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Here's... Johnny One-Note
I'm really not sure if "sidebucker" is the correct term. I think I've seen both "sidebucker" and "sidewinder" used.
I'm also not sure of the difference between "blade" and "rail" pickups, and tend to use the terms interchangeably.
Does "blade" imply thin steel polepiece and "rail" imply thicker magnet polepiece?
BTW, If it seems like I'm campaigning for this design, I think that's because it seems like a fun project I'd like to try-
but I've neither the spare time nor an application for a 6" long pickup.
Making an equivalent for guitar would require custom-fabricating just about everything;
I think its "neat" that you could throw this together with mostly off-the-shelf parts.
Besides the cover and baseplate, the only custom fabrication would be shaping the steel blade-
and maybe a pair of steel plates for the "bottoms" of the bobbins, to direct more magnetic flux through the ceramic-loaded coils.
At any rate, this isn't a radical idea.
As David Schwab has noted, split-coil bass pickups are fairly common,
and Seth Lover's patent for the humbucker included a sidewinder with offset coils.
Here's DS's post from a thread I started back when I knew even less than I do now:
http://music-electronics-forum.com/t27441/#post238370
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A note on coil length/configuration (I think this is theoretically correct; if not, I hope someone will chime in):
When building a sidewinder (sidebucker?) pickup, using two offset "half length" coils is more efficient than using two "full length" coils.
For "normal" humbuckers with side-by-side coils, the total inductance equals the inductance of each coil plus the absolute value of their mutual inductance.
Ltot = L1 + L2 + |L12|
For "sidebuckers" with coils facing each other, the total inductance equals the inductance of each coil minus the absolute value of their mutual inductance.
Ltot = L1 + L2 - |L12|
That's why sidebuckers with full length coils typically require many turns of wire.
If you use half-length coils, facing but offset, their mutual inductance is greatly reduced- and you can use fewer turns per coil.
Maybe.
Originally posted by chad h
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I'm also not sure of the difference between "blade" and "rail" pickups, and tend to use the terms interchangeably.
Does "blade" imply thin steel polepiece and "rail" imply thicker magnet polepiece?
BTW, If it seems like I'm campaigning for this design, I think that's because it seems like a fun project I'd like to try-
but I've neither the spare time nor an application for a 6" long pickup.
Making an equivalent for guitar would require custom-fabricating just about everything;
I think its "neat" that you could throw this together with mostly off-the-shelf parts.
Besides the cover and baseplate, the only custom fabrication would be shaping the steel blade-
and maybe a pair of steel plates for the "bottoms" of the bobbins, to direct more magnetic flux through the ceramic-loaded coils.
At any rate, this isn't a radical idea.
As David Schwab has noted, split-coil bass pickups are fairly common,
and Seth Lover's patent for the humbucker included a sidewinder with offset coils.
Here's DS's post from a thread I started back when I knew even less than I do now:
http://music-electronics-forum.com/t27441/#post238370
-----
A note on coil length/configuration (I think this is theoretically correct; if not, I hope someone will chime in):
When building a sidewinder (sidebucker?) pickup, using two offset "half length" coils is more efficient than using two "full length" coils.
For "normal" humbuckers with side-by-side coils, the total inductance equals the inductance of each coil plus the absolute value of their mutual inductance.
Ltot = L1 + L2 + |L12|
For "sidebuckers" with coils facing each other, the total inductance equals the inductance of each coil minus the absolute value of their mutual inductance.
Ltot = L1 + L2 - |L12|
That's why sidebuckers with full length coils typically require many turns of wire.
If you use half-length coils, facing but offset, their mutual inductance is greatly reduced- and you can use fewer turns per coil.
Maybe.
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