Gibson "Grabber" Bass pickup

[David Schwab]

Could this construction be used to get a Single Coil sounding Humbucker for guitar?

Yep... This is a Bill Lawrence design, and he patented it too.

The L-250

(Unfortunately the patent was taken over by his ex partner who now makes these)

It doesn't have the "dead" coil of the stacked constructions

Duncan stacks don't have a "dead" bottom coil because the magnets run all the way through the pickup. In the case of his rail hot stack, the magnet is right where the two coils meet, and there's steel blades on the top and bottom.

Probably no Fender Sound but a P90 should be in reach.

I have two of them in a guitar. They pretty much sound like strat pickups.

The bridge pickup on this is a stack I made.

[Steve Conner]

Wow, a crazy looking guitar there! What kind is it?

BTW, that's interesting to hear about the pickups on the Gibson EB's. I know a guy in a local band who plays an EB, and I was always amazed by the deep, fat sound from it. I guess it has something to do with the hugely overwound pickup, then.

I know some people like more definition in their bass sound, but it suited his band great.

[David Schwab]

Wow, a crazy looking guitar there! What kind is it?

That's an SGD Lutherie Alchemy... or as I affectionately call it, "the Potato"

I wanted to build myself a Tele... just a regular blond tele. Then my friend said "well you could just buy some kit parts and put one together." So I figured I'd do something different... So I decided on a carved maple top like a Les Paul, and then I went with a chambered swamp ash body which is as thick as a Les Paul... and a set maple/purpleheart neck. I threw a little Jazzmaster and 335 in the mix, and went with the Tele/Strat pickup setup, and a 25" scale.

Now the question is always, "what does it sound like?" It sounds like a Tele, only smoother. I think it's the bridge that gives it that Tele tone.

BTW, that's interesting to hear about the pickups on the Gibson EB's. I know a guy in a local band who plays an EB, and I was always amazed by the deep, fat sound from it. I guess it has something to do with the hugely overwound pickup, then.

I had read that a design consideration was they wanted a pure, deep, organ pedal tone. Well they sure got it! All that wire, and the inductance is so high that it acts like a low pass filter. I had a two pickup Gibson EB-2, and it was almost impossible to use the bass in a live setting. So I unwound a bunch of wire and added two more magnets (no longer on the pickup). It kept the signature tone, but opened up the high end quite a bit. It was still not a good pass for stage use!

I know some people like more definition in their bass sound, but it suited his band great.

I had picked up a NOS sidewinder at a music store that had a lower DC resistance and was a little cleaner sounding. I ended up selling the bass, so I swapped the rewound pickup with the NOS pickup. Then I installed the sidewinder in the neck position on my '72 Ric 4001 bass. I had replaced the bridge pickup with an old Hi-A unit I bought new (Hi-A is now known as Bartolini), so I had a great combination of tones. From vintage grunt to crystal clear.

[Instigator]

I once measured a 1970 EB-3 neck pickup: 25.0 or 30.0 K. It kinda drowned out the bridge pickup. And the polepieces on it were expendable sort of: the pickup worked fine without them. Odd.

[Steve Conner]

So the guitar is a Custom Shop Tatocaster? It looks awesome.

FWIW, I'm not hugely surprised that those Sidewinder style pickups work without their polepieces. I guess they're not like regular pickups where the polepieces are needed to lead the magnetic field through the coils, they already have metal bars going through the coils and the polepiece screws are just a couple of extra nubbins.

[Instigator]

Annoyingly enough, said arrangement tends to make for uneven volume across the strings, as the polepieces really don't do anything.

[David Schwab]

Annoyingly enough, said arrangement tends to make for uneven volume across the strings, as the polepieces really don't do anything.

I never had that problem with either my Gibson bass or when I had the sidewinder in my Rick. Also the Bill Lawrence pickups are made this way, and with the blade not being adjustable, I still get a nice even string to string volume. Sure it's not the strings? Some strings don't sound even from string to string, like the D on Chromes flats.

None of the bass pickups I make have adjustable poles... or even poles for that matter! Adjustable poles was pretty much a marketing gimmick back then... Seth Lover didn't even use them on the first humbucker, and he didn't want them on the production pickups either.

[David Schwab]

So the guitar is a Custom Shop Tatocaster? It looks awesome.

Thanks! Next I'm going to make one with two humbuckers.

[Instigator]

No, it wasn't the strings. Non-adjustable poles on a pickup are fine as long as they match neck radius, otherwise... Having said that, I once had a 1975 Grabber bass with no string-to-string volume problems. Maybe the pickup was cleverly designed to avoid such shortcoming.

[David Schwab]

No, it wasn't the strings. Non-adjustable poles on a pickup are fine as long as they match neck radius, otherwise...

That's really the minority of pickups out there. I can only think of a few Bartolini pickups that are arched on the top, and a few with staggered magnets, like some MM pickups.

Most nonadjustable pickups are flat and do not match the radius of the fingerboard. With a variety of radii out there, making pickups to match would be daunting! It's a nice idea though.

Having said that, I once had a 1975 Grabber bass with no string-to-string volume problems. Maybe the pickup was cleverly designed to avoid such shortcoming.

I doubt it was made any differently. No one has problems with Jazz Basses, or any number of flat toped pickups (Alembic, Bartolini, EMG, Duncan.. etc).