Why no single coil blade pickups?

[Mark Hammer]

Gah!!! Of course! You're absolutely correct. And I'm more than a little ashamed to say so, since one of the alnico bars in my parts bin was from a Melody Maker pickup I had that fell apart on me. I completely forgot about "blades" that are bars. I guess my thinking was too focussed on the sorts of very thin visible blades we tend to associate with blade and dual-rail pickups. So I'll reframe the question: Does anyone wind onto thin magnetized blades, as opposed to bars oriented vertically, or do all pickups using thin blades provide their field by conducting a magnet in contact with it?

My own clock is a little less ambitious than Paul Allen's. It turns on the radio. My yacht is also a little less ambitious. It fits on the side of the bathtub, beside the shampoo bottle.

[Steve Conner]

one of paul allens yachts

"One of" He owns the world's 26th and 11th biggest yachts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatoosh_%28yacht%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_%28yacht%29

I believe "Tatoosh" is a Chinook Jargon word meaning "tits".


Peskywinnets: A sustainer is a feedback loop that has to be set just right. Maybe a 5% or 10% change in pickup sensitivity (hence loop gain) could make the difference between sustaining and decaying. But to make an audible difference to volume, it takes a few dB of change. More than that, if you're playing through distortion or compression effects.

Jason: I can't imagine how you wind a 16 inch pickup coil without disaster.

[peskywinnets]

Peskywinnets: A sustainer is a feedback loop that has to be set just right. Maybe a 5% or 10% change in pickup sensitivity (hence loop gain) could make the difference between sustaining and decaying. But to make an audible difference to volume, it takes a few dB of change. More than that, if you're playing through distortion or compression effects.

Don't get me wrong - I wasn't puzzled why the sustainer faded - I'm all too aware of the delicate balance of the feedback loop involved (I actually had the AGC disabled while trialing different source pickups)....it was just a fwiw observation - that even though we can't hear string fade going on, there's a bigger signal drop in between poles than I'd imagined.

[wrathfuldeity]

idk, much about these or if they were even designed by Bill L, may be a set of L220?, they sound fine but my first and only set of blades on a 1980 Yamaha ssc500

[ThermionicScott]

Joe Barden made single-blade pickups for Danny Gatton at one time... Danny wanted more of a Charlie Christian tone, and Joe made some Tele-sized ones before developing his trademark dual-blade pickups. Not sure if they were offered to the rest of the public or not...

As to why single-blade pickups aren't more popular, I think David nailed it: the players who are already straying from the traditional pickup designs don't mind going a little further and getting humbuckers.

- Scott

[David Schwab]

Seymour Duncan and Jason Lollar both make variants on the Charlie Christian pickup.

Gibson did a fairly authentic reissue...down to the cobalt steel magnets...a few decades back.

I wonder if there's a tone difference with those magnets? :-)

Details, details...

You know these days "single coil" can only mean a Strat!

[David Schwab]

idk, much about these or if they were even designed by Bill L, may be a set of L220?, they sound fine but my first and only set of blades on a 1980 Yamaha ssc500

The blades are too thick to be a Lawrence. They are probably Yamaha pickups. Blades got popular back in the early 80s.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Details, details...

You know these days "single coil" can only mean a Strat!

Actually, that is how I interpreted the question to begin with. I did jump to that conclusion.

Didn't Leo Fender invent the single coil?

[peskywinnets]

Guilty as charged - in my defence I did subsequently realise my vague subject might have misled - but try as I may, I couldn't find an edit button to sort it out yesterday, then I decided to have a a nice cup of Rosie Lee instead - not related to Sam Lee Guy, who in turn is not related to Sam Lee ...or is he - perhaps someone should start a thread "Who is Sam Lee Guy" ;-)

It should have read something more akin to ....."Why so few non-bucking Strat pickups with a single blade available?

Which, for all isn't as catchy, is a bit more focused.

I'll be sure to get my solictor to proof read all further posts.

[Rick Turner]

I assume the question about Leo is a bit of sarcasm, but if not, the answer is emphatically "no."

Leo was the Henry Ford of the electric guitar business...he industrialized it; he didn't invent it.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

I assume the question about Leo is a bit of sarcasm, but if not, the answer is emphatically "no."

Leo was the Henry Ford of the electric guitar business...he industrialized it; he didn't invent it.

People on this board get so wound up (no pun intended)... everyone needs to RELAX!

Yes, it was sarcasm. Similar to the statement I often use that Muddy Waters invented electricity.

[Rick Turner]

It is possible to take a subject seriously without taking oneself seriously, but it doesn't translate well to the Internet...

[jason lollar]

Oh- I never saw this before Octopus (yacht) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
the pickups were for a clock they kept calling the octopus clock so it must have been for the octopus yacht and the 2003 delivery date seems right- I built these around 2000 or so. The job was done through Vulcan inc. At the time i knew there was a vulcan building downtwon seattle but it took me about a week to put two and two together. They almost flew me to- might have been belguim- to install the pickups but that fell through.
One of a few odd jobs I have done.

[peskywinnets]

I Couldn't see any clocks. but woaaah, I never knew Operating Systems could be so rock 'n roll .... http://www.mikeskaggs.com/Video/Octopus.pps

[Spence]

I currently have a patent in for a single coil blade pickup that actually auditions the player. They're made from the finest flick knives money can buy but play Smoke On The Water all wrong and you'd better watch out!