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tinkering with a humbucker

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Nick	tinkering with a humbucker Hello gentlemen, I'm no pickup maker, merely a guitarist who stumbled onto this forum in search of information. If anyone can share some wisdom, it would be greatly appreicated. What would happen magnetically if I take a humbucker, in this case a Gibson 490R, and swap the 6 slugs for 6 Alnico polepieces from a dead Fender Strat pickup? Assuming I get the polarity right and forgetting the difference in wire type or amount, would the alnico polepieces and the bar magnet interfere with each other in a bad way? My idea was to do this and flip the pickup around to put the slug side next to the end of the fingerboard, then when wired for coil cut achieve a hopefully truer Strat sound with the alnico magnets. It is on a parts-o-caster. thank you, Nick

Nick

tinkering with a humbucker

Hello gentlemen,

I'm no pickup maker, merely a guitarist who stumbled onto this forum in search of information. If anyone can share some wisdom, it would be greatly appreicated.

What would happen magnetically if I take a humbucker, in this case a Gibson 490R, and swap the 6 slugs for 6 Alnico polepieces from a dead Fender Strat pickup? Assuming I get the polarity right and forgetting the difference in wire type or amount, would the alnico polepieces and the bar magnet interfere with each other in a bad way? My idea was to do this and flip the pickup around to put the slug side next to the end of the fingerboard, then when wired for coil cut achieve a hopefully truer Strat sound with the alnico magnets. It is on a parts-o-caster.

thank you, Nick

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Joe Gwinn

On 11/20/2005 8:29 PM, Nick said:

quote:
"What would happen magnetically if I take a humbucker, in this case a Gibson 490R, and swap the 6 slugs for 6 Alnico polepieces from a dead Fender Strat pickup? Assuming I get the polarity right and forgetting the difference in wire type or amount, would the alnico polepieces and the bar magnet interfere with each other in a bad way?"

If you get the magnet polarities right, there is no reason this wouldn't work, but the resulting magnetic field may be a bit too strong, causing wolf tones if the pickup is at the normal distance to the strings, so the pickup may need to be set farther from the strings than customary.

Correct polarity is N-S-N-S, not N-S-S-N. In other words, the magnets should attract each other, not repel.

quote:
"My idea was to do this and flip the pickup around to put the slug side next to the end of the fingerboard, then when wired for coil cut achieve a hopefully truer Strat sound with the alnico magnets."
The only way to know is to try it. When you say "truer strat sound", what exactly are you hoping to achieve, to hear?

11/22/2005 8:13 AM
Mark Hammer	The alnico polepieces will not necessarily fit in the space formerly occupied by the slugs. You may need to bore the holes out a bit to be able to slide the polepieces in. That's do-able but risky. I wouldn't recommend it unless you were practiced enough or were trying it out on a pickup you didn't care about very much. I made myself a stacked humbucker with alnico polepieces using some empty bobbins I bought from Gibson years ago, and had to enlarge the holes.

11/22/2005 8:13 AM

Mark Hammer

The alnico polepieces will not necessarily fit in the space formerly occupied by the slugs. You may need to bore the holes out a bit to be able to slide the polepieces in. That's do-able but risky. I wouldn't recommend it unless you were practiced enough or were trying it out on a pickup you didn't care about very much.

I made myself a stacked humbucker with alnico polepieces using some empty bobbins I bought from Gibson years ago, and had to enlarge the holes.

11/24/2005 7:42 AM
Nick	Joe and Mark thank you for the replies. Joe, I hadn't thought about the wolf tone issue. So because of the alnico polepieces on one coil, the pickup would have to be further from the strings, perhaps compromising the overall humbucker in series sound. When cut to the stock slug coil, the sound is "raspier or harsher" then I would expect - I thought the Alnico polepieces might smooth it out, but maybe I'm clutching at straws here. Mark, I am perpared to enlarge the holes if needed (or ruin the pickup trying!). I succesfully converted a tone-less Gibson 70's P-90 to alnico polepices once before, which required boring out the screw holes. It was not the prettiest sight to behold, but it worked, sounded better too. Nick

11/24/2005 7:42 AM

Nick

Joe and Mark thank you for the replies.

Joe, I hadn't thought about the wolf tone issue. So because of the alnico polepieces on one coil, the pickup would have to be further from the strings, perhaps compromising the overall humbucker in series sound.

When cut to the stock slug coil, the sound is "raspier or harsher" then I would expect - I thought the Alnico polepieces might smooth it out, but maybe I'm clutching at straws here.

Mark, I am perpared to enlarge the holes if needed (or ruin the pickup trying!). I succesfully converted a tone-less Gibson 70's P-90 to alnico polepices once before, which required boring out the screw holes. It was not the prettiest sight to behold, but it worked, sounded better too.

Nick

11/24/2005 8:14 AM

Joe Gwinn

On 11/24/2005 2:42 PM, Nick said:

quote:
"Joe, I hadn't thought about the wolf tone issue. So because of the alnico polepieces on one coil, the pickup would have to be further from the strings, perhaps compromising the overall humbucker in series sound."

I suspect that there won't be a audible problem, once the pickup is set to the correct distance for its actual magnetic strength.

quote:
"When cut to the stock slug coil, the sound is "raspier or harsher" then I would expect - I thought the Alnico polepieces might smooth it out, but maybe I'm clutching at straws here."
Mild steel slugs will have larger eddy currents than the same size piece of alnico, and these eddy currents were cutting the highs down to size. Changing to alnico reduced the eddy currents, allowing too much of the highs to get through. If the humbucker does not already have a metal cover, try giving it one.

11/28/2005 1:47 AM
Travis	I've got a HB with alnico rods instead of screws/slugs/bar magnet and it gets a great stratty tone when split. I use it in the neck pos, so its brighter than a regular HB when used in series with more pronounced attack. Certainly not muddy at all.

12/30/2005 10:47 PM
Scott	Gots one in the neck. I had a 15+K Ibanez piece-O shyte and rods drastically sent it in a brighter open tone in the bridge position. The neck pos. is really nice, but the screw/bar mag coil was changed to a 4K coil. Great pup, a bit bright for bridge though. The split mode is sweet, but it is a 7.8K wind. Vol. roll-off gets into the strat zone. FYI, SK has smoking reviews(Harmony.com)on his "Dual Tones". Basically a bar mag coil and a rod coil. Select between P90 thang, Fendery thang and/or humbucker. Again the HB mode is not like a PAF, at least my tinkerings anyways. I like better than standard HB'ers as I prefer P90's.

12/30/2005 10:47 PM

Scott

Gots one in the neck. I had a 15+K Ibanez piece-O
shyte and rods drastically sent it in a brighter
open tone in the bridge position. The neck pos.
is really nice, but the screw/bar mag coil was
changed to a 4K coil. Great pup, a bit bright
for bridge though. The split mode is sweet, but
it is a 7.8K wind. Vol. roll-off gets into the strat
zone.

FYI, SK has smoking reviews(Harmony.com)on his
"Dual Tones". Basically a bar mag coil and a
rod coil. Select between P90 thang, Fendery thang
and/or humbucker. Again the HB mode is not like
a PAF, at least my tinkerings anyways. I like
better than standard HB'ers as I prefer P90's.

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