30-year project almost done, but not quite - problem with neos?

[Mark Hammer]

Apologies for the delay. Here you go:

[rjb]

Apologies for the delay. Here you go:

Aw, man- no step-by-step assembly gut shots?
Final product does look good!

[Mark Hammer]

If I work up the gumption to make another with a wider coil, I'll take pics.

[David Schwab]

So, I made a very similar pickup, which I assume is what I talked to Mark about (don't actually remember!), and I also ran into a similar problem. This was for a 5 string Moses Graphite bass, and the pickup was cast in a mold of the original pickup (After belt sanding the top off the original pickup to determine how it was made). After it was done the G string was way too quiet.

I figured that after the pickup was wound and encapsulated, the G string magnet came loose and moved closer to the D string.

So for the next pickup, I made a wooden core to hold the magnets in place.

Here you see the original pickup, made on thin PCB, the spacer, and the second pickup which I made with fiberboard.

[Mark Hammer]

Yours is a whole lot prettier than mine, Dave.

[David Schwab]

Thanks Mark. It's ironic since it got embedded in epoxy, never to be seen again!

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
Some of those earlier pickups were made with the type of magnetic material refrigerator magnets are made from. That could be used for the bottom flat work.

[David Schwab]

Hello,
Some of those earlier pickups were made with the type of magnetic material refrigerator magnets are made from. That could be used for the bottom flat work.

Rubber magnets are too flexible to use as flatwork. The kind used for refrigerator magnets don't have a regular N & S pole... they are in alternating strips. So they aren't suitable for pickups. Rickenbacker uses rubber magnets. They are very weak and create muddy sounding pickups. For such a shallow pickup, thin neos are perfect.

[rjb]

Rubber magnets are too flexible to use as flatwork. The kind used for refrigerator magnets don't have a regular N & S pole... they are in alternating strips. So they aren't suitable for pickups. Rickenbacker uses rubber magnets. They are very weak and create muddy sounding pickups. For such a shallow pickup, thin neos are perfect.

Some DeArmond pickups used a rubber magnet glued to a steel backplate. The backplate was the lower flange; the upper flange was two sheets of plastic (similar to that used for acoustic guitar pickguards) laminated and glued on top of the magnet.

-rb

[David Schwab]

Some DeArmond pickups used a rubber magnet glued to a steel backplate. The backplate was the lower flange; the upper flange was two sheets of plastic (similar to that used for acoustic guitar pickguards) laminated and glued on top of the magnet.

-rb

Yeah, a number of pickups did. But those aren't the same as refrigerator magnets. I'd just use a standard ceramic in that case. When I replaced the rubber magnet on a Rickenbacker neck pickup with small neos, the pickup sounded a lot better. It wasn't as dark, and had a nice open top end.