EMG refurbishment

[Sweetfinger]

He was the guy at fender designing the Noiseless pickups, but if I remember correctly, he left Fender during or just after their release and was not 100% happy with the final product that is out there.

At that time I knew a guy working at Fender who brought a Strat outfitted with those first version noiseless pickups into the store where I was working. He said that Fender had really outdone themselves and that these were the best, most accurate sounding noiseless pickups that had ever been on a guitar. He kept talking them up and saying how everyone at Fender was blown away by them. I plugged it in, played a few chords and some notes, handed it back to him. FAIL! Sure enough, Fender has revised and tweaked that design several times now. They still sound bright and compressed to my ears.

[big_teee]

They have all the parts to build a firebird mini now at Mojo.
Also if I build another regular mini with the adjustable coils, I'm going to substitute the coil slug with a firebird Magnet. With the magnet underneath and one in a coil, That should brighten it up a bit!
Terry

[David Schwab]

Passive isn't necessarily better, and those are very nice pickups. Quiet too.

[torgeot]

I'm kind of torn, I don't have any other active pup guitars, but restoring this back to original is tempting, this one is hard to just plug into an amp after all my other passive guitars, with the input boost. I will probably just leave it, as I have for the past 18 years, this one usually does not go out to a live gig anymore, can't see bringing a guitar worth more that $5-600 to a gig where I get paid $50-100. This one usually just gets invited to the studio now.

[David Schwab]

Hate to bring up an old thread but I never see the Overlend Mini hums, I have a set on my '77 deluxe, I bought it this way but was thinking of returning it to stock mini hums.

Here's a pic:

Nice! I'd rather use the EMG mini hums. I have one and it's a great sounding pickup. The real Deluxe mini hums are bland IMO. The Overland mini hum sounds more like a Firebird pickup. I was actually running mine on 9V (it's marked 18V) for a while, and that sounded fine also.

They are nothing like the current EMGs. They should make these again.

[torgeot]

Hate to bring up an old thread but I never see the Overlend Mini hums, I have a set on my '77 deluxe, I bought it this way but was thinking of returning it to stock mini hums.

Here's a pic:

[David Schwab]

Possum, did you do the EMG logo with the circuit board traces forming a guitar head, as seen in that photo? I always thought that was clever.

There is an audio interview with Turner at that same website I posted. It was kind of interesting.

[TGD]

Do you still live in Santa Rosa? When I left there, a year later I had to go back and do a face to face with Rob and company on their new catalog. The gang problems had gotten so bad they had metal detectors and armed security guards at TACO BELL! There was a shoot out half a mile from my condo, place was pretty much ruined, so glad I left there when I did....

No, I lived in S. Fancisco long time ago, now I' m in Rome, Italy! I also had some trouble with Rob long time ago when I started with Magnetics™ Pickups company... I remember an hard meeting with him at EKO booth in frankfurt on 1984... I meet him again at Vally Arts booth in 1995... And we talked again...

[Possum]

...

Do you still live in Santa Rosa? When I left there, a year later I had to go back and do a face to face with Rob and company on their new catalog. The gang problems had gotten so bad they had metal detectors and armed security guards at TACO BELL! There was a shoot out half a mile from my condo, place was pretty much ruined, so glad I left there when I did....

[Possum]

...

I do remember that Fender hired Rob's brother and he supposedly redesigned the '57 reissue pickups, but they were still horrible, I don't think he last long there...

I bet Rob would never admit he said that. That picture is cool, when I worked with him he was pretty nerdy looking, but I guess I probably was too. :-)
I did a google search for Gary Rush and all that comes up is stuff over ten years old, I wonder if they had a falling out or what happened to him, I liked Gary, he always used to try to trip me up; one day he gave me this big lecture about filing all my art boards and organizing the vast amounts of stuff I did for them, so I handed over all the odds and ends, he filed it all away, and we could never find the stuff again after that, pretty funny.

[TGD]

Well you're both half right. "Bill" and "Turner" is the right combination. Bill Turner is Rob Turner's brother, and has not been associated with EMG for quite awhile. He was the guy at fender designing the Noiseless pickups, but if I remember correctly, he left Fender during or just after their release and was not 100% happy with the final product that is out there. I could go into more detail but it doesn't add value to the conversation. But suffice it to say, Bill's recollection of history is probably different than Rob's.

By the way, Dave, that quote about the internet is priceless!

Right, Bill is Rob' s brother. I knew him also in in SantaRosa. I should have a picture of both turner brothers in some place... Let me find out them and i'll be happy to post it!

[edit] found it out !!



this picture came from 1977 NAMM show. On the left Bill and the right Rob.

[frankfalbo]

Well you're both half right. "Bill" and "Turner" is the right combination. Bill Turner is Rob Turner's brother, and has not been associated with EMG for quite awhile. He was the guy at fender designing the Noiseless pickups, but if I remember correctly, he left Fender during or just after their release and was not 100% happy with the final product that is out there. I could go into more detail but it doesn't add value to the conversation. But suffice it to say, Bill's recollection of history is probably different than Rob's.

By the way, Dave, that quote about the internet is priceless!

[David Schwab]

Fender noiseless pickups are a Bill Lorentz design.

The SPN pickups are Bill's, but I read a post at a forum, I think it was the Tele forum, where somebody from EMG did those pickups. I thought it was Rob Turner, but now that I think about it, he said "back when I was at EMG..."

I'll have to find that post.

Anyone heard any news about Bill's health lately?

[edit]

OK, it was Bill Turner who redesigned the vintage noiseless pickups. It seems they might have originally been a BL design, but there's no evidence of that. I had read his posts at the FDP forum. But he said he worked at EMG before he was at Fender.

He's also the guy who designed the reissue WR humbuckers.

[TGD]

I don't think it was Rob that did the noiseless for Fender, weren't they done in the 80's as well? Fender jumped on us for running an ad with a strat headstock shape in it, they made us change the shape, even though I airbrushed out the Fender name, Rob was pretty pissed about it..

Fender noiseless pickups are a Bill Lorentz design.

Sam Lee Guy, thank you very much.

[Possum]

...

I don't think it was Rob that did the noiseless for Fender, weren't they done in the 80's as well? Fender jumped on us for running an ad with a strat headstock shape in it, they made us change the shape, even though I airbrushed out the Fender name, Rob was pretty pissed about it..