Lipstick Pickups

[David King]

Rob, it says "Chrome tube". Are you thinking it's chromium? That would cost a lot in materials as it would have to be machined from the solid, probably using some very specialized cutting tools since chromium is one of the hardest metals know to man. For that price let's assume it's Chrome plated base metal. The easiest material to deep draw and chrome plate would be brass. As they say, looks can be deceiving. We really can't tell what it is by looking at it, your guess would be as good as mine but in this case I think an educated guess might be in order.

[Peter Naglitsch]

I still have a few of the tubes I bought from GJ, and I think it is pretty safe to assume that they are the same material as those from Guitarparts USA (I don't think Mojo has them any more). Those tubes are made from brass. So back to the question: Why use nickel silver, or even plastic as suggested? When I tested my lipsticks before inserting them in the tubes they were very very bright. When inside the tubes they were quite nice, and much warmer sounding. like described above, like a "thicker" strat pickup. In the end I managed to get as much as 5.99 Kohms on the bridge pickup and 4.85 on the neck. As mentioned before, I probably should have restrained myself a bit for the bridge pickup... Neck pickup is very nice though

[soundmasterg]

Yeah the originals used brass lipstick tubes....you don't think lipstick manufacturers would have used anything expensive for these throwaway tubes! The brass dumbs the sound down enough and makes them sound great....brass can be fine if the pickup is designed around them like the original lipsticks were....

Greg

[R.Madgwick]

I actually just acquired a lipstick humbucker from gfs, a customer wired it and hated it for a lack of push, this guitar has 2 nice single lipsticks and they have more 'grind' when pushing a tube amp then this. Im dismantling now, will report back with some pics, I imagine its a bobbin like the kit, my plan is to rewind with 44ga and alnico 8's to 14-16k which will hopefully retain a bit of that surfy brightness while getting a better distorted rhythm tone.

[R.Madgwick]

Heres a few quick shots after taking apart, unfortunately the bobbin is smaller than my smallest magnet on hand 2.444, and quite a bit shorter. The magnet does however fit the tube rather snugly after reassemble, the A8 I have is 2.5 and I may need to dust the extra .060 off the end at work to get the bolt holes to line up quite right, didn't try to force anything yet in fear of damaging the thin tubes. They look to be brass on the inside and it appears wax keeps them stable inside.

[big_teee]

While you have it apart, can you verify if the tubes are plated brass.
If your careful, and don't get them too hot, I've ground that much off.
Just take it slow and keep cooling the pickup in between grinding.
first you would have to make sure the width of the bar will work and will fit in the tube ok?
T

[R.Madgwick]

The last pic is a bar in the tube and that one first in all directions a little tight when closing the tubes but still close all the way, and for cutting/grinding magnets I have access to lots big machinery muhahaha. I work at a machine shop, I've cut and ground a handful of magnets to fit the mojotone 2.18 bar flatwork with great results. I'm not to worried about the magnetism of it either as A8's are silly strong as they stand and I do have a couple 1x2x4 rare earth magnets I use to charge them pretty good. I'm about 90% sure they're brass, the inside has almost a cadmium coating look to it which I imagine is just from the plating process, it is close to brass in color, but has that oil slick look to it.

Edit just ran back down and cleaned it with some solvent and a rag, the wax must have given it that look its definitely brass.