Jon Bell

A wider magnet will sense a larger area with more harmonics giving a warmer tone. A thinner magnet will sense a smaler area and give a brighter tone.

I always find that I spend the most time tidying my tools when I've got a boring job I'm trying to put off.

I meant to ask about coil splitting with humbuckers too. Are some pickups "better sounding"" than others when it comes to splitting?  And I still haven't decided wether to have them covered or not,  I do prefer the look of covered humbuckers, but does that muffle the sound a little?

Thanks for helping me out, I think the more I learn about this stuff, the less I know!

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Some humbuckers are designed with alnico slugs for polepieces rather than the ferrous studs attached to a bar magnet used on most humbuckers. This should make the split tone more like a true single coil.

Adding covers will reduce the highs a little bit.

Jon

1d

2 - 4,3,2,1

3 - b

4 not much

5 a

8 online

Removing the covers will add a bit of high end to the tone, it's very subtle though. Pickups without covers are often set a bit closer to the strings too, this will also affect the tone and outout.

That is a really cheap pickup! But I think you'd find it wouldn't be much of an improvement over your stock pickups (it might even be worse!). I think at that price some corners must have been cut. Maybe you could try looking on ebay for secondhand Duncans or Dimarzios?

That is a really cool looking guitar! But maybe ebay isn't the best place to sell your guitars? I think people are often after a bargain on ebay and reluctant to pay realistic prices for more expensive items.

Also going back to what was mentioned above I've also found my pickups sell slower in the Jan / Feb period. I think a lot of folks are still recovering after Christmas.

I wouldn't use tape. It works really well the first time but the quickly gets gummy and sticky and its a nightmare to clean. Maybe a cigarette paper wrapped around the thread would work?

You can pour a material into your inlay cavity but it's difficult to get good results. Your edges will need to be spot on otherwise the inlay material will show up any slight errors. It is difficult to get it flat and neat too.

I'd stick with cutting out the inlay shapes using an jeweler's saw like Clavin mentioned above. You could try using plastic for your inlay - its cheap and easy to work with and can give good results.

In my experience the heavier a machine is the better it performs, it usually means it is sturdier and more accurate. It's not always the case but if you're comparing two similar models it can be a good rule of thumb.

How does the unfinished neck feel? Do you have any worries about it's stability?

Very cool looking guitar!

In answer to the original posters question you can do what you are suggesting but you will need some different magnets.

Cheaper single coils have a ceramic bar magnet attached to the six steel poles. You could replace this with an alnico magnet but not a standard humbucker type. The magnet needs to have it's poles on the 7mm x 63mm face, a standard humbucker magnet is magnetised so that the 2mm x 63mm face on the side is the pole. It would work, just not very well.

Jon

Jon Bell is a forum member - I'm sure he'd be happy to answer any questions you have. 

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Absolutely, if you've got a question just drop me a PM or my email address is on my site.

I would remove the old wires from the pots and solder the new pickups there. It will look neater and it also means your old pickups will still have plenty of wire left if you ever use them again. Just make sure to keep track of where the original wires were attached and don't let the pots get too hot.

For anybody in the UK there is the Totnes School of Guitarmaking.

http://www.totnesschoolofguitarmaking.co.uk/

For anybody in the UK there is the Totnes School of Guitarmaking.

http://www.totnesschoolofguitarmaking.co.uk/

Shellac isn't the most durable finish and bearing in mind how much wear a neck gets I'm pretty sure it would wear away. Shellac isn't waterproof either which is worth considering if you've got sweaty hands.

However on the plus side it is very easy to add more coats of shellac at a later date (unlike most other finishes). So if it did wear away it wouldn't be too big a deal to apply a few new coats.

Jon

That sounds pretty cool. Heard a guy using a Mode Four at a gig. Nice enough sound but far too big for his needs.

i just use it for the headroom...i don't like the sound of tubes pushed to the limit...

some guys prefer clipping...i guess i am just different.

but my mode 4 sounds completely different than most though...i changed out the preamp tube for something a little more harmonically rich,and then i added the metal zone for the gain...with the pedal off it is very crisp and clean.

and then i have the right side of the amp set up for warm semi dirty blues

What tube did you put in as a replacement? Was is a difficult job?

Computer Music Magazine (UK mag) has a full version of a sequencer on their cover CD every month. It called something like "muzys" or something but it is very good once you get used to the interface.

I think parkey fly guitars are partly made of graphite. It seems to be a type of graphite netting that they use rather than just a slab of graphite.

I had an old classical that I (rather stupidly) put steel strings onto. It bent the neck excessively and started to lift the bridge. So if you don't use a truss rod don't be tempted to try steel strings on it!

Thanks for the comments. Here's some answers to the questions:

The Warthog tone sent shivers up the ol' spine. Wow! What guitar was that played on?

Sounded like 24.75" scale! Very good tone on all the pickups. 

Now where are the bass PU's???????? 

I used an Ibanez artist (les paul clone) and yes it is 24.75" scale! Bass pickups coming soon.

Do you offer a 4 wire option on the Xbucker for coil splitting ?

All the humbuckers come with shielded 4 conductor wire.

Hey, can you make them where the pole piece things are like screws, like on gibsons and stuff??? I noticed yours are just circles...

The pole pieces can be screws or studs.

Do you do bass pickups? Particularly 7, 8 or 9 string bass pickups?

A range of single coils are coming soon, after that a range of standard bass pickups. I'm hoping to sell 7 and 8 string guitar pickups soon too.

I could make 7, 8 or 9 string bass pickups is you let me know the dimensions, sound, etc. you are after. Email me for details.

Thanks,

Jon

Try doing a search for killswitch or kill switch there have been a few big threads on this in the past.

Lots of soundclips are on the website - www.swinesheadpickups.com

I can make them in double cream, as well as any other combination of colors.

Swineshead Pickups

Custom Guitar Pickups

http://www.swinesheadpickups.com

Hand-made, hand-wound pickups available in a variety of exotic woods and colors. Free postage worldwide.