triple coil pups, the holy grail?

karpathion

karpathion

New member
so what is the deal with triple coils. in all of our vast knowledge of pups, and guitars, why are there no triple coils to speak of. seems to me you could have cobonations of sounds with just one pup. i would think it to be very versitle. i mean out put levels should rival actives. i dont know i could just be bored or something. but how about a conversation on something a little different. unless ofcourse you guys have allready been over this. but i know nothing of them. except i thing hammer and ibanez made one or two. what do the sound like? has anyone tried to work with them what changes can be made? and most of all what freakin guitar do ya put em in?
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

karpathion said:
so what is the deal with triple coils. in all of our vast knowledge of pups, and guitars, why are there no triple coils to speak of. seems to me you could have cobonations of sounds with just one pup. i would think it to be very versitle. i mean out put levels should rival actives. i dont know i could just be bored or something. but how about a conversation on something a little different. unless ofcourse you guys have allready been over this. but i know nothing of them. except i thing hammer and ibanez made one or two. what do the sound like? has anyone tried to work with them what changes can be made? and most of all what freakin guitar do ya put em in?
Click to expand...

I did see one in a Hamer once like you mentioned! It was on the wall @ a music store but I never pulled it off the wall to play it though--just gawked @ it a bit ;-) All I can think is that theres got to be a reason why they didnt keep making them though--
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

anyone know where to get one. or can someone build one for me. i got an old strat i could probably cut out the pickguard to make fit
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

Given the success of the P-rails etc, one would think that we can make a seriously cool 3-coil bucker called the "third rail". Two of the coils would be roughly the same thickness as a standard minibucker would be (this gives slightly more breadth to the pickup coils and allows for more options tonally speaking) and the third rail coil is the same thickness as one coil of the SD rails pickups are. With three different coils you should be able to get some seriously varied tones out of it with one medium gain coil in the middle. One brighter coil (the thinner third rail) and one hot fat sounding rail (the outer minibucker-sized rail) and a medium sounding rail in the middle. This allows several incredibly cool wiring combos and it lets you get four distinct hum free sounds out of the same pickup. Use the same approach as the p-rails bucker. The cool rails coil would be a nice choice for the third rail. The standard minibucker coil would be great for the middle rail and a hot minibucker coil would be great for the other outer rail. Heck, just make one up and send it to me and I'll tell ya if it's cool or not. It should fit in a standard HB routing and it would be much like the P-Rails, but a little different. You might have to make the minibucker coils a tad longer to cover the wider strat string spacings, but I don't know that for sure.

What do you folks think?
 
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Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

why the mini bucker lets base this thing of a custom sh-5 or sh-14. i think a triple coil will more suited for more hard rock or metal. but just think of the blues applications. make a muddy fat blues tone more gain and cleaner.
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

One main reason to base two of the three coils off a minibucker size is that it's not going to require additional routing and should fit standard pickup mounts. SD won't make a 3 coil pickup that you would have to route the body to accept. You may like the idea, but you are in the severe minority. Three coils is enough of a departure in itself without routing our precious peices of jewelry/furniture to take those three coils. ;)

Also Minibuckers have a sweetness to them that is incredibly appealing to lots of players.
 
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Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

very true. so why has noone tried this yet? if i had the parts and the know how i'd try to build one. just to have something unique. i'm really thinking what the clean tones would sound like. especialy if it where split coil(s). and man what a thick distortion. someone has to build this thing. if i have to i'll read every book article i can find. till i figure it out. i bet the tech guys at sd would get sick of me calling every 5 minutes though.lol
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

Talk to Frank Falbo. He's the man that makes these calls nowadays.
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

ive been reading on the mini bucker. isnt it used as a neck pup for teles and strats. i really want one for a mahagony body and set or neckthru body. i think i have found out what to do with the fx-260 i got for my b-day. i wanted a project guitar looks i got one.
now just to get this pickup.
would you happen to know an alternate way to reach him.
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

have you guys heard of the quad rails? kramer uses them, its like two single coil size rail buckers combined to make a normal size bucker. put two hot rails side by side and thats the basic idea.
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

rashayritto said:
have you guys heard of the quad rails? kramer uses them, its like two single coil size rail buckers combined to make a normal size bucker. put two hot rails side by side and thats the basic idea.
Click to expand...

That would be cool too, but I was just thinking of something a tad different. Wide and fatter looking coils have a bit more sonic impact usually. Case in point would be to compare the mini JB to the real-deal JB. The real deal JB just has a certain something that makes it sound better and the only difference between the two that I can think of is the thicker coils and standard polepeices. That and I just love minibuckers and couldn't think of a cooler thing than a minibucker with additional added in flexibility. You would have to sacrifice the standard polepeices to make it fit a standard pickguard though. That leaves us pretty much with minibucker IMHO.
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

yeah but the extra coil will have to add something. it would be like adding to more cylinders to a v8 without more horsepower. it just has to do something
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

You'd be surprised to see what we've got in the prototype archives.

You have to consider the magnetic properties. When you bring coils closer together, the magnetic field tightens. You also can't cut Alnico that short before it begins to degauss itself. A 3 coil setup likely has to have opposing magnets toward the center coil (like a P90) and smaller Alnicos could be unstable at that size. If you switch to Ceramic, well, now you have a Ceramic pickup. So that's okay, but it might not be what you're after.

I've made plenty of 3 and 4 coil pickups, and they each had strengths and weaknesses.
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

Karpathian - It gives options. You want more horsepower and for that you really need to stick to high output humbuckers etc. I don't care for horsepower and only want tonal variety along with a little variation in output. Three coils won't add up to more output than two really. Just more complexity AFAICS. For greater punch, you are much better off with the livewire hot pickups. If you want to scorch the earth with your guitar, that is the pickup to do it with. Three coils will NEVER get you there like a livewire hot will.
 
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Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

frankfalbo said:
You'd be surprised to see what we've got in the prototype archives.

You have to consider the magnetic properties. When you bring coils closer together, the magnetic field tightens. You also can't cut Alnico that short before it begins to degauss itself. A 3 coil setup likely has to have opposing magnets toward the center coil (like a P90) and smaller Alnicos could be unstable at that size. If you switch to Ceramic, well, now you have a Ceramic pickup. So that's okay, but it might not be what you're after.

I've made plenty of 3 and 4 coil pickups, and they each had strengths and weaknesses.
Click to expand...

so is there one that is suited for heavier rock and metal. ive got a guitar to fnd out in. i'll even route it to make it fit. up for some new stuff? can yo build it? and how much$
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

I intended to go ceramic the whole time mang. Should have mentioned that. Ceramic pups can be sweet also ya know. The cool rails is nice as can be IMHO and it's ceramic.
 
Re: triple coil pups, the holy grail?

karpathion said:
anyone know where to get one. or can someone build one for me. i got an old strat i could probably cut out the pickguard to make fit
Click to expand...

if i knew how to make pickups because im interested in this idea, if i could get stufff cheaply i would be glad to try
 
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