ampage Tube Amps / Music Electronics	For current discussions, please visit Music Electronics Forum.	New: view Recent Searches. New: visit Schematic Hell! The sunn still shines online!

Listen to great tunes streaming live right now!

ampage archive

Vintage threads from the first ten years

A True "Electromagnetic" Pickup

4/5/2005 6:35 PM
Paul D.	A True "Electromagnetic" Pickup When I first became interested in electric guitars and I first encountered active pickups, I imagined that the battery must provide power to a coil in order to form an electromagnet ("passive magnet" vs "active magnet" went my reasoning). I have always intended to experiment with this idea by winding a double wire around plain steel polepieces and energising one wire to form the electromagnet. I have not yet found the time to do this. Has anyone ever experimented along these lines? Is it feasible? Cheers, -Paul D.

4/5/2005 6:35 PM

Paul D.

A True "Electromagnetic" Pickup

When I first became interested in electric guitars and I first encountered active pickups, I imagined that the battery must provide power to a coil in order to form an electromagnet ("passive magnet" vs "active magnet" went my reasoning). I have always intended to experiment with this idea by winding a double wire around plain steel polepieces and energising one wire to form the electromagnet. I have not yet found the time to do this. Has anyone ever experimented along these lines? Is it feasible?
Cheers,
-Paul D.

4/6/2005 4:36 AM
Ynot	You'll need to work out how to get a clean signal out of the device, probably from a second coil above your "active" coil. You could vary the strength of the magnetic field, even pole by pole. BTW, some ideas are best developed in secret. If the above idea was or is patentable, by publishing details of your idea you have potentially invalidated patent claims in several territories. The US is more forgiving and allows you to claim up to one year after a design first public mention. Go for it

4/6/2005 4:36 AM

Ynot

You'll need to work out how to get a clean signal out of the device, probably from a second coil above your "active" coil. You could vary the strength of the magnetic field, even pole by pole.

BTW, some ideas are best developed in secret. If the above idea was or is patentable, by publishing details of your idea you have potentially invalidated patent claims in several territories. The US is more forgiving and allows you to claim up to one year after a design first public mention.

Go for it

Thursday

Book Of The Day

The Ultimate Tone, Volume III by Kevin O'Connor

Have you ever wondered if there is a better way to build a Bassman, Champ, Plexi, an 800, AC-30, Bulldog or Portaflex? Or you wanted to build an SVT with off-the-shelf parts? How about a master-volume amp that doesn’t change tone with the master setting? Everything you need to know is right here, including: proper grounding techniques, wiring methods, and mechanical considerations. Eighteen chapters cover the “iconic” amps everyone knows and loves, with schematics and layouts for each, along with the technical history of the product. Eyelet-board and chassis-mounted tube socket construction is used throughout, for easy servicing and modding. TUT3 is very accessible even if you cannot fully read a schematic and is a "must have" if you are going to build an amp for your self.

Note: The Ampage Archive is an Amazon Associate site. A small commission is paid to the site owner on any qualified purchase made after clicking an associate link such as the one above.

4/7/2005 6:29 AM

Joe Gwinn

On 4/6/2005 10:36 AM, Ynot said:

quote:
"BTW, some ideas are best developed in secret. If the above idea was or is patentable, by publishing details of your idea you have potentially invalidated patent claims in several territories. The US is more forgiving and allows you to claim up to one year after a design first public mention."

But first do some patent research, to make sure that you aren't reinventing the wheel.

Although not used in guitar pickups (to my knowledge), electromagnetic pickups are not a new idea, so to be patentable it would be necessary to show that it conferred some new and unsuspected advantage when applied to guitar pickups.

6/13/2005 1:53 PM
Frank DeSalvo	^^Hmmm...see: Randall Smith ~F

4/22/2005 11:46 AM
John Culp	I've got a better idea. Don't think I'll mention it.

4/7/2005 2:37 AM
Josh Pardes	That is ironic that you mentioned this subject because I was pondering the same question just the other day. Honestly I think it would be a lot of work and the end results may very well be disappointing. For one, you would have to get around the electrical noise that an active magnet would create. Also, what would be the advantage of having an active magnet. Yes, they can potentially be stronger than permanent magnets, but that extra strength would pull on the instrument's strings. I think that Samarium Cobalt and Neo mags already provide more than enough strength, and to create a magnetic field as powerful as the above mentioned you would a) have to make the physical dimensions of the pickup larger than practical, or b) use more voltage than a 9V or even 2 9V's in series could supply. I'm not saying that it is a bad idea and if you can figure out how to do it, more power to you. Just get that thing patented before Dimarzio can get their filthy little mits on it.

4/7/2005 2:37 AM

Josh Pardes
email

That is ironic that you mentioned this subject because I was pondering the same question just the other day. Honestly I think it would be a lot of work and the end results may very well be disappointing. For one, you would have to get around the electrical noise that an active magnet would create. Also, what would be the advantage of having an active magnet. Yes, they can potentially be stronger than permanent magnets, but that extra strength would pull on the instrument's strings. I think that Samarium Cobalt and Neo mags already provide more than enough strength, and to create a magnetic field as powerful as the above mentioned you would a) have to make the physical dimensions of the pickup larger than practical, or b) use more voltage than a 9V or even 2 9V's in series could supply. I'm not saying that it is a bad idea and if you can figure out how to do it, more power to you. Just get that thing patented before Dimarzio can get their filthy little mits on it.

4/7/2005 3:04 PM
Jabs	Hey, Joe, wouldn't a varying DC current be induced in a single DC-powered coil by a nearby vibrating steel string? This "ripple" could then be subtracted from the DC as a musical signal.

Page 1 of 3

Next>

Last Page>>