Re: Who's the aussie guy making pretty good pick ups

In article <1366f4dk2bmmhb0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Jim <askme@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

RichL wrote:

"Jim" <askme@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1366colrek8oj55@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Keith Adams wrote:

Anybody who claims to make the worlds best pickups deserves to be

flamed.

Pretty big claim considering that they're all made pretty much in the

same

way. I doubt that they were atomic powered with their own little nuclear
reactor or magic magnets.

Are you saying magnet material isn't that important? I disagree.

Please explain if any of the following make any (or even much)
difference in your mind:

Magnet material
Magnet/s size
Magnet/s shape
Bobbin size and shape
wire gauge
shielding material
wire winding method (scatter, for example)
tightness of wind
number of winds
presence or absence of potting material
whether or not they have covers

My understanding of physics and my ears tell me that pickups aren't as
fungible as Keith opines.


I have to agree with you there Jim. As a physicist I can tell you that many
of what you listed should have an effect, although I've got to say that the
ears tell you a lot more than the physics does!

I used to pooh-pooh some of the claims of the boutique pickup makers. No
more! These Lindy Fralin P-92s I've got on my new custom-made guitar have
got to be heard to be believed! The sound of this guitar (through the right
amp, of course) has just wowed me. I'm tempted to get a pair of his PAFs to
replace the 490R and 498T on my SG.

p.s....Jim....I've been meaning to ask you, in this connection. I've seen a
couple of posts where you talk about hooking up the two coils on a humbucker
in parallel. Do you hook the coils up to a switch so you can switch them
back and forth between series and paralllel?

I currently use the parallel option on the Jazz neck on my Epiphone
Slash Les Paul. It's on a DPDT push/pull pot.

Also, if you do, given the
drastically different impedances of the two arrangements, what implications
are there for the rest of the circuit (e.g., pot values etc.)?

There will be a change in inductance and impedance. I have not used a
program to tell me everything that should happen. What I can tell you
is that is sounds great with 500k volume and tone pots, with a .015 tone
cap. The drop in output is significant, as is the increased high end.
...with none of the typical split coil hum. In fact, the output drop
can bring you from a smooth distortion rhythm when series down to a
brighter cleanish when you pick parallel. For that reason, the output
drop kind of helps with the tone. Obviously, that transition point
depends on the amount of gain you use, but it's easy for me to get it there.

The best analogy is that it's like the 2 and 4 positions of a reverse
center wound Strat, EXCEPT they are sitting right next to each other so
you don't hear that "phase" effect.


I don't know if this will help - but my double fat Strat uses
the Fender "S1" switching (instead of a push-pull pot it is
similar in that it is a click on/off switch hidden as a push button
within the volume control). Anyways - if you search for S1 switching
diagram of a 2 humbucker strat (lots of these diagrams and schematics on the web)
then you can get an idea of at least how Fender does it.
The S1 lets you get all sorts of things like both parallel and series
with the 2 humbuckers and with the tapped single coils.
It's all done with a 5 way pickup 'super switch' (looks stock)
and that little push button in the volume control. kinda stealthy actually.
No little additional toggles or extra switches all over the place.
.

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