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Lipstick PU's - what's different?

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1/12/2000 2:13 PM

Lipstick PU's - what's different?

I'm trying to put together an ersatz Danelectro (made a quasi-Tele body out of pine and masonite), and I was wondering about the venerable lipstick pickups. Although there are reams written about Fender and Gibson-style pickups, I've never really seen anything about the lipstick tube pickups that have garnered so much recent appreciation. I'm not committed to sticking lipsticks on a Dano-type body (I've got about a dozen other pickups waiting for their turn), but I figure that they must complement the body in some manner that ought to at least be worth considering, or else they would have been swapped for something else by now.

So...

1) What gauge of wire do they use?

2) Roughly how many turns are typical?

3) DC resistance?

4) Roughly what kind of magnet/polepiece arrangement do they use?

1/12/2000 2:51 PM
Gus	From memory looking in a book on electronics for guitars I forget it was years ago. I seem to remember that they were long alnico bar magnets with a 2k or 4k resistance the wire looked like 4x guage the wire was wrapped around the bar mag long dimention and then wrapped with brown tape and then stuffed into the pickup tube. I have a RI dano when I get a chance I will mesure the r and indutance.

1/12/2000 7:16 PM
Mark Hammer	First, thanks. From your description, it looks like they are essentially Melody Maker pickups without a physical bobbin and with a smaller # turns.

1/12/2000 7:32 PM

What I'd like to know is:

1. Are all the lipstick type pickups sold by aftermarket companies the same as the ones in the RI Dano guitars?

2. Are they all made by Armstrong? If not, which ones? Are his better than asian imports? (They might all be made in the same korean factory, sent all around the world.)

3. Are the special shorter length pickups for easy insertion into a strat sonically the same as the regular length lipstick pickups in the Danos? The DCR is listed as the same, but does one have a shorter bar magnet than the other, a different number of turns, etc? (See the listings in Stewart MacDonald or WD.)

4. Does the enclosed metal tube eliminate hum?

The reason I'm wondering all of this is that I plan to build a strat with 3 lipstick pickups. I want to get the best sounding ones if that's a real distinction, and I will go the extra mile and do the routing and custom pickguard work required to install the longer tubes if that will make a difference (for the better) in how the guitar will sound.

I'm glad someone started a discussion on lipstick pickups. We know a lot about the various other types so far, but not enough about this truly different option.

1/12/2000 7:54 PM

My gut sense is that while there may not be as many shades of lipstick as there are at the makeup counter, a lipstick pickup is not a lipstick pickup is not a lipstick pickup.

As you note, there are several manufacturers of them. Charvel had some models with lipstick PU's a few years before Dano's became big news. Were they Dano's? Dunno. Stew-Mac sells them. Dano? Dunno. Armstrong sells them. Are they what Danelectro puts on their models? Dunno.

I suspect that the only thing they have in common is a similar structure: bar magnet and smaller coil. Like you, I would like some authoritative info on the matter. Maybe it's time to write Seymour Duncan a letter.

1/13/2000 8:34 PM
Doc	I'm impressed with all the technical info on the world's pickups that Seymour has in his head. I really enjoy reading his Q&A column in Vintage Guitar paper. Although SD doesn't offer lipstick pickups for sale, I bet Seymour has repaired a few vintage ones and knows what's inside them.

1/13/2000 8:55 PM

Some educated guesses here. I don't have a lipstick guitar anymore, but do love them for slide. Low output, gritty, midrange push. Run them through a 3-watt amp-in-case and you have lo-fi heaven. It can't be too hard a PU to copy.

1. Apparently Dano has Armstrong make a proprietary PU for them, probably a little stonger than the original output since they are selling to a modern market. They are now offered as aftermarket items in Dano packaging. And they have a "aged magnet" version too (probably Armstrong's original). Jerry Jones PU's are made special for him, by whom, I do not know. Chandler winds lipsticks too, they would probably be your best bet for quality, though I find nothing wrong with the Korean Armstrongs.

2. Armstrong's Korean-made PU's are standard in most imports. Other imports, such as Charvel/Jackson's Surfcaster and Ibanez's Talman used his long and short versions.

3. I haven't really compared them. Follow-up question, are the short ones maybe tweaked for solid bodies since they are the most likely housing?

4. No. But I'm sure it offers sheilding. I would hate to here these without the cover.

P.S. Armstrong makes a hot lipstick too, perhaps great for a bridge PU.

-Y.

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