Zexcoil pickups

[tmenss]

I ran across this last night.
Hum Canceling Pickup Technology - Zexcoil Noise-less Guitar Pickups

Very impressive individual pole, coil design. Neodymium charged poles probably microcoil wound. His site has a very impressive tutorial on peak resonance and specific resonance analysis of his designs relative to similar industry designs. I for one would love to see pickup makers adopt such analysis/disclosure of thier own pickups. It would be worth the extra consumer price to have such information available on thier purchase. (it would kill some lively forum discussions though!)

The pickup maker demos sound promising but I'd like to hear more clean demos, their is another one made by a third party that is a very good demo. Enjoy, and I look forward to the MEF comment on the Zexcoils!

[David Schwab]

Makers like Bartolini have been doing this for years, and they patented their initial designs too.

He says his design is patented, so if it is, it would pretty much show exactly what he's doing.

[EDIT]

Here's the patents:

Musical instrument pickup - Google Patents

Musical instrument pickup systems - Google Patents

Dr. A. Scott Lawing has about 14 patents to his name!

[CRU JONES]

I ran across this last night.
[url=http://zexcoil.com/]... probably microcoil wound.

Oh yeah?

His site has a very impressive tutorial on peak resonance and specific resonance analysis of his designs relative to similar industry designs. I for one would love to see pickup makers adopt such analysis/disclosure of thier own pickups. It would be worth the extra consumer price to have such information available on thier purchase...

They sound pretty good, I enjoyed the playing

I didn't see the tutorial on peak resonance and specific resonance analysis. That would be very interesting.

It is an idea to divulge data to the consumer. One company specifies resonant frequency without stating what load they are measuring with... which is fine Pickup makers can figure that out quickly, the consumer cant though. And then EMG lists very specific information about resonant frequency, inductance, and impedance! Including resonant frequency into multiple loads! Check out the sheet on the SRO series if you want to see what I am talking about

http://www.emgpickups.com/content/wi...0230-0174A.pdf


So what information is useful to the consumer that isn't divulging of even more info to the competition?

Spectrographs are hard to read. It is almost better for the consumer to go by the Bass/Middle/Treble tone chart. For instance, the Duncan JB (great pickup) is almost always described as a "very bright" pickup. Stating that its resonant frequency is barely over 1 kHz doesn't help someone who is looking for a pickup that is brighter than the DiMarzio Tone Zone (also a great pickup) at 1.3kHz. The player will experience the JB as brighter. (I sure do feel free to divulge other winders secrets, don't I? :-/ ) Those figures are under playing condition load BTW.

What I would really like to see on pickup makers websites is a downloadable CSV file with phase and magnitude measurements. But I am not your average consumer.

My last thought is that not all winders have measurement devices that have USB ports on them. Their most sensitive instrument is their ears. Through years of winding, observation and probably a natural and developed gift to observe the effects of modifying all the variables that go into winding a pickup; have come up with something that the market really likes. I am not about to, out of respect, generate a spectrograph, impedance plot, or anything of these pickups! What would be the most useful information to the customer? Sound samples and most importantly a customer should play the pickup. The most important thing about a pickup in my opinion is feel. Both the JB and the TZ have a very nice "feel" to them. Ok, so I hope Seymour Duncan and Larry DiMarzio forgive me now

I would like to read what zexcoil has to say about resonance etc.

Cool pickups by the way, thanks for the link
Ethan

[Alan0354]

Makers like Bartolini have been doing this for years, and they patented their initial designs too.

He says his design is patented, so if it is, it would pretty much show exactly what he's doing.

[EDIT]

Here's the patents:

Musical instrument pickup - Google Patents

Musical instrument pickup systems - Google Patents

Dr. A. Scott Lawing has about 14 patents to his name!

I think he is the first to have 6 individual coils. A good patent lawyer helps too.

[David Schwab]

For instance, the Duncan JB (great pickup) is almost always described as a "very bright" pickup.

According to whom? It's a very dark sounding pickup. Ive never heard anyone call that a bright pickup. A 1k resonant peak is in the mids, not treble.

A Lawrence L-500 is a very bright pickup.

[David Schwab]

I think he is the first to have 6 individual coils. A good patent lawyer helps too.

He might not be the first, but that patent has long expired, so it doesn't matter. His patent also was concerned with other things, not just multiple coils.

[edit]

Interesting though... here's the Zexcoil patent:



Here's the Bart patent:



I didn't see Bartolini cited in prior art either, but then I didn't read over the patent all that thoroughly yet.

[tmenss]

Here's the link which is youtube edutainment but still along the lines of Helmuth Lemme pickup resonance charactistics. The visual illustration of one pick up resonance character adds context to a person's verbal description of bright, mellow, or ice-picky and it wouldn;t take long for interested parties to understand that language fairly quick. A picture tells a thousand words. One visually discerns the slope of rise and fall, the curve around the peak, a visual understanding ot the "Q" in an RLC filter and its impact on tonal quality can become a meaningful discussion topic. The "according to whom" issue so prevalent in the mainstream forums becomes side chatter when one brought context to the discussion with a resonance snapshot . I'm sure resonant plots, like sound samples, can be optimized to "sway" buyer opinion but there is very real possibility they can loose credibility fast if discovered. Cost of entry into plotting is relatively cheap. PC oscilloscopes are essentially free, the tone inducers are simple coils and sources for frequency generators of sufficient calibration would start to appear more accessible to those with a need.

