personally i'd steer clear of this. people want custom guitars - their own spec of woods, necks, neck join, bridge, pickups etc, but most people will want BKP Aftermath or EMG 81 or Seymour Duncan 59 or some PAF Pro or whatever pups in that design; tough to break that perception!

spacey

mgh


personally i'd steer clear of this. people want custom guitars - their own spec of woods, necks, neck join, bridge, pickups etc, but most people will want BKP Aftermath or EMG 81 or Seymour Duncan 59 or some PAF Pro or whatever pups in that design; tough to break that perception!

Excellent example of how different people can be.
I don't care what "people" want and in no way do I try to change their perceptions.
 
What I do care about is what I can do and how much I enjoy doing it. That has worked
out very well for me for many years so why change?
 
So maybe in the future while "most people" are buying their pups....I'll be building mine
and we'll all be happy....and no they won't be for sale but may be available on a custom
guitar I build. :)

True that, have fun with it Michael.
 
That's the most important thing!

alexoosthoek

spacey

mgh


personally i'd steer clear of this. people want custom guitars - their own spec of woods, necks, neck join, bridge, pickups etc, but most people will want BKP Aftermath or EMG 81 or Seymour Duncan 59 or some PAF Pro or whatever pups in that design; tough to break that perception!

Excellent example of how different people can be.
I don't care what "people" want and in no way do I try to change their perceptions.
 
What I do care about is what I can do and how much I enjoy doing it. That has worked
out very well for me for many years so why change?
 
So maybe in the future while "most people" are buying their pups....I'll be building mine
and we'll all be happy....and no they won't be for sale but may be available on a custom
guitar I build. :)

True that, have fun with it Michael.
 
That's the most important thing!

Thanks Alex. I edited my post to MGH. It's so easy for people to think that the basic reason for
doing something is for money. Easy to see why folks try to make their living doing something
they may love but man I'm working on staying healthy for retirement in a few years lol...I'm not
some young cat trying to fiind my calling...I'm an old cat trying to enjoy the ride.

I keep returning to the idea of making an electric vibraphone,  which for at least 3 octaves is going to mean 36 pick ups to make

I think getting the magnets is going to be hardest part. I don't know how far you've gotten into the process, number of winds in relation to the particular magnet strength, as well as the type of copper wire and type of magnet to acheive a "hot" pickup verses a flat pickup. I'm sure we've all seen and heard and felt, rare earth magnets, alnico magnets, etc. and so on. There's quite a bit of theory and science involved in magnets, even for a guitar pickup. Beleive it or not, magnets are closely monitored because some of their uses can be dangerous. The ones you will want will come from specialty makers of course and it might be hard to get the proper sets for a pickup. 

Just from a few days of reading - nothing seems hard to get.

One can buy pickup kits and all the tools to build pups easy-if they have
the money.

What seems to be hard for me is the "science" of the game and the
reason being is that everybody has their opinions and on the very technical
end it is "meaningless" unless one is a brainiac....which I'm not.
And the "kick" is that the high-end technical info of guitar coils seems to be
of no matter. Now that statement leads to a mess...a real big mess. I'll give
an example, or try to.

Seymour Duncan builds pups with the main goal of being exactly like vintage
Gibson. They do this by doing stuff that most could care less about except those
wanting the pups to be exactly like vintage (whether or not they even know what
the sound was or is) and to the extreme that the spacers (wood) and coating on
the copper wire has the same color.

Now maybe the ones that pay for that know they are...maybe they don't. Maybe
they think it makes a difference that the maple spacers are there and that the
copper needs that color of coating.

I'll ask a what I believe is a simple question....
Watch a youtube of the people winding pups and when you look at those ladies
on the assembly line winding and dipping those pups ask yourself- do you think
they know all the high-end technical info about guitar pickups and all the materials
that they are made of?
Now if you think - No...but the ones that supply the materials and design the process
do....well then ask yourself- Do you think there is difference in the material that they
have and the material that you can buy?
Do you think that X number of wraps that they do is different than X number of wraps
that another can do?
Do you think that their magnets are different than the one another can buy?
Do you think that their gauss meter reading ( to read the strength of a magnet) is different
that what another can measure.

When one considers that skill, material, and tools are the main factors then the rest is
what people believe.
The BIG pup manufacturers are successful NOT because they make a pickup that nobody
else can make....they are successful because people believe they do.

