vibe-rider Posted January 29, 2011 Report Share Posted January 29, 2011 hey guys, i'm starting a warmoth guitar project soon and was looking into making a diy pickup. Specifically a pickup that would feedback more or less on demand and was wondering if anyone could offer advice and whether what i'm trying to do is possible. i got the idea from helping out a buddy who was making his own diy pickups, he kept explaining that the steps that we were doing were to stop the pickups from feeding back and being generally noisy and unusable. This got me thinking because i love feedback and noisy/unusable sounds, maybe if i do everything wrong i could create a pickup that could be activated alongside my regular pups to create said sounds. from the research that i have done so far i have figured out that it would need to be/have (this could all be wrong) 1/ a singlecoil - because they are generally noisier and easier to make, this is pretty much a given. 2/loosely wound - i learned this while helping my buddy out, he explained that the tension must be high to avoid feedback in his pickups# 3/ unwaxed - again he explained that waxing reduces unwanted feedback 4/ placed apart from the strings? - im taking a guess that if the pickup was placed away from the strings it would feedback more, possibly im wrong though 5/ made with 2 magnets - im again guessing that the number of magnets won't matter because it won't be used to pickup the sound of the strings, so two would be easiest to wind. If anyone could offer any advice i would be very grateful as i have extremely limited knowledge about pickups other than the information i have found online so far, which mainly includes step by step instructions on how to make pickups that don't feedback at all. specifically i would like to know what type of wire would be best to wind the pickup with and how many times i should wind. many thanks for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted February 1, 2011 Report Share Posted February 1, 2011 I'm not sure if you've ever experienced microphonic feedback (which is what you're trying to replicate here)... it's not like string feedback. It doesn't matter what note or chord you're playing, your feedback will be its own pitch, probably always the same pitch. It will also be uncontrollable at performance volume levels. That said, if you want to experiment with microphonic feedback, I think you're on the right track. Loose winding and lack of potting will give you what you're looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpcrash Posted February 1, 2011 Report Share Posted February 1, 2011 If you wanted to do it on demand, you could simply add a form of preamp or gain to an already high-output pickup. Figure, it's pretty easy/cheap to grab a no name single coil on ebay (or from my bin of no return), and add an active preamp to it to create all sort of delightful squeals. EDIT: And of course a switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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