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Topic: To those of you who build picu-up's |
J D Sauser
From:
Wellington, Florida
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Posted 16 Oct 2003 8:29 am |
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This is something that has occupied some space in my mind for quite some time now, so I thought I'd better unload it here:
Since the steel guitar now has solidly grown over of it's 6 string origins, with instruments handling up to 4 octaves across it's strings, strings that will vary from as thin as a o.o11 and as big as close to 7 times it's diameter or 40 times it's cross section, I believe that our "problems" with tone and especially equalisation (at the amp) may indeed have it's origins with this developement.
We would like to see or better, "hear" our treble, usually plain, strings to be "silky" sweet and not shrill and brittle to break eardrums and all glass in the house. On the other hand we like to have "lifely" or "gutsy" bass strings with no muddyness and good separation.
So we feed our amp from ONE source (pu) with all these sometimes beautifull sounds and then spend hours and hours fighting shrill, thin sounds on one side of the spectrum and "mudd" on the other.
Thus my question to you guys who build pick-up's:
I assume that you can shape the tone a particular pick-up will have, by the use of different coils, in shape, #'s of windings and gauge of wire used, RIGHT?
If so, could we have two or three coils in line next to each other, with different tonal caracteristics feeding into one signal (one plug)?
Let me explain; we could then have a particularly "dark" sounding 4-pole coil under strings 1 thru 4, another maybe 3-pole coil brighter one under strings 5 thru 7 and a last, very bright (lifely) sounding coil for strings 8 up to 12 or what ever ones ego needs?
Thanks for your thoughts... J-D.
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Gino Iorfida
From:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted 16 Oct 2003 11:47 am
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What someone needs to do (hopefully Seymour Duncan does NOT have this patented since they do this with their 5/2 model tele pickup--formerly the 'nashville studio' model that Brent Mason uses), is make a 5/2 arrangement-- in other words, using alinco 5 magnets for the heavier, wrapped strings to give more bright punch, and alnico 2 magnets for the thinner, normally shrill sounding strings, to smooth the top end up a bit. Not sure how George L's are to deal with, but I have a strong suspicion that anyone could talk Jerry Wallace or Bill Lawrence into doing just that... hmmm now you have given me an idea... just wish I had the $$ to have one custom made for me!!..
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Alvin Sydnor
From:
Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted 16 Oct 2003 12:42 pm
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About 5 years ago I had an all aluminum 6 lap steel, a beautiful sounding guitar. A photo of the guitar appeared in the December 1997 issue of the Vintage Guitar Magazine, page 210. After some research I found that the guitar was made in 1935 by Harmony and the pickup was made by Rickenbacker and was sold by Sears Roebuck. The piickup was very similar to what you are talking about, it was the cruded thing I ever saw, three small bobbin coils set into a piece of wood and a small horseshoe magnet over the top. The aluminum was quite thick compared to other aluminum guitars and did not sound tinney as some do.
Keep us informed on this excellent idea, and lets hear form the experts on winding pickups.
Alvin |
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Rick Aiello
From:
Berryville, VA USA
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Posted 17 Oct 2003 5:07 am
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Jason has done various combinations ... coils around individual poles ... coils around groups of coils ... etc.
Here are some pictures ...
Lollar Custom Pickups.
Check out his 7 String X and the Double Wound .... 
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www.horseshoemagnets.com |
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