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Topic: Jerry Byrd's Pickups |
b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 13 Apr 2013 8:44 pm Hey b0b! |
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I've been locked out of the JBFC site for awhile due to some IE conflict however,
if my rapidly declining memory is at all close on this, I believe Jerry got his Sho-Bud with Shot's pickups however JERRY stated he shipped it right back and instructed SHOT to rewind the pickups, essentially to Rickenbacher spec's, using #58 wire, or something like that.
It might be mentioned in JERRY's GUITARS on the JBFC site. I'll check as soon as I'm able to get into the site. |
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Jerome Hawkes
From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 14 Apr 2013 2:57 pm
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Jerry was certainly very picky about his pickups. He like the early Rick sound and was highly critical of the "fender treble" steel tone. When he was approached by fender, he had them custom wind the pickups to his specs, so there was a sound in his head he was after. He even mentions the fact that by the early 60s, Ric had changed the tried and true horseshoe to get a more fendery tone and he soon left Ric.
I know in his old posts thru jack Byrd, he mentions going through the same process on the Sho-Bud frypans. He had Shot make several prototypes that he rejected.
The console pickups appear to be humbucker designs - certainly not what ended up on the frypans. He states in his autobiography how he hated that steel for the first few years.
Maybe Rick Aiello knows more?
I ended up making an offer/ buying the #2 Sho-Bud that was for sale in Japan and it has these same pickups. Maybe I'll take em to Rick A some day to test.
_________________
'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II |
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 14 Apr 2013 3:15 pm Got a question for you..........
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Jerome: Didn't Jerry hate that Sho-Bud enough to cover up the Sho-Bud logo on the front of the guitar?
Or, was it something deeper with Jerry? |
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Jerome Hawkes
From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 14 Apr 2013 3:24 pm
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My gut theory on that is it had to do with the sour frypan agreement with Shot - you know the story on that. The custom plaque appeared around that time... as did his move to Excel.
Odd that he never to my knowledge switched to the Excel frypan however. He still played the SB-JB version even though he said the Excels were "better".
_________________
'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II |
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 15 Apr 2013 10:48 am About Jerry's Sho-Bud pickups...............
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I found on one of the photo's of Jerry's Sho-Bud as presented on the JB-FC photo page.........
that Jerry had Shot remake the Sho-Bud's to more nearly match the olde Rickenbacher SOUND that he had grown into music with.
Jerry had Shot use 500 winds of #82 wire..........
Now, I was close, but not accurate.
Jerry always boasted about how little he knew of electronics, saying in essence, that beyond the toggle switch and red light on his amp, he knew absolute nothing about electronics and other stuff.
I always found it to be quite a contradiction when he was knowledgeable enough to specify exactly how he wanted HIS PICKUPS rewound. Hummmmmm |
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Jerome Hawkes
From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 15 Apr 2013 3:49 pm
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Just curious Ray - where did you get that info. I'm not an electronics guy either ( I don't even know which to plug into - the hi or low inputs in my amp) but I have never heard of #82 ga wire being used for pickups. Most early pickups were between 38-43ga
_________________
'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II |
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 15 Apr 2013 5:01 pm Fair question..................
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I know the words came from JERRY himself.
For the life of me, I can't recall whether it was in a written or taped communication with me but I can assure everyone.......it is the truth of what he told me.
I majored in electric shop in high school but I have no idea if they even made that specific gauge of wire. I merely repeated with great care and due diligence what Jerry had elected to share with me. |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 16 Apr 2013 5:17 am Re: About Jerry's Sho-Bud pickups...............
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| Ray Montee wrote: |
I found on one of the photo's of Jerry's Sho-Bud as presented on the JB-FC photo page.........
that Jerry had Shot remake the Sho-Bud's to more nearly match the olde Rickenbacher SOUND that he had grown into music with.
Jerry had Shot use 500 winds of #82 wire..........
Now, I was close, but not accurate.
Jerry always boasted about how little he knew of electronics, saying in essence, that beyond the toggle switch and red light on his amp, he knew absolute nothing about electronics and other stuff.
I always found it to be quite a contradiction when he was knowledgeable enough to specify exactly how he wanted HIS PICKUPS rewound. Hummmmmm |
That information seems suspect to me. If #82 is AWG then the wire is about the same as a spider web or cotton candy. 500 winds would not create enough resistance to even be audible. A more functional number of winds would be closer to 5000 with a #43AWG (much, much thicker) wire.
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Bob |
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 19 Apr 2013 7:13 pm More about pickup windings....................
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Some of the opposing comments about what Jerry told me he'd used for rewinding his Sho=Bud pickups caused me to continue to do research in this regard.
I chanced to discover a post from 'somewhere', dated Jan. 24, 2002.........at Jerry's friends' home, a fellow named Al Stotler. It was a discussion about Rickenbacher prewar pickups.
The item included: "750-900 Ohms, 5,500 turns, #38 gauge wire on the coil."
This pretty much follows your comments, does it not?
It mentioned in this same post, that FENDER guitars at that time were 9-1200 Ohm which produced a much brighter tone.
Just sharing here............. |
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