Wow, this looks pretty damn innovative!

[pupoholic]

http://applausecasttestone.podomatic...15_47_36-07_00




What a damaging interview to post online for the general public to hear.

I have lost all respect for them.

[Mark Hammer]

Might I suggest that the mystery ingredient here is the string gauge? Indeed, no one has said anything about it, and as near as I can tell, it can be pretty darn important in terms of whether ANY magnet, regardless of composition, can exert enough of a tug on the string to alter its pitch.

If David is talking about bass strings, and "Chicago" is talking about a .008 E-string and .010 B-string, then maybe they are both right.

[David Schwab]

Might I suggest that the mystery ingredient here is the string gauge? Indeed, no one has said anything about it, and as near as I can tell, it can be pretty darn important in terms of whether ANY magnet, regardless of composition, can exert enough of a tug on the string to alter its pitch.

If David is talking about bass strings, and "Chicago" is talking about a .008 E-string and .010 B-string, then maybe they are both right.

Yeah I asked back in this thread "What gauge strings were they... 8's?"

Yes, I'm talking about bass strings, but they still warble with too much magnetism under them.

I'm using less magnets in my pickups now... I made one with one larger magnet, and it sounds great... saves on magnets too!

[ken]

I read somewhere that using a weak magnetic field mcould possibly make a more dynamic pickup, due to lack of 'string pull' effects . Maybe we can try moving in a whole new direction, using the absolute minimum of magnetic material so as not to destroy string vibration?

What a concept...

Ken

[Sweetfinger]

My magnets suck!

FWIW this thread inspired me to do some experimentin'! I've known for years that pickups with strong magnets can choke sustain, cause warbling, and even pull strings flat if adjusted too close. I go through my day accepting these things as gospel truth, but was inspired just now, so I jumped to the bench and plugged the trusty Strat into the ol' Peterson strobe tuner.

I grabbed a ceramic bar magnet off the fridge(Its former residence was some foreign made humbucker) and stuck that puppy right up to the G string.(.017) I was able to pull the string flat by about 15 cents! What about the real world? since it has been a long time since I saw a pickup with the big ol' endox bar on top-right next to the strings, I tried my test again, with a stock Mex-Strat pickup. I wasn't able to get more than a couple cents pull at the closest from the strat pickup, but certainly that's enough to sour your day..

Next, I tried a Pacific-rim made humbucker dug out of the used pickup box. I was able to pull the string 10 cents flat, and I have on several occasions seen customers guitars with the pickups adjusted just THAT close.

I always enjoyed using a strobe tuner to show folks the effects of adjusting their pickups too close. You can actually see the fundamental and lower harmonics pull flat, and if you retune the string, the upper harmonics were then sharp. That'll put the hurt on ya! I also fondly recall an encounter with a particular used Strat in a local guitar store many years ago:
Some enterprising visionary had crammed FOUR distortion style humbuckers in between the heel of the neck and the bridge! It certainly had a big burly sound.....for about two seconds, after which the cumulative string pull of the eight coils would render your strums impotent.

In my old age, I've become a fan of lower output pickups with weaker magnets, with any needed brute force being applied with a clean(or not so clean) pre-amp.

[Ray Ivers]

I've always wondered why I really like the sustain characteristics of guitars with just a single bridge pickup; I think I'm starting to understand now.

Ray

[David Schwab]

In my old age, I've become a fan of lower output pickups with weaker magnets, with any needed brute force being applied with a clean(or not so clean) pre-amp.

I agree!

[ken]

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense...

The most valued pickups seem to be the oldest, with weak magnets and rudimentary designs. Possibly the weakening effect of age on magnets allows the note to 'breathe' more, like letting a bottle of wine 'breathe' to make it tastier? Perhaps the increased minute string vibration from weaker string pull lets more note 'taste' (detail) out, that would normally be choked off by the 'modern' or higher gauss magnet's magnetic pull acting like an 'auto shock absorber' does - for example, the high gauss magnet damping out string vibrations that are weaker then the average?

More conceptualizing...

Ken
PS. You can always tell how much sleep I've gotten lately by how 'stream of consciousness' my posts get. Last night was about 2 1/2 hours...

[brownID]

I'll add my 2 cents on the Alumitones. I had a little blurb about them on the old forum and we had quite the discussion about them on The Gear Page Forum (I'm Cokemachine on that forum).

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...ight=alumitone

I've been playing with the Alumitones for a while now, mainly because the basic Transensor design has promise. The Alumitones are just a poorly executed version of this design. I will say this, both the Alumitones and the Transensors have THE lowest string pull of any pickup I have ever seen. To say that these pickups have intonation problems due to magnetic string pull is utterly ridiculous.