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Noiseless Pickups

7/30/1999 5:18 PM
Doc	Noiseless Pickups I've been wondering about the construction of Fender's new "noiseless" pickups, ever since I tried them in an American Deluxe guitar. They sounded amazingly close to vintage, and they were dead quiet. I wondered if they were somehow an evolution of the lace sensor design from AGI, or whether there might very well be a licensing agreement w/ DiMarzio using their Virtual Vintage design. Well, the new Frontline magazine/Fender catalog is out (Jeff Beck on the cover). There is a short article (pp 34,35), along with a cutaway drawing, describing the noiseless pickup design. It's basically a pair of stacked, electrically matched coils wound on alnico pole pieces. The magnets go through both coils. The coil bobbins are separated by an iron plate which has oversized holes so the magnets don't touch where they penetrate (don't know if the plate is connected electrically to ground or icompletely insulated). What wasn't stated was whether the coils are connected in series or in parallel. Farther back in the catalog section, the Strat pickups are listed as having an inductance value of 3.0 henries, and a DCR of 9.8k, characteristic values which might point more toward a series coil connection. The noiseless pickups are available with aged white covers only (at this time). I believe the covers are removable, but the wire connection plate, where the mounting screw holes are, is located in the middle of the coil sandwich. So the pickup covers may be not as tall as standard single coil covers. I'm only talking about this because I can't stand logos or names written across my guitar's pickups. And the font chosen for the word "Noiseless", at a glance, looks too much like it says "Norelco". You know, like in electric shavers! I always have to spend time polishing off the "seymour duncan" on humbucker bobbins before I'll mount the pickup in my instrument. (No, I'm not a fender employee or stockholder. I just thought that someone there has finally done a great job in a modern pickup design, and thought I'd mention it.) These pickups even have staggered pole pieces, but with a short G and a tall D (like the DiMarzio blue velvets), the way it should be for modern string sets. I could never figure why fender made higher output Texas Special pickups with the old magnet stagger (tall G). The loudness disparity between strings is even more pronounced with a hotter winding. Oh, yeah. The noiseless pickups are available for Tele also. The bridge model is black, the neck model has the traditional metal cover, so they look fairly original. I haven't heard them at all, so I can't give an opinion on their sound. I do think that Tele players are even more critical when it comes to pickup sonics than Strat players, so I'll wait & see if there's a taste test in future guitar magazines for the noiseless tele version.

7/30/1999 5:18 PM

Doc

Noiseless Pickups

I've been wondering about the construction of Fender's new "noiseless" pickups, ever since I tried them in an American Deluxe guitar. They sounded amazingly close to vintage, and they were dead quiet. I wondered if they were somehow an evolution of the lace sensor design from AGI, or whether there might very well be a licensing agreement w/ DiMarzio using their Virtual Vintage design.

Well, the new Frontline magazine/Fender catalog is out (Jeff Beck on the cover). There is a short article (pp 34,35), along with a cutaway drawing, describing the noiseless pickup design. It's basically a pair of stacked, electrically matched coils wound on alnico pole pieces. The magnets go through both coils. The coil bobbins are separated by an iron plate which has oversized holes so the magnets don't touch where they penetrate (don't know if the plate is connected electrically to ground or icompletely insulated). What wasn't stated was whether the coils are connected in series or in parallel. Farther back in the catalog section, the Strat pickups are listed as having an inductance value of 3.0 henries, and a DCR of 9.8k, characteristic values which might point more toward a series coil connection.

The noiseless pickups are available with aged white covers only (at this time). I believe the covers are removable, but the wire connection plate, where the mounting screw holes are, is located in the middle of the coil sandwich. So the pickup covers may be not as tall as standard single coil covers. I'm only talking about this because I can't stand logos or names written across my guitar's pickups. And the font chosen for the word "Noiseless", at a glance, looks too much like it says "Norelco". You know, like in electric shavers! I always have to spend time polishing off the "seymour duncan" on humbucker bobbins before I'll mount the pickup in my instrument.

(No, I'm not a fender employee or stockholder. I just thought that someone there has finally done a great job in a modern pickup design, and thought I'd mention it.)

These pickups even have staggered pole pieces, but with a short G and a tall D (like the DiMarzio blue velvets), the way it should be for modern string sets. I could never figure why fender made higher output Texas Special pickups with the old magnet stagger (tall G). The loudness disparity between strings is even more pronounced with a hotter winding.

Oh, yeah. The noiseless pickups are available for Tele also. The bridge model is black, the neck model has the traditional metal cover, so they look fairly original. I haven't heard them at all, so I can't give an opinion on their sound. I do think that Tele players are even more critical when it comes to pickup sonics than Strat players, so I'll wait & see if there's a taste test in future guitar magazines for the noiseless tele version.

Replies:

Gus I think they are series connected b... -- 7/30/1999 5:32 PM
Cono F. >>>These pickups even have staggere... -- 7/30/1999 5:45 PM
Steve A. Doc: &nb... -- 7/31/1999 5:10 AM
Gus looking at the cutaway of the fende... -- 8/3/1999 1:50 PM
FJR "REMINTON ELECTRIC SHAVER...DO YOUR... -- 8/6/1999 10:36 PM
Dave James ...I bought a set over the weekend.... -- 9/20/1999 4:02 PM