Bartolini humbuckers.

[Possum]

...........

I basically told the guy I'd give his money back, I'll have to make payments since bank account is low. This deal is more trouble than its worth wasting anymore time on, he wants something out of me that I just don't make. He wants flat sounding pickups and I hate those things and don't want to waste time developing something that no one else will ever buy :-) A flat sounding PAF, whats the point in that? I want something with character, something that has an identifiable voice, not a computer monotone lifeless thing. Yuk....

[Brock Little]

Back when I met Marcel Marceau he shared with me the secret of his tone...

[Possum]

...........

anybody who knows who Marcel Marceau is must be OLD. Did he mime it? You know, they have these mime alloys, you have to be real careful and handle them with ear plugs in, in a sound proof room, dangerous stuff....

[Brock Little]

I've got a set of Marcel's custom pickups in my Air Guitar.
Still can't seem to nail that tone though.

The tone must be in the hands!

[Sweetfinger]

... in a sound proof room,....

...and behind an INVISIBLE WALL!

[salvarsan]

You know, they have these mime alloys, you have to be real careful and handle them with ear plugs in, in a sound proof room, dangerous stuff....

Expensive, too.

A mime is a terrible thing to waste.

-drh

[David Schwab]

A flat sounding PAF, whats the point in that? I want something with character, something that has an identifiable voice, not a computer monotone lifeless thing. Yuk....

I sure wouldn't call Tuck's tone flat computer monotone. It sounds like he has a single coil pickup on his archtop. It's bright and chimey, not flat and monotone. You don't cal acoustic guitars flat and monotone, do you?

[Possum]

....

its a hi fi tone, flat, the tone tone comes from the jazz box. I suggested he get some Alumatone pickups by Lace.

[David King]

This thread was just getting me down -until Marcel turned up. Man that guy could sing, but between the terribelle frencsh agcent and the invisible mic in his hand, I couldn't catch a werd Ee waz say-ying-gue

[Possum]

...........

yeah but look at all the mime clones out there now, everybody wants to be silent, I get tired of not hearing that tone...

[Brock Little]

I just went to Youtube and found some old videos of Marcel in the Sixties (arguably when he did his best work). I just realised that he never wore those silly, little, white mime gloves! The guy was all about the touch!
So I ripped off the gloves, and the now the tone is really kickin! Can't match his technique, but you can definitely pretend to hear it!

[David Schwab]

its a hi fi tone, flat, the tone tone comes from the jazz box. I suggested he get some Alumatone pickups by Lace.

It's not flat. Acoustic guitars are not flat. Jazz boxes are not flat. There's always a resonant peak, and in the case of acoustic guitars, a LOT of comb filtering.

My Hi-A had a warm fat tone with a crisp clear top end. On bass it was a cross between a P bass and a Jass bass. That's not flat. Flat does not equal crisp or warm. You get that from the resonant peak in the upper mids and a low mid hump.

As an example, my high Z bass pickups are brighter sounding than the very flat and wide low Z pickups I was making. The peak on those was so high you could hardly hear it. It was more like very high fret and string noise and added little to the tone. The rest of the bass' tone was reproduced flat, but the bass doesn't produce a flat tone, so the pickups just sounded like the bass.

The Lace pickups are not flat either, they have a high peak, which makes them sound bright. They just don't have the low mid bump.

In a recent issue of Bass Player magazine they reviewed a Lace Helix bass guitar, and they said it reminded them of a P bass with a little less midrange hump. He ended by saying "The Helix is like a big, thick butter bomb. If you like plush smooth tone, not just dark, but super smoove, then check out the Hilix. Rich, thick, and milky cho-co-late."

That doesn't sound like a description of flat sterile hi-fi tone, does it?

There's nothing wrong with quiet. Hum doesn't add a single thing to your tone.

I'm going to have to stick the Hi-A on my guitar so you can see it sounds like a warm humbucker with extended top end. It's not a clinical hi-fi tone, any more than a clean humbucker or single coil is.

I don't know why you didn't suggest the Bart with the built in preamp to the guy.. that's the real Tuck tone he's looking for. Then if he coundn't get the tone, it's his fault... not the pickup.

[Possum]

...

OK, its not flat, but its not musically pleasing to my ears either. Its kinda like the Roy Buchannan thing, sure he was a good player, but his shrill tone is something I can stand for maybe five minutes before I have to turn it off
I don't get the high rez peak thing, WHY? Do those guys have hearing loss like Leo did. His last pickup designs the ASAT stuff is real hard to listen to, guys at the jams who would bring those things in would drive most of us out into the parking lot for some air.

[David Schwab]

I think everyone hears things differently. I know I like things on the bright side, but not shrill. I used to play with a guitar player that used so much low end it was hard to hear what he was playing in the mix. But to him, his guitar was always thin sounding.

Tuck's tone is bright... I like that smoky Joe Pass tone myself. But you know that bart is not bright and shrill, that's all the drastic EQ Tuck does.

[fjgaston]

Some people are never happy.

We call them French People

ah, I'm French, but I'm soon gonna move in another country to stop being a French lol