So how tall can a rail be?

[Mark Hammer]

I was visiting a store in Toronto I had been meaning to take in for a few years now, and got to see some Fano guitars up close. One of them was equipped with a pair of TV Jones Super'Tron pickups. I have to say I was quite taken aback by the height of the rails on those things. You can't really tell from pics like this one - http://www.tvjones.com/images/classic-super-ne-mt.gif - but those blades come up pretty dang high; a lot higher than you'd likely see in a Barden or Lawrence. I didn't get to try the guitar out but the staff were raving about the pickups. So how high can they go, and what does one gain/forfeit by having the blades so elevated?

[Mike Sulzer]

I was visiting a store in Tornto I had been meaning to take in for a few years now, and got to see some Fano guitars up close. One of them was equipped with a pair of TJ Jones Super'Tron pickups. I have to say I was quite taken aback by the height of the rails on those things. You can't really tell from pics like this one - http://www.tvjones.com/images/classic-super-ne-mt.gif - but those blades come up pretty dang high; a lot higher than you'd likely see in a Barden or Lawrence. I didn't get to try the guitar out but the stafdf were raving about the pickups. So how high can they go, andf what does one gain/forfeit by having the blades so elevated?

I am not sure I understand the question. Do you mean that the steel sticks a long way out of the pickup case? In that case, the limit is how much flux you are willing to lose. Field lines entering the top do not all get to the bottom. The old fashioned stacked humbucker relies on this in order to avoid canceling the signal completely. So you can see that as long as the part sticking out is a small fraction of the length of a typical core, you probably are not losing all that much signal.

I am sorry if I have misinterpreted what you are saying.

[Mark Hammer]

Given the many typos in my post (I fell asleep from the drive shortly after posting!), it's a wonder you could interpret anything.

Yes, the rail does seem to stick out a lot; seemingly about 15% or so of the total distance from the top of the blade to the bottom of the coil. I was curious about what the theoretical impact of this is, and how much exaggerated blade height (OR polepiece height, for that matter) changes the audible properties of coils.

I should note that I have no idea how the Supertrons are constructed, and whether they are essentially slugs coupled by a mag, or mags coupled by a slug.

I will say this, however, Dennis Fano sure know how to make stuff look old and used. It's a pleasure to try stuff out in a store and not be worried about whether the metal snaps on your overalls are going to scratch the finish.

[David Schwab]

I think they did that so the rail would fit that cover. I'm not sure why they make it over lap the ends, but that's how they are. I know someone that has a Gretsch with one of those at the bridge.