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Topic: The Secrets of Electric Guitar Pickups |
Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 21 Jul 2010 9:23 am |
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Here's a link to a techical discussion of guitar pickups that eliminates some of the smoke and mirrors and hype so often pushed by manufacturers. It explains the affect of cable capacitance and shows how increasing cable capacitance does indeed rool off the highs, it also changes the resonant frequency location and peak. Those of you familiar with resonant circuit theory and analog modeling will see that this author makes great use of some very simple concepts.
I am considering getting his switchable capacitor bank tone control in place of the standard tone control on one of my telefrankenclones.
Perhaps this has been widely circulated and commented on already, but it's the first time I've seen this (spend way too much time on steel guitar and never make it to the tele forums).
http://buildyourguitar.com/resources/lemme/
Link to the Lemme C-Switch:
C Switch Order Pages!
Greg |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 21 Jul 2010 11:11 am
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How can this guy know anything? He doesn't use any of the right words to describe pickups, like girthy, detailed, throaty, muscular, transparent.... he doesn't even know about meaty liquid string separation or rich blooming creamy crunch! Hmmmm.....  That's the problem with the internets, any ignoramus can act all expert n' stuff.
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There's a number of those rotary tone controls available, or you can make your own (if you like really small things):
http://www.premierguitar.com/magazine/Issue/2008/Jun/Improving_Tone_Control_Effectiveness.aspx
http://www.stellartone.com/
It's easy to make a three-position one with an on/on/on 3-way switch, because capacitors are additive in parallel. With a .015uF and a .033uF cap, the switch up is going through the .015, down through the .033 and the middle is both, .048uF. |
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Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 21 Jul 2010 12:12 pm
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David,
After reading the guitar forums a bit, this seems to be an old idea and in some cases useful. I still find the pickup theory useful and will add it to my library as another good source of pickup information.
I now remember playing a guitar in the 70's that had a bank of capacitor switches and the only sound I liked on it was when they were all switched off! To some extent, the distributed capacitance in a cable will sound different than a lumped capacitance at the guitar and I generally like a small amount of capacitive loading in my cable on the order of 0.0001 uF (100 pF).
It does seem to make sense to put a smaller cap into most stock tone controls as a minor mod. Most of the stocks caps seem to kill the highs much too quickly.
My favorite guitar and tone is a Fender Nashville tele, all stock, and not the power tele being sold now. It sounds perfect to my ears as is with no gadgets........ but gadgets are FUN!
Greg |
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Jason Hull
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Posted 24 Jul 2010 3:20 am
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| A tone pot (with a large cap) has more potential settings than a rotary switch, because it is sweepable across the entire range. The real magic happens when you combine caps and inductors. I love the sound of a Vari-Tone circuit, which is a rotary switch with caps and resistors, in series with an inductor. LC networks rule! |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 24 Jul 2010 7:00 am
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Get into a discussion or I should say "listen" to Bill Lawrence talk pickup and AC inductance theory.
At St Louis, one year, he found out I had worked as an amp tech and had a ham radio and commercial FCC radio telephone license. He had me cornered in his demo room for about two hours talking some "deep" theory (deeper than I ever want to get into again).  |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 24 Jul 2010 9:37 pm
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Jack,
Bill started a similar conversation with me in St Louis one time and I told him I would pay extra for his pickup if he didn't explain it to me 
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Bob |
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