Orfeus / Chranov pickup

[No Mutant Enemy]

I thought you guys might be interested in this pickup, one of seven which I bought on E-Bay. They came from a guy in Bulgaria who got them from the old Orfeus / Chranov factory.



The case is black plastic, normal humbucker size, with two integral mounting feet and a clear plastic top. There are four blade-type poles; judging by the little kinks at each end, it looks as though they were just guillotined off of a length of flat bar stock. They're arranged in pairs, the elements of each pair separated by a bar magnet (actually three short bars mounted together). The magnets appear to be non-conductive, so I guess they're ceramic. The coils are bobbin-less (presumably wound on a collapsible former like the old Burns and Hayman pickups), tied with lacing thread and positioned over the outermost two blades, then terminated at the two chunks of metal you see next to the magnets in the underside shot. The two "blade plus coil" - "mag" - "blade" assemblies are fitted into the case, coil-bearing blades outermost. The whole thing is then partially filled with a translucent amber resin.

The blades carrying the coils are magnetic north, and the inner ones south. The coils measure around 5.5K.

Cheers,
Ian

[David King]

Wow that was a lot of work and not a lot of wire on there.

[mr fab]

interesting pickups... any idea of the inductance?
also what do they sound like?

[LtKojak]

Where is the cable?

[Jason Rodgers]

So, how does the circuit work? The two coils have north polarity in their blades, so does that mean one is CW and the other CCW and they would be wired hot-finish, start/finish, start-ground? And yes, what do they sound like?

[Mike Sulzer]

Why the same magnetic polarity for both blades-with-coil? That would seem to prevent operation as a humbucker. I wonder if these were assembled incorrectly, or some body made a change.

So, how does the circuit work? The two coils have north polarity in their blades, so does that mean one is CW and the other CCW and they would be wired hot-finish, start/finish, start-ground? And yes, what do they sound like?

[No Mutant Enemy]

"any idea of the inductance?" - Not a clue; no way of measuring it.
"Where is the cable?" - One of them was wired like this:
;
the others had no wire. I'll be wiring them as four-lead plus screen. (I use USB cable.)
"what do they sound like?" - At this stage, I only really know that they work. The guy in Bulgaria said they sound like Texas blues, but it would depend on the guitar and amp, of course. In my little test rig, they're quite smooth and rounded, considering that there's no body resonance.

I tried to get an idea of how the magnetic field looks; this is the best I could do, from the top:

and from the side:

I don't know if that tells anyone anything.

[tedmich]

wow those look like something a Soviet era tractor factory would make! How much do they cost? Will you post clips when installed?

[No Mutant Enemy]

wow those look like something a Soviet era tractor factory would make! How much do they cost? Will you post clips when installed?

Yes; great, aren't they? I paid around £7.00 each plus carriage. About $10. Don't hold your breath; it might be a while.

[No Mutant Enemy]

Here's the magnetic field viewed from the edge of the pickup:

and, just to confirm, here's the magnetic polarity: