Kent Armstrong bass HB's

[Musiclogic]

Just curious if anyone has dismantled one of these. My search yielded very little info other than KA winds bobbinless, which I am guessing he winds directly around an insulated blade? and that they use ceramic magnets.

Does anyone have any more info I could glean about coil height, wire gauge and insulator type and thickness.

Curious, as I like the sound of these pick-ups

Thanks to anyone in advance

[David Schwab]

There are two different KA pickups. His hand wound pickups use bobbin less coils and are cast in epoxy in rubber molds. He uses ceramic magnets. I'm not sure how you would take one apart without destroying it.

The pickups that WD sells are made in Asia, and are probably of fairly standard construction.

He also makes Ken Smith's pickups. Here's a photo of the bottom of one of them.

[David King]

Kent will pretty much make anything you want. I have a a few "king" branded Kent Armstrong pickups that I designed about 10 years back and had Kent make. All I can say is I should have listened to Kent's advice but I didn't know any better at the time.

[Musiclogic]

Yeah, the asian ones were the ones I was wondering about. Yeah, I have had Kent wind a few for me also,(long time ago) but have found people here, primarilly David(Schwab, whose pickups really hit a niche for me) that I am more inclined to go to for something custom wound for a specific sound. I am just trying to figure a jumping off point to get away from winding Jazz type coils, I am looking to try to create a uni-coil for bass pick-ups, to avoid string spacing variants. I thank you both for the replies, as you guys are very helpful always on here.

I think I am just going to find a couple of pounds of 43 and start toying with magnets and wind a bunch of blades to see if I can get close....LOL

[David Schwab]

I think I am just going to find a couple of pounds of 43 and start toying with magnets and wind a bunch of blades to see if I can get close....LOL

It shouldn't be to hard to copy the Asian Armstrong pickups.

[Musiclogic]

LMAO thanks David.....just remember, I am a dabbler, not even close to playing in your league, may take me a little longer...LMAO Heck, I haven't even got my new counter figured out yet.

[Musiclogic]

I guess even a couple years later, I am still curious as to what kent said to you....LMFAo He is winding some 9 string pickups for 1 of my comissions, he's a really good guy, so is Aaron.