ampage Tube Amps / Music Electronics	For current discussions, please visit Music Electronics Forum.

ampage archive

Vintage threads from the first ten years

Coil-per-string?

9/9/2002 6:51 PM
R.G.	Coil-per-string? I always wanted to experiment with hex pickups. Any experiences in the group? I think that going coil-per-string gives you lower resistance (much shorter coils) higher frequency response (lower inductance and capacitance) probably lower output. I had problems with alternate string pickup on the one example I messed with back in my youth. Any pointers? R.G.

9/9/2002 7:13 PM
Mark Hammer	Hi guy, Some 20 years ago or more, I toyed with making a hex pickup. I found some thin rectangular ceramic magnets oriented end to end and wound a coil or two (still have them in the parts bin), using fibre washers on either end to make a bobbin (bobbin looked like a barbell for Stuart Little). The coil came in at around 1.5k DCR with I can't remember how many thousands of turns on it (as much as I could stuff in the allowable radius). The signal was remarkably flat...in the good sense...though obviously not high powered. If I had the patience, I'd make another now. I have a roll of #44 wire so I'd be able to stuff more turns on (made the other with #42). The problem with alternate string pickup is why just about every hex pickup you'll ever see is intended to be snuggled up next to the bridge, where string compliance is reduced and the string is going to vibrate over its own polepiece and not any other. On this weirdo Guild Tri-Oct polyphonic octave divider/fuzz thing I have (and yes, E-H Man, someday we will complete the transaction), there is a custom hex pickup that is about the dimensions of a P90. The amount of alternate string pickup requires VERY precise picking to prevent mistracking, a kiss of death for an octave divider. Skinny bridge-side pickups work fine for synths, where the intent is not to use the pickup as the audio source but as a control signal source. Winding a pickup for poly-channel audio outputs gets tricky though. There was that Bartolini equipped Kramer guitar one used to see Eddie Van Halen flogging on the back of Guitar Player throughout the 80's, but it never caught on. I imagine that string separation was not perfect on pickups any modest distance away from the bridge, and the degree of stereo spread attainable wasn't all that much more spectacular than that achieved via a decent stereo chorus.. It's obviously not the same thing, but if you're happy with one way to get stereo spread, why fight over another way? One needn't opt only for hex pickups, though. Alternate string pickups would be a breeze to make. Hell, if you have a Fender HB (Tele style), all you'd need to do is yank every other polepiece (Tele HBs have threaded magnet polepieces that screw into a plastic bobbin) on each coil so that coil 1 has E/D/B and coil 2 carries A/G/E, and route them out in stereo. If you want to wind your own Fender-style SCs, replace the polepiece with something nonconductive of similar dimensions (dowelling for that matter, and wind the coil as you normally would.

9/9/2002 7:13 PM

Mark Hammer

Hi guy,

Some 20 years ago or more, I toyed with making a hex pickup. I found some thin rectangular ceramic magnets oriented end to end and wound a coil or two (still have them in the parts bin), using fibre washers on either end to make a bobbin (bobbin looked like a barbell for Stuart Little). The coil came in at around 1.5k DCR with I can't remember how many thousands of turns on it (as much as I could stuff in the allowable radius). The signal was remarkably flat...in the good sense...though obviously not high powered. If I had the patience, I'd make another now. I have a roll of #44 wire so I'd be able to stuff more turns on (made the other with #42).

The problem with alternate string pickup is why just about every hex pickup you'll ever see is intended to be snuggled up next to the bridge, where string compliance is reduced and the string is going to vibrate over its own polepiece and not any other. On this weirdo Guild Tri-Oct polyphonic octave divider/fuzz thing I have (and yes, E-H Man, someday we will complete the transaction), there is a custom hex pickup that is about the dimensions of a P90. The amount of alternate string pickup requires VERY precise picking to prevent mistracking, a kiss of death for an octave divider.

Skinny bridge-side pickups work fine for synths, where the intent is not to use the pickup as the audio source but as a control signal source. Winding a pickup for poly-channel audio outputs gets tricky though. There was that Bartolini equipped Kramer guitar one used to see Eddie Van Halen flogging on the back of Guitar Player throughout the 80's, but it never caught on. I imagine that string separation was not perfect on pickups any modest distance away from the bridge, and the degree of stereo spread attainable wasn't all that much more spectacular than that achieved via a decent stereo chorus.. It's obviously not the same thing, but if you're happy with one way to get stereo spread, why fight over another way?

One needn't opt only for hex pickups, though. Alternate string pickups would be a breeze to make. Hell, if you have a Fender HB (Tele style), all you'd need to do is yank every other polepiece (Tele HBs have threaded magnet polepieces that screw into a plastic bobbin) on each coil so that coil 1 has E/D/B and coil 2 carries A/G/E, and route them out in stereo. If you want to wind your own Fender-style SCs, replace the polepiece with something nonconductive of similar dimensions (dowelling for that matter, and wind the coil as you normally would.

9/10/2002 6:02 PM
MBSetzer	http://www.linearpickups.com Mike

9/10/2002 6:29 PM
Mark Hammer	Wacky but cool. Looks a bit like a relay assembly, doesn't it? Fairly priced, though.

9/27/2002 12:03 PM
JDPS150	Didn't Krammer have a EVH endorsed guitar like that back in the mid-late 80's? I remember it had 6 volume pots (each string had it's own) & prolly a master volume too. I thought that it would that have had to have individual coils or pup's Joe <><

9/27/2002 1:41 PM
Dick	I remember that... I think it was used a lot on the '1984' album. "The guitar for the eighties" I beleive Eddie Van Halen said at the time (Whats funny about that!) Dick

9/27/2002 1:58 PM
Mark Hammer	T'was the Ripley guitar, gents. I'll see if I can dig up a back issue with the ad and post it.

Page 1 of 2

Next>

Last Page>>