Thanks for the links to the patents and manufacturers. The patents I'll read. I've been a fan of EMG for some time now but I was not familiar with all the data they disclosed. But you have to admit that the simpleist of plots can be all the consumer needs to lift the heavy veil of "mystery" concerning pickups.

[tmenss]

David
I'd hope the good Dr. cites Bartolini, some immediate differences to look for in the patents based upon your post: coil form, magnetic structure, and pole orientation. Here's a question for you, how much different and how much more difficult is it to construct low eddy current, "micro" coil forms using, I guess, 46-48 guage wire? I have a set of Lawrence micro coils and the wire is unbelievably delicate.

[tmenss]

Would of helped if I pasted the Link! Sorry I had a late night with a few glasses of 3 generations tequila onboard.
Zexcoil 101 - Frequency Response and Pickup Design.wmv - YouTube

[LtKojak]

Well, after hearing several demos, color me impressed!

Nice single-coil tone and behaviour, almost no noise... the only thing I'd like to hear in person is the volume difference between the strings, something that bothers me to no end if found in any guitar I have to play, specially live!

I sold my strat because of this problem. I got a PRS SE EG and our own Zhangliqun made a Custom set with different polepiece spacings to alleviate this problem and so far I've been more than happy with'em... but I'd like to get the same result WITHOUT the noise, and these p'ups seem to be the ticket.

Does Santa still take letters from ANYBODY or only children...? Do you think he's bribable...?

WANT!

[Alan0354]

Well, after hearing several demos, color me impressed!

Nice single-coil tone and behaviour, almost no noise... the only thing I'd like to hear in person is the volume difference between the strings, something that bothers me to no end if found in any guitar I have to play, specially live!

I sold my strat because of this problem. I got a PRS SE EG and our own Zhangliqun made a Custom set with different polepiece spacings to alleviate this problem and so far I've been more than happy with'em... but I'd like to get the same result WITHOUT the noise, and these p'ups seem to be the ticket.

Does Santa still take letters from ANYBODY or only children...? Do you think he's bribable...?

WANT!

You don't have to give up strat for this reason. If you just use the America Standard with stock pup. It is a very good sounding pup. It has plastic bobbin and you can adjust the pole pieces up and down to you heart content. Also D Allen Standard series use plastic bobbins that you can adjust also. As for the fiber bobbin pups, it is more dangerous because the wire directly in contact with the poles particularly the two ends. But I did adjust the Fender CS 54 and it's fine. Fender Tex Mex use the same bobbin as the MIA pups, you can adjust it safely also.

[ScottA]

Apparently the jig is up!

That's me, the inventor of Zexcoil pickups.

I'm not going to comment on the other patent literature, as it isn't in my best legal interest to do so. Not that I have anything to hide, but in general it's just not a good idea to have any kind of discussion with legal implications in a public forum (yes, I DO have a good patent lawyer, and he has taught me well!). If you read through things carefully, you will see how the novel aspects of my design are differentiated.

I'm glad you guys are appreciating the frequency response video. One issue I've had is trying to really show the range of tonal response I can get, and I think the side by side comparison of my stuff to the conventional stuff is a good way to do it. I use hard data primarily to dial in my tones, and then use my ears to fine tune, but I can see a lot of pretty subtle stuff with my measurements. I think the data really help to reinforce what you may or may not think you are hearing.

One thing I'm not talking about yet, but I think you guys will find extremely interesting, is the model behind how I target tones. I've got another patent in process on this stuff, so I won't be talking about it for probably a couple of years or so, but it goes right to the heart of the physics that define tonality. It's pretty exciting stuff - especially if you're a geek like me!

[Mike Sulzer]

Apparently the jig is up!

That's me, the inventor of Zexcoil pickups.

Turn your Leo into a Les!

That is a catchy line. Tough to do exactly, considering the string sampling effect of a humbucker gives a different frequency response for each string, requiring a kind of unique notch filter for each, but approximation might be good enough for advertizing purposes.

[ScottA]

Turn your Leo into a Les!

That is a catchy line. Tough to do exactly, considering the string sampling effect of a humbucker gives a different frequency response for each string, requiring a kind of unique notch filter for each, but approximation might be good enough for advertizing purposes.

Sure. It would be physically impossible to nail every aspect of a humbucker response in a single coil form factor (and to account for all of the aspects of LP vs Strat design), but you can get really close, close enough to have a tone that is effectively in the population of conventional humbuckers. I will say that just about everyone who has played that Juicy Bucker comments that it is the best humbucker sound in a single coil form factor that they've heard, and even a legitimate P.A.F. tone regardless of the package.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are fundamental differences in how the string couples in with my designs versus both conventional single coils and humbuckers. In my experience, if you can capture the frequency response and the other design parameters, you'll get something that invokes the conventional analog.

If and when the stuff I'm doing now catches on, I'll be doing a P90 form factor, which will get closer to that humbucker aperture.

Another thing to note about sensing geometry: I can get pretty crazy quack even when one of the two pickups in parallel is a "Bucker". I think that speaks to the geometrical aspects of frequency notching as well.

[ScottA]

I'm sure resonant plots, like sound samples, can be optimized to "sway" buyer opinion but there is very real possibility they can loose credibility fast if discovered.

"Turn your Leo into a Les" not withstanding: I am a firm believer in "truth in advertising". Given that you do have to "market" your product, especially in this business, we endeavor to keep the bullsh*t to a minimum.

All of my data is straight up, and if I'm doing any manipulation (like normalizing or baseline subtraction) I'll tell you. I don't even EQ my clips! I'll add a little reverb (I don't like the reverb on the amps I generally use for clips) but other than that, what you hear is exactly what the mics picked up.