Gibson Staple top pickups

[chevalij]

Does anybody have any specs or patent # on the subject pickup? I want to try something similar and am just looking for the basic construction.

[David Schwab]

I don't think there was a patent. That was a Seth Lover design.

Here's a photo that might help.

[chevalij]

I don't think there was a patent. That was a Seth Lover design.

Here's a photo that might help.

Very nice. Looks trickier than I thought. Machining is one thing, but I may start with a flatpole or just stagger with no adjustment. Cutting the magnets will be fun I know there was a thread about that a year or so ago...

[Joe Gwinn]

Very nice. Looks trickier than I thought. Machining is one thing, but I may start with a flatpole or just stagger with no adjustment. Cutting the magnets will be fun I know there was a thread about that a year or so ago...

Alnico is a form of alloy steel. Cut with an aluminum oxide and/or zirconium oxide cutoff wheel. Diamond and silicon carbide wheels will not work, and will be ruined in the process.

[Possum]

....

Actually diamond wheels do work, you have to use water in cutting though. A lapidary trim saw works fine, I bought a tile saw with diamond blade which works well but there is no good way to solidly hold the magnet while cutting. Cutting them with anything is slow and tedious, but good for prototype work, then order the magnet sizes you need.

[Joe Gwinn]

Actually diamond wheels do work, you have to use water in cutting though. A lapidary trim saw works fine, I bought a tile saw with diamond blade which works well but there is no good way to solidly hold the magnet while cutting. Cutting them with anything is slow and tedious, but good for prototype work, then order the magnet sizes you need.

So long as the diamond blade runs real slow, OK. But cutoff saws don't usually run slow.

[JGundry]

These pickups have sort of Strat tone to them but fatter. I also think you get a little bit phase thing going on with the adjustment screws. The screws have an opposite magnetic polarity than the rectangular poles since the screws are threaded into the other end of the pole magnet. It would be interesting to see if taking the adjustment screws away changes the tone and character of the pickup much.

What's up with the black baseplate? Is it painted? Or is it an oxidized pure nickel plating? I have some 50's P-90's baseplates that look almost like oxidized Zinc plating and another that has a darkened nearly black plating but not completely black like that.

[Possum]

...

The fatter tone is natural since the poles are long and sensing more string that strat poles. I wonder what that metal is too, what metal oxidizes like that. Are the 50's baseplates brass with zinc plating or some other metal? I have a vintage staple bobbin an Ebay seller included in the package as a freebie, I flipped out when I saw that, its just so much junk to anyone else....

[LtKojak]

Duncan makes'em... both the original Staple or a HB-casing version call the Phat Staple. They're are Custom order p'ups.

I've never seen p'ups as gorgeous as those... specially in the neck spot on an Ebony Gibson Les Paul Custom!

[chevalij]

I'm going after a soap bar P-90 design. Think I'm going to have to make my own bobbins though..