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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: Kinman pickups

8/31/1999 10:13 AM
Mark Abbott	Re: Kinman pickups The pickups I use are the traditional set. Regarding purchasing these pickups in the US I can't say, I live in Australia, and I went to the music show and met Mr Kinman and played his guitar which had been modified to allow you to pull the pickguard out without having to take the strings of the guitar, I was able to compare his pickups to Lace sensors and traditional single coils. Needless to say I was impressed. I would recommend you to visit his website http://www.kinman.com or email him at chris@kinman.com I should mention these pickups don't have traditional magnet stagger or strenght, thus the response of the guitar is more balanced and I don't have to put up with the G string being overpowering. However, he does make pickups with vintage magnet strenght, pickup stagger etc. Regarding output, the pickups have more output than the SSL-1 Duncans, the pickup height of these pickups really effects tone I found myself winding the pickups down to reduce output, and reduce the bass and treble response, I have compared the guitar to a vintage 55 Strat and the output of the pickups is the same (increasing the pickup height increases output.) Sorry for such a lenghty reply, I can't say if these pickups sound better than Fralins (never heard them),but IMHO they are the most vintage sounding hum cancelling pickup I've heard and that includes Fender's vintage noiseless. Mark.

8/31/1999 10:13 AM

Mark Abbott

Re: Kinman pickups

The pickups I use are the traditional set. Regarding purchasing these pickups in the US I can't say, I live in Australia, and I went to the music show and met Mr Kinman and played his guitar which had been modified to allow you to pull the pickguard out without having to take the strings of the guitar, I was able to compare his pickups to Lace sensors and traditional single coils. Needless to say I was impressed. I would recommend you to visit his website http://www.kinman.com or email him at chris@kinman.com

I should mention these pickups don't have traditional magnet stagger or strenght, thus the response of the guitar is more balanced and I don't have to put up with the G string being overpowering. However, he does make pickups with vintage magnet strenght, pickup stagger etc.

Regarding output, the pickups have more output than the SSL-1 Duncans, the pickup height of these pickups really effects tone I found myself winding the pickups down to reduce output, and reduce the bass and treble response, I have compared the guitar to a vintage 55 Strat and the output of the pickups is the same (increasing the pickup height increases output.)

Sorry for such a lenghty reply, I can't say if these pickups sound better than Fralins (never heard them),but IMHO they are the most vintage sounding hum cancelling pickup I've heard and that includes Fender's vintage noiseless.

Mark.

8/31/1999 10:14 AM
Mark Abbott	The pickups I use are the traditional set. Regarding purchasing these pickups in the US I can't say, I live in Australia, and I went to the music show and met Mr Kinman and played his guitar which had been modified to allow you to pull the pickguard out without having to take the strings of the guitar, I was able to compare his pickups to Lace sensors and traditional single coils. Needless to say I was impressed. I would recommend you to visit his website http://www.kinman.com or email him at chris@kinman.com I should mention these pickups don't have traditional magnet stagger or strenght, thus the response of the guitar is more balanced and I don't have to put up with the G string being overpowering. However, he does make pickups with vintage magnet strenght, pickup stagger etc. Regarding output, the pickups have more output than the SSL-1 Duncans, the pickup height of these pickups really effects tone I found myself winding the pickups down to reduce output, and reduce the bass and treble response, I have compared the guitar to a vintage 55 Strat and the output of the pickups is the same (increasing the pickup height increases output.) Sorry for such a lenghty reply, I can't say if these pickups sound better than Fralins (never heard them),but IMHO they are the most vintage sounding hum cancelling pickup I've heard and that includes Fender's vintage noiseless. Mark.

8/31/1999 10:14 AM

Mark Abbott

8/31/1999 2:37 PM
anonymous	Mark, thank you very much for your answer!

9/2/1999 8:59 AM
Mark Abbott	I have rung up a fellow who works with Chris Kinman, Colin Bloxsom, he gives Mr Kinman a lot of feedback regarding his pickups. He has told me he hasn't received a set of the "woodstock" pickups yet to fully check them out, but he says from what he's heard of them at Chris's factory, these pickups are suppose to be the real thing. I'll let you know if I hear more. Mark

7/30/1999 8:24 PM
Farrow	Re: Magnet Stagger No, I'm afraid I didn't provide enough detail! I currnetly have Chandler p/us in my Cheetahcaster, and they're set up for a plain 3rd (I played 13-056 flatwound with a .022 plain 3rd for five years and they were great!) but now I'm on a wound third and my G string has "disappeared!" I usually have to play slide right in the middle of a song, so my guitars are set up with a higher action than "normal," and I put a little relief in my necks so I can dig in harder in the middle of the fretboard. All my guitars are "set up for slide" in a manner of speaking. Farrow http://surf.to/pharaohamps

7/30/1999 8:24 PM

Farrow

Re: Magnet Stagger

No, I'm afraid I didn't provide enough detail! I currnetly have Chandler p/us in my Cheetahcaster, and they're set up for a plain 3rd (I played 13-056 flatwound with a .022 plain 3rd for five years and they were great!) but now I'm on a wound third and my G string has "disappeared!"

I usually have to play slide right in the middle of a song, so my guitars are set up with a higher action than "normal," and I put a little relief in my necks so I can dig in harder in the middle of the fretboard. All my guitars are "set up for slide" in a manner of speaking.

Farrow

http://surf.to/pharaohamps

8/4/1999 4:16 PM
Doc	For that high action, you'll probably get better output & string balance with pickups other than alnico pole single coils. The cheaper mexican strat steel pole ceramic magnet pickups might actually work better than vintage style in this application. They have a stronger but broader magnetic field. The alnico's have a narrowly focused field, and are extremely sensitive to string-to-pole distance. You should be able to find some ceramic pickups almost free. Then, there's always the humbucker route.

8/4/1999 4:16 PM

Doc

For that high action, you'll probably get better output & string balance with pickups other than alnico pole single coils. The cheaper mexican strat steel pole ceramic magnet pickups might actually work better than vintage style in this application. They have a stronger but broader magnetic field. The alnico's have a narrowly focused field, and are extremely sensitive to string-to-pole distance. You should be able to find some ceramic pickups almost free. Then, there's always the humbucker route.

8/5/1999 12:29 PM
Farrow	Doc: I set my single-coil guitars (except p-90s) up so that the pickups are as high as possible without dragging the strings. But I did try two of the TexSpecs and they're not for me. So I went through the store's junk box and managed to come up with something that sounds _exactly_ right! I did have to rout the p/g a bit, but the guitar already had that crappy "universal rout." I put a 70's Jazz Bass pickup in the neck position and a Tele neck pickup in the bridge position! The 8 poles on the JB pickip don't line up exactly, but I haven't noticed too much of a problem yet. I flattened out the bridge radius a little (it's now more like 12" than 7 1/4") and it sounds GREAT. Just my $.02 Farrow http://surf.to/pharaohamps

8/5/1999 12:29 PM

Farrow

Doc: I set my single-coil guitars (except p-90s) up so that the pickups are as high as possible without dragging the strings. But I did try two of the TexSpecs and they're not for me. So I went through the store's junk box and managed to come up with something that sounds _exactly_ right! I did have to rout the p/g a bit, but the guitar already had that crappy "universal rout."

I put a 70's Jazz Bass pickup in the neck position and a Tele neck pickup in the bridge position! The 8 poles on the JB pickip don't line up exactly, but I haven't noticed too much of a problem yet. I flattened out the bridge radius a little (it's now more like 12" than 7 1/4") and it sounds GREAT. Just my $.02

Farrow

http://surf.to/pharaohamps

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