Anybody see the new Stew Mac humbuckers?

[ken]

Hello all,

I got my copy of the new Stew Mac catalog today, and on page 3 there are new 'railhammer' pickups.
These have a blade in each coil for the wound strings and three rod mags for the G, B and high E.

What say you?

ken

[copperheadroads]

There's a little more info on there site
Railhammer Pickups

[rjb]

What say you?

These will revolutionize the state of music as we know it.

[big_teee]

Hello all,

I got my copy of the new Stew Mac catalog today, and on page 3 there are new 'railhammer' pickups.
These have a blade in each coil for the wound strings and three rod mags for the G, B and high E.

What say you?

ken

I think they are Ugly!
Pick one, either rail or pole pieces. That's IMO!
Looks like they are just trying hard to come up with something different.
Who knows, time will tell.
T

[JoeM]

What about players who use a wound third?

[rjb]

What about players who use a wound third?

I'm waiting for the Johnny Smith model.

[ken]

I thought the rails should be under the treble strings because those are the ones you bend. Maybe SM has them in the photo flipped?

ken

[rjb]

I thought the rails should be under the treble strings because those are the ones you bend. Maybe SM has them in the photo flipped?

Nope. I just got their paper catalog in the mail.

They say:

Railhammers feature narrow-sensing height-tapered rails under the wound strings, for clarity and reduced note smearing.
Oversize 6mm polepieces for the plain strings increase note thickness and sustain.

Revolutionary. New paradigm. Game changer. Ho, hum.

[John_H]

I think they are Ugly!
Pick one, either rail or pole pieces. That's IMO!
Looks like they are just trying hard to come up with something different.
Who knows, time will tell.
T

Who cares how they look, how do they sound? You can really limit yourself by being narrow minded.

Revolutionary. New paradigm. Game changer. Ho, hum.

Isn't that rather cynical? Have you tried one?

I always think it's refreshing to see something new, and different, even if it isn't "revolutionary".

[big_teee]

Who cares how they look, how do they sound? You can really limit yourself by being narrow minded.

Isn't that rather cynical? Have you tried one?

I always think it's refreshing to see something new, and different, even if it isn't "revolutionary".

Please buy one and evaluate it for us.
Personally speaking for myself.
I'm not going to spend $178 + Shipping to try them, when I already have something that works great.
If you can't do it with a humbucker, or a Blade bucker, or with a bucker with SC Magnets?
I don't figure combining them will produce much new.
But, feel free to test them for us!
Also for that price, you have removed all adjustability, that everyone seems to think is so important.
T

[John_H]

Please buy one and evaluate it for us.
Personally speaking for myself.
I'm not going to spend $178 + Shipping to try them, when I already have something that works great.
If you can't do it with a humbucker, or a Blade bucker, or with a bucker with SC Magnets?
I don't figure combining them will produce much new.
But, feel free to test them for us!
Also for that price, you have removed all adjustability, that everyone seems to think is so important.
T

If everyone thought like that, We would all be driving model T's (pun intended)
No, I'm not going to buy one to evaluate it for you, but I'm also not going to knock them for being different. I have no problem making great sounding pickups either, but I wont discount anyone's effort at innovation. OBTW your response makes you look like a real @sshole.

[David Schwab]

I thought the rails should be under the treble strings because those are the ones you bend. Maybe SM has them in the photo flipped?

The idea is that the rail is thinner than the round pole tops, so the wider pole under the treble strings makes it fuller sounding. I use different width blades for similar reasons.

These were designed by Joe Naylor of Reverend guitars. Apparently in the prototypes the slug poles were nails, so maybe that's where the "hammer" part comes in!

[Mike Sulzer]

If everyone thought like that, We would all be driving model T's (pun intended)

Changes in auto technology are real and can be shown in actual tests. Do these pickups come with certified engineering tests showing how they are different? Did they have an impartial third party perform extensive double blind listening tests? No? I did not think so. Maybe there is something to them, but also remember the $500 ether net cable that not only has as low an error rate as any ether net cable, but kisses each bit where it counts the most and sends it merrily on its way.

[Mike Sulzer]

The idea is that the rail is thinner than the round pole tops, so the wider pole under the treble strings makes it fuller sounding. I use different width blades for similar reasons.

These were designed by Joe Naylor of Reverend guitars. Apparently in the prototypes the slug poles were nails, so maybe that's where the "hammer" part comes in!

Pole pieces pieces are not wide enough to affect strongly string harmonics within the frequency range of the system. Remember, the spacing of humbucker coils has a strong effect on the sound of the bass strings, but a very small effect on the #1 E string.

[Mark Hammer]

What I find a little ironic is that for years many of us operated under the assumption that non-alignment of strings and the polepiece or slug underneath would cause problems with respect to volume and string balance. Blades were supposed to fix all of that by providing a continuous magnet that the string never moved too far away from.

So here we have a pickup that sticks a blade under the wound strings, and rod polepieces under the unwound. Okay, now which strings do you normally bend: the wound or the unwound?

I don't mention this to thumb my nose at the Railhammers. Rather, maybe its about time we started thinking about the blades-vs-polepieces dimension in terms of tone rather than signal consistency. And maybe its about time manufacturers started developing/producing pickups that employ different magnets in the same shape/form for different strings.

What I want to know is how one winds them when the magnets are of such different thicknesses. Or are these wound separately for the blade and polepiece segments?