Lollar Mini Humbucker Q - what magnets?

[ReWind]

Maybe Jason will chime in or maybe someone else here knows. I couldn't reach him this weekend and with Monday being a holiday I figured I'd post here.

What magnets are used in the Lollar Mini Humbuckers and are they shipped mostly charged?

I've got to match the output level of those with a set of humbuckers I'm building for a local guy and they need to go out the door Monday. Any help appreciated.

Thanks!

[copperheadroads]

Mini's are not so bright as there cousin,the Firebird pup so I would choose some of the brighter magnets

[rhgwynn]

I'm new here so, maybe I just dont know yet but - isn't it a bit questionable to be asking someone for their design specs, so you can build it and sell it?? I mean, if that's what the guy wants, he should order it from Lollar; not ask someone to copy it and undersell the guy. It's no secret that people will order their competition's products as a method of R&D; Leo Fender did it when he worked at G&L. At least if you do that, in a way you're paying your dues. But, maybe I'm missing something, or misunderstand what you mean to do. I'm also not really up to speed on the social etiquette and level of information sharing that goes on between winders making their bread and butter on coils - so please dont take offense.

-Rob

[David King]

Rob, Great question. As I see it Jason can choose to answer if he feels it's a justifiable inquiry. He may decide to answer privately if he doesn't want the internals exposed here for the whole world to read. Some folks are insecure and always feel threatened by any proprietary information leaking out. We don't see many of the type around here. Perhaps they are the lurkers waiting for an offhand comment they can profit from. JAson strikes me as a very secure person who has achieved great success in spite of his extraordinary willingness to share just about everything he knows. He's one of the reasons this place exists.

[ReWind]

Hey Rob,

Yes, you definitely misunderstood. I don't take offense, though. It could easily be misunderstood by someone new to winding pickups. Perhaps I could have given more detail in my question here, too.

A mini-humbucker and a humbucker are not the same and matching the output level has nothing to do with imitating the sonic qualities, design, or look of another pickup.

I was simply trying to match the output (volume) level of my humbucker set, which will go into one of my client's guitars, with the output level of his other guitar which has a set of Lollar Mini-Humbuckers installed in it. That way when my client switches guitars during a show, the settings of his rig can stay the same to maintain an equal volume and overdrive amount. This is something I would normally do by having the other guitar in-hand, but in this particular case, it was too great a distance away with a short deadline.

Jason publishes the DCR specs on his site, but DCR is only one part of the equation which equals output level or volume. Often to a greater extent, the magnet type and charge level dictate the overall volume of a pickup even more than the DCR readings, even if the coil type and other aspects are the same.

So even with the output volume matched, the sonic qualities of the two pickup sets, and even the "feel" will be very different. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make a full-size format humbucker sound like a mini-humbucker and it wouldn't fit into the same guitar without filling and re-routing the pickup cavity, anyway.

Jason Lollar is an awesome guy and all of us aftermarket pickup makers owe him a tip of the hat for the doors he's opened for the rest of us. He actually ended up getting back to me a few days ago and answered my question about the magnets, as well as offering up far more information about the Mini-Humbuckers than I had even asked. It was extremely helpful, and I was able to meet my deadline and make my client, who is a mutual client of Jason's too, obviously, very happy.

[LtKojak]

Jason Lollar is an awesome guy and all of us aftermarket pickup makers owe him a tip of the hat for the doors he's opened for the rest of us. He actually ended up getting back to me a few days ago and answered my question about the magnets, as well as offering up far more information about the Mini-Humbuckers than I had even asked. It was extremely helpful, and I was able to meet my deadline and make my client, who is a mutual client of Jason's too, obviously, very happy.

Yeah, that's Jason Lollar in a nutshell.

Respect.

[ReWind]

I was reluctant to go public with my own pickup winding, initially, much less sell my builds. I started building pickups for personal interest in just making my own and having the knowledge and ability to voice them to my own guitars and rigs without spending a great deal of money buying set after set hoping for something close to what was in my mind. It wasn't that I was unconfident about my pickups, or even my ability to manage the business, but I was concerned that I may be viewed as another hand dipping into the pocket of established aftermarket pickup manufacturers.

However, it was actually a few other winders who reached out to me after hearing clips of my pickups and sort of pushed me into the waters head-first when I was only trying to dip my toes in. One in particular actually told me that if I didn't start selling my pickups myself to those asking, he was going to start offering my pickups for sale, himself, and sending me orders to fill! I've found the aftermarket pickup winding community, on a whole, to be one of the most welcoming, helpful, encouraging, and family-like communities in the world. Over the last two years, some pickup makers who I initially feared would see me as stepping on toes, have actually become some of my closest friends.


…and man was I ever wrong about saving money or not buying more pickups!

[rhgwynn]

Yeah this place IS pretty awesome - the amount of info available here will save you untold hours of searching, reading, and collecting bookmarks for various webpages. Thanks for taking the time to explain. Havent had a chance to talk to Jason at all yet but, I do know that there are still some fools trying to sell his book on amazon for over 500$....

-R