, and they sound really good.

I think the thing to keep in mind is the only thing that makes a single coil and a humbucker sound different, is how many places it senses the string.

Side winders and split coil pickups sense the string at a single location, so even if they have two coils, they sound like a single coil. The differences in tone is due to coil geometry, and maybe wire gauge, if it's a small pickup, like the L-250.

But if you aren't limited by trying to fit a certain pickup shape, you can certainly make a noiseless pickup that sounds like a typical single coil.

I don't know how these sound, but it looks pretty cool. It's a Fralin P-90 sidewinder.

[LtKojak]

Side winders and split coil pickups sense the string at a single location, so even if they have two coils, they sound like a single coil. The differences in tone is due to coil geometry, and maybe wire gauge, if it's a small pickup, like the L-250

I can only tell my experience using single coil sidewinder p'ups; and it's about the Lace "Holy Grail" strat set.

They sounded quite nicely and very single-coil like, just they didn't behave like single-coils at all! All the dynamic response from the picking was lost, but in a studio setting it could be considered like a FEATURE!