Beepster
drewfx1
Alembics often have a dummy (pickup) in the middle to cancel noise.
Since I am about to get some whacky crap done on one of my six strings this post intrigues me...
I have three slots (if I got a new pickguard). I have two pickups I want to use (neck and bridge but was considering middle and bridge just because I'm weird). I have issues with noise. I have stock pickups I do not want to use (one of which could act as the unconnected "dummy" PUP).
Is this implying that if I stuck one of the old stock pickups, unconnected, in the middle slot between the bridge and neck pickups it would reduce hum/noise?
We're talking humbuckers here (not active but powerful shredder metal shiz).
Cheers.
/off topic'd but on topic'd but who the fruck knows the topic shabadoowhah...
Basically if you have a PU without magnets it picks up extraneous electromagnetic noise but not the strings (as there is no magnet and thus no magnetic field for them to disturb) - essentially it's an antenna for EM noise that cancels the EM from the PU's.
The problem is that the coils of wire add to the impedance of the PU's, which can lead to a muddy mess. With Alembics, they are using active circuitry so the PU's and dummy coil are buffered from each other and the dummy coil just provides for noise cancellation without affecting the tone at all. There are other passive schemes where a physically large coil, perhaps surrounding the tremolo cavity, acts as the antenna and it's larger size means it requires fewer turns of wire than a PU-sized coil, which causes less of an impact on the tone.