gw_guitars Posted April 16, 2004 Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 Hi, I have two P-90 pickup's. There single coil. So there probably not as 'silent' as a humbucker. Is it possible to take another pickup for instance a stratocaster pickup and put it somewhere in a cavity (out of sight)and just use it as a 'Dummy'? In other words just use the strat pickup as the second coil of a humbucker? So I would have a P-90 with a strat pickup together as one humbucker. Why should I do this? Well the answer is simple. I have two P-90 pickup's which I got for free, and some member's convinced me of the quality of the P-90 but I don't like the sound of a single coil so I thought if a can use another single coil just to create a humbucking device it could turn out nicely. Any idea's Greetings Gerard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gw_guitars Posted April 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2004 I forgot something The trick should be that the dummy should be invisible. I mean not visible, for instance in the cavity of the volume knob Gerard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 How would the single coil (hidden Strat) pickup work without string vibration? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Bit Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 Post pulled by author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 If you do this, I'm gonna state the obvious. Find the cheapest pickup possible. For the smart ones here...would it work to get a magnet, and wrap some wire around it just a few times, then wire it up and use it? Would that be enough to cancel the hum? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 I was under the impression that to get full humbucking both coils would have to have the same number of windings. I've seen half-humbuckers (one coil has less windings) on some website. I'll look for it. Edit: Ugh, I didn't find the website and I don't feeling like searching for it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 I was under the impression that to get full humbucking both coils would have to have the same number of windings. I've seen half-humbuckers (one coil has less windings) on some website. I'll look for it. Edit: Ugh, I didn't find the website and I don't feeling like searching for it Ideally, to be fully humbucking, both coils should be identical, but DiMarzio have some asymmetrically wound humbuckers like the FRED where the two coils have different resistances. And a dummy coil wouldn't need a magnet because its purpose is to pick up stray electromagnetic noise. The only purpose a magnet has is to have the string move through it to induce a current in the coil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 It does make more sense that they'd both have to have the same amount of coils, but it would be a lot more convenient if they didn't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 It does make more sense that they'd both have to have the same amount of coils, but it would be a lot more convenient if they didn't It might be possible with active electronics. For example, if you have a dummy coil that has one tenth the windings of your pickup, mix the noise that it produces with the pickup signal using a summing amplifier (a simple mixer) that has 10 times the gain on the dummy coil input to balance the pickup's noise. And since the dummy coil wouldn't be connected in series with your pickup coil (like a typical humbucker is) it wouldn't affect the pickup's signal (wouldn't lose any highs). The inconvenience is having an active circuit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 It does make more sense that they'd both have to have the same amount of coils, but it would be a lot more convenient if they didn't It might be possible with active electronics. For example, if you have a dummy coil that has one tenth the windings of your pickup, mix the noise that it produces with the pickup signal using a summing amplifier (a simple mixer) that has 10 times the gain on the dummy coil input to balance the pickup's noise. And since the dummy coil wouldn't be connected in series with your pickup coil (like a typical humbucker is) it wouldn't affect the pickup's signal (wouldn't lose any highs). The inconvenience is having an active circuit. Only if an active circuit is an inconveniece. Saber sounds like he knows what he's talking about, but I'm kinda interested in this too, so I'm wondering if everybody else thinks this would work too. Sounds like logical reasoning to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 17, 2004 Report Share Posted April 17, 2004 I've seen the humbucker you're talking about-- it's called the Half-Bucker if I remember correctly... it may have been a Lindy Fralin pickup, if you want to refine your search (I'm too lazy, too!). I have also read that the humbuckers should be identical in impedance to properly cancel the hum-- and for the half-bucker they explained that the noise cancellation wasn't as effective as a true humbucker; however, although I believe it and have no reason to question the real-world application, I don't quite understand 'why'. No matter what pickup is used, a single coil will still produce the same 60hz hum, no? Is it just that the 'level' of the hum on one coil would be 'louder' (I know there are more scientific terms, but I'll just use layman's since I don't know them), so the difference in volume will equal the new volume of the hum? Ex., all in non-scientific inaccurate numbers for simplicity: -If one single coil is 6 units loud, and the other is also 6, the hum will totally cancel out. -If one single coil is 6 units loud, and the other is 3 units loud, there will still be a difference of 3 units, which will mean we'll hear 3 units worth of hum. I believe that one of the pickup sites linked to from ProjectGuitar ('avs'?? I could be wrong... the memory capacity ain't what it used to be) uses the active pickup idea presented by Saber. Greg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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