Magnet type vs sound

[Antigua]

Sooooo... What could be wrong with experimenting with something like a neo cap on an iron core!?! There's probably more than one way to skin any cat. The subtleties would probably make experimentation prohibitive from a manufacturers standpoint, but I bet you could effectively simulate any magnet type with neo if you only used it as a cap on some other material of considered permeability. So the neo provides the magnetism to the string and the rod provides the permeability for the desired inductance. It may seem complicated at first, but it could open up a world of possibilities. So you have neo caps of relative magnetic strengths and rods of relative permeability. Mix and match. Which combination sounds right for duplicating "alnico5", "alnico2", ceramic, etc.

Food for thought?

The eddy current losses cause an attenuation that's very similar to a typical tone control. If you start with a high Q factor, using Fender style AlNiCo poled pickups, or ferrite pole pieces, you can simulate eddy current attenuation with a tone control. Variations in resonant peak can be had by starting with a low inductance and putting various amounts of capacitance across the pickup. The magnetic string pull can be varied by raising and lowering the pickup. A TV Jones Magne'tron neck pickup would decent "off the shelf" choice for modeling, since it has a high Q factor, a very low resonant peak and a decent output voltage.

The hardest thing to change is where the pickup sits under the strings, which would require some sort of rail that lets you slide the pickup around, or spin it on axis like a Turner Model 1. I think this sort of adjustment would be the most important, because changing the electrical values of a pickup is not unlike fiddling with the EQ on an amp, but adjusting where the pickup sits under the strings actually changes the timbre.

[Mick Bailey]

Doug Wilkes patented a sliding rail pickup system in the early 80s. Dave Gilmour has recently sold his Wilkes 'The Answer' that has this feature.