I honestly believe that guitarist will buy a set of pups before they have any knowledge
at all about the rest of the "circuit". And will do so based on just a couple of reasons.
One being that because somebody told them to get _____because they really like...followed by how they sound IN THERE guitar and setup. (did ya ever consider
that magnet type may be related to the type of wood the guitars neck is made of? ..probably not.)
One being that the marketing of the pickup has them by the pups.
You see that I could go on listing many BS reasons...even looks or colors but in reality
those same pup owners will probably not even know or check the polarity of the pups
before they install them and connect them to the exact same curcuit. Most may not
even check the inductance or capacitance....or even care.

I know this is long winded so let me sum it up....

If you think  you need new pups you may want to learn how to do a few simple things
first...it may save you a lot of money.
1. Check and know the setting of the pups. Adjust them and listen...measurements are
to get you on the field - it's up to you to call the plays.
2. Check the polarity of the pups. You may have the N and S in the wrong places...do you
know where the N and S pups go ?  If not, find out.
3. Know what your controls are doing and how they are doing it. After all they are changing
the tones of those pups. Most guitars have highs being dumped to ground and if you're buying new pups because the ones you have are to low frequency...well it's you money.
I'd personally rather change a dollar or two part than a high dollare set of pups.

I'll stop there for now...I'm at work.

Scoot you hit on something that's so strange to me ..not only
with the guitars circuit but how it has been most of life in
dealing with it.

For the most part it gets crazier the more I learn. Guitarist
are spending a lot of money for pups that are being made
by people that charge a large some of money to carry on as if
they are building this "magical" thing that will do wonders for them.

I've read and it's hear-say from some luthiers that I read and learn from
that Lindy Fralin stopped using bee wax on his pups because it changes
the tones.
Many may know that pups are dipped, many of them under vacuum, in
a mix of parrifin, 80% and bees wax, 20%. There are a few main reasons-
to stop vibration within the pups (microphonics- the type of feedback that the
vocalist stops and gives ya looks like he's going to replace you) and to
seal the components so they don't rust and will keep it good for decades.

So now everbody can go get those new Lindy's.-  it's hear-say, what do I know?
I do know that that is the exact type of crap that one learns about and what some
people will believe and spend money on the new type...NO BEE WAX in these...you'll
have great tone now boys....
 
 
Oh yeah...doesn't Seymour dip theirs in lacquer?  Oh I do believe they do.
Sure need to keep the wire and magnets insulated.

Scoot


I'm ordering my first guitar today, a little wairy of I'm about to start.  Getting a Epiphone DOT, they have a guy called Doctor Epiphone, sales man in a lab coat, he does a whole thoing about how their picups are double vacumm dipp is wax, makes a big deal out of it.

LOL. Maybe Dr. Epiphone was double dipped too. ( and maybe it's a Chefs apron )

A friend who should know better was telling me the other day why "guitar #1" was so much better sounding than "guitar #2". He explained that the guys that built "guitar #1" soldered a capacitor on the tone knob while the guys that made "guitar #2" were cheapskates and didn't bother.


I didn't think there was any need to explain that all tone knobs have capacitors in the surrounding circuit and that the information he was repeating was the symptom of a pissing match argument about whether one capacitor item sounds better than some other.

FWIW, I do think that there are differences in capacitors in some parts of the circuit and I do think the tone knob is one of those places where it matters.

Having said that, the closest thing to any actual truth behind the tone circuit myth he was relaying to me is that "company A" simply used a different combination of potentiometer and capacitor value than "company B" and that the choice of value, or design, is more effective at producing difference in frequency response than the choice of brand, form factor, or construction technology.



I figured he'd feel better if I just let it slide with a smile and a shrug. :-)

Life goes on. :-)

best,
mike


edit spelling

For the record I had decided on the Epiphone before seeing him. He had no influence on my decision to buy

Wow. He's real.
I agree Mike- fun and I think he could
probably answer the customers should they ask.

That is the trick isn't it- knowing the right questions.

An oval collar on input jack ?!! Where do ya get those? Now I have to learn how
to drill an oval hole in my guitars?...I quit. Hope supper is ready..I need a break
after that.

Scoot....congrats man! I hope you love your new guitar. Pics when ya get it!