Hotrock Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 Alright then guys, I’ve just been thinking about pickups and I would like to know your opinions. What do you think it would sound like if I (you or anyone else) made some very long thin pickup coils with each coil being about 100mm long and 10mm wide. Pole pieces would be through the centre of the coil. The pickups would sit along the length of the string, rather than across them, picking up the vibration on a long length of the string. Obviously the magnets would be underneath the pole pieces and there would be trouble fitting it all in, but this is only a bit of a thinking exercise. What do you guys think then, possible idea for a super crisp clear high output pup, or just plane useless? Kaj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darren wilson Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 I thought of doing this years ago as well, but then it occurred to me that if you try to "sense" that whole length of string at once, you may end up picking up so many harmonic overtones that a lot of them would cancel each other out in the final combined signal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 after i read your post i asked my partner here at the store what he thought would happen. he's been a builder, player, tech for many years. he said that he had actually experimented with it a lot of years ago and couldn't remember the details of how he did it but he remembered that it sounded "like crap". he said that it wasn't layered harmonics so much as it was that the longer magnets just effected the string badly. now how's that for some detailed feedback? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotrock Posted December 8, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 Aye, nuff said I think What if you used very weak magnets? Less effect on the string (maybe less magnetic flux for signal strength) who knows. I really should try to stop thinking, nothing good ever comes of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ar-Pharazon Posted December 9, 2004 Report Share Posted December 9, 2004 Making the pickups active would probably cut down on the string pull quite a bit. I suppose that is no good for all you vintage wannabes who couldn't see a good tech if it stripped naked, painted itself purple and ran around waving a flag shouting "Useful Technology is here again", but I digress. seems like an entirely different way of picking up is called for, if active pickups would conytinue to interfere with the string resonance and intonation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Cavanaugh Posted December 9, 2004 Report Share Posted December 9, 2004 well, how about having the coil(s) and magnet (s) lay pointing the bridge and neck and have a steel bar or laminations direct the magnetic field up to the string? You could control the magnetic pull that way and many other things... Oh crap, I let the cat out of the bag! Oh well, I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of this. Oh yeah, BTW, I've tried what you're suggesting, it really does sound aweful, I think it's because it's picking up harmonics from so many places it's causing the waveform to distort itself really bad! Trust me, if you can keep the field of sensing to a minimum, you will have a cleaner signal. Also, think about the magnetic field when you adjust it. Based on it's magnetic properties, a pup will sense more or less of the string depending on where it's adjusted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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