Firebird PU small metal top plate - necessary?

[charrich56]

Could someone comment on the Firebird pickup, whether the small sheet metal piece which is installed on the treble side on top of the two magnets, is either necessary or desirable, if you don't want to necessarily duplicate the Firebird PU sound?

Does it make the string outputs more balanced bass to treble, or anything along those lines?

Thanks in advance for replies/comments.

-Charlie

[rjb]

My guess is that the ferrous metal sheet reduces the magnetic field reaching the treble strings.
The obvious answer is "try it".

-rb

[charrich56]

Yep, it would shunt some of the field which would magnetize what looks like the G and B strings. But knowing what Gibson's rationale for doing it in the first place, would save me some experimentation time I'd like to devote to some other things.

[salvarsan]

Could someone comment on the Firebird pickup, whether the small sheet metal piece which is installed on the treble side on top of the two magnets, is either necessary or desirable, if you don't want to necessarily duplicate the Firebird PU sound?

Yes, it's a magnetic field soak to decrease the B,G string contributions.
Lacking adjustable screws, it's an economical pickup tweak.
The StewMac picture helps explain things.

[12xu]

I've had good results without using the plate.

[rjb]

I've had good results without using the plate.

[wild speculation]
Maybe because you use an electrically well-balanced string set?
I wouldn't doubt the "old-school" guys at Gibson tested the pickup with "old-school" strings....
[/wild speculation]

-rb

[12xu]

[wild speculation]
Maybe because you use an electrically well-balanced string set?
I wouldn't doubt the "old-school" guys at Gibson tested the pickup with "old-school" strings....
[/wild speculation]

-rb

I've always heard that was the reason they did it.

Not needed with modern strings.

[copperheadroads]

I don't find a unbalanced strings without the small B plate so I don't use it .

[charrich56]

Thanks, guys, I appreciate all your answers.

I've thought for a long time that the mini-humbucker/Firebird PU was treated like the red-headed stepchild of the pickup world, but maybe a good modern design could offer some great tones and some advantages for fit (fits P-90 cavity easily with the adapter, and you can put 3 of them on a Strat pickguard.)

[big_teee]

I made a firebird hybrid I liked a lot, a couple of years back.
Used the standard baseplate, bobbins & firebird cover.
Inside I used a standard humbucker A8 Bar mag on the bottom.
Used 2 custom cut slug bars in the bobbins.
I cut the slug bars a little wider so they barely stuck through the top of the bobbins, allowing to sit near, or against the cover.
An advantage with the slugs, you can use any standard Humbucker magnet underneath.
A2-A8, C5, or C8.
Worth a try, if you're trying to come up with something different.
I liked it! Can be tuned warm or bright, depending on bar magnet.
T

[salvarsan]

I wouldn't doubt the "old-school" guys at Gibson tested the pickup with "old-school" strings....

"Old School" could mean a wound G back when the G-string really meant something.

Makes you wonder about how much the G-string actually contributed to the sound of honky-tonk Rock&Roll.
It suggests that limiting the G-string contribution was a priggish cultural affectation, an insidious Bowdlerization of guitar pickup sonority.

G-string issues have a long history.

[trivial pun alert]

Going for Baroque, there is a record of J.S.Bach
contributing a long clipping of his hair to make a multifilar G-string for the violin,
this being the earliest recorded instance of...

[loathsome pun alert!]

...Bach's hair in a G-string.

[charrich56]

"Old School" could mean a wound G back when the G-string really meant something.

...

[loathsome pun alert!]

...Bach's hair in a G-string.

Anybody who would get that reference would also probably know what Salvarsan is, Salvarsan.

But you are probably right about the wound G-string. That means full speed ahead on leaving the darn piece of metal out.

Big_teee has an interesting idea on a hybrid. But I'm a bit cautious about how high the inductance would go with both rails and an Alnico mag. I'd like to stay at or a little under 4.0 Henries series coil, 1 Henry parallel coil, for my specially challenged electronics. I might be able to work with Sonny Walton, who lives close to me (and has a CNC winder,) to experiment a bit.

PRS has been putting out some pickups in their guitars which have an "in-between" string aperture, and I've been hearing some good opinions on some of the minihum and Firebird -inspired custom PU's out there.


-Charlie

[marcfrom]

This is the answer of Peter Schultz from Stewmac

Thank you for contacting us. The small steel plate across the top of a Firebird Mini Humbucker helps to focus the vibrations of the "B" string. This causes the "B" string to have a slightly higher output relative to the other strings.

Using one of these Firebird Mini Humbuckers, you will notice that the "B" string sounds more compared to the other strings. This small steel plate is part of the vintage technical specifications that contribute to the vintage sound of these pickups.

[rjb]

The small steel plate across the top of a Firebird Mini Humbucker helps to focus the vibrations of the "B" string. This causes the "B" string to have a slightly higher output relative to the other strings.

Hunh.
Historically, pickups always had a problem with the "B" string having higher output- because the plain steel "B" string was thicker than the core of the wound "G" string. That's why Gibson started notching "Charlie Christian" polepieces below the "B" string in 1938.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson...tian_pickup.22

-rb

[marcfrom]

Hunh.
Historically, pickups always had a problem with the "B" string having higher output- because the plain steel "B" string was thicker than the core of the wound "G" string. That's why Gibson started notching "Charlie Christian" polepieces below the "B" string in 1938.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson...tian_pickup.22<

-rb

yes it's true even on the Strat Pickups the B rod is more away from the string.

But does the ferrous plate do not increase the magnetics field around itself as a Tele bridge pickup?