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Hi, folks. I'm new on this forum, but I'm pretty active on the MIMF. I met David King there, and have received a lot of help and guidance from him (virtually, and in person, here in the Portland, OR area) over the past decade or so. I've even bumped into David Schwab over there in the past. I'm a hobby builder of various guitars, finishing my first this July.
This past spring, I also decided that I wanted to build my own pickups, so I jumped in with both feet, bought Lollar's book, and built a winder.
Of course, I can't do anything simply or by the books, so I did a little reading, and then made the pickups the way I thought they should look for this project, largely flying by the seat of my pants. My first pickups are rail/blade humbuckers. The flatwork is laminated countertop laminate offcuts, and the core is Home Depot 3/16"x3/4" soft steel bar. David King saw me post some in-progress pics elsewhere and suggested lightening the load on those steel cores, so I drilled em out (they kinda look like brass knuckles, eh?).
The neck pickup is wound to 9.6k total, and the bridge to 13.6k, both with 42awg wire (from Elektrisola). Under the hood are six 1/8"x1/8"x1/2" neos on each core.
Controls are a standard Carvin arrangement: 3-way toggle for bridge, both, and neck; plus 2 mini switches for coil tap neck north and bridge south. I like the tonal options this gives. 500k audio taper Bourns on volume and tone, with a .022uf cap.
The good news is, they work, and they don't sound bad! Well, not NOT bad, and that's why I'm posting here. David King warned me that there would likely be a lot of high frequency loss due to eddy currents in the excessive soft steel of the cores. I attended the GAL conference in Tacoma this summer, where I met Veronica Merryfield, and she checked them out and concluded that their resonant peak is a bit lower than would be expected/desired. So yes, they do sound a bit muddy: not much sparkle, and not much string separation.
I'm playing around with pickup height, and dropping them down has balanced things a little. I will be pulling the whole guitar apart to do some neck and bridge adjustments/modifications soon, so my next idea is to pull one or two of those little neos off each core and see what that does. I'll also be sticking a .001uf cap for treble bleed on the volume pot.
But I thought I'd also throw this out to the knowledgeable folks here: these pickups are what they are, but are there any little tricks that I might try to brighten them up a bit? Many thanks in advance!
This past spring, I also decided that I wanted to build my own pickups, so I jumped in with both feet, bought Lollar's book, and built a winder.
Of course, I can't do anything simply or by the books, so I did a little reading, and then made the pickups the way I thought they should look for this project, largely flying by the seat of my pants. My first pickups are rail/blade humbuckers. The flatwork is laminated countertop laminate offcuts, and the core is Home Depot 3/16"x3/4" soft steel bar. David King saw me post some in-progress pics elsewhere and suggested lightening the load on those steel cores, so I drilled em out (they kinda look like brass knuckles, eh?).
The neck pickup is wound to 9.6k total, and the bridge to 13.6k, both with 42awg wire (from Elektrisola). Under the hood are six 1/8"x1/8"x1/2" neos on each core.
Controls are a standard Carvin arrangement: 3-way toggle for bridge, both, and neck; plus 2 mini switches for coil tap neck north and bridge south. I like the tonal options this gives. 500k audio taper Bourns on volume and tone, with a .022uf cap.
The good news is, they work, and they don't sound bad! Well, not NOT bad, and that's why I'm posting here. David King warned me that there would likely be a lot of high frequency loss due to eddy currents in the excessive soft steel of the cores. I attended the GAL conference in Tacoma this summer, where I met Veronica Merryfield, and she checked them out and concluded that their resonant peak is a bit lower than would be expected/desired. So yes, they do sound a bit muddy: not much sparkle, and not much string separation.
I'm playing around with pickup height, and dropping them down has balanced things a little. I will be pulling the whole guitar apart to do some neck and bridge adjustments/modifications soon, so my next idea is to pull one or two of those little neos off each core and see what that does. I'll also be sticking a .001uf cap for treble bleed on the volume pot.
But I thought I'd also throw this out to the knowledgeable folks here: these pickups are what they are, but are there any little tricks that I might try to brighten them up a bit? Many thanks in advance!
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