Stag Mag split = which Duncan single coil?

[moshuajusic]

Which model single coil is the Stag Mag using? (My guess would be Alnico II Pro Staggered, but I could be wrong.)

PS - They should bring back the EQ and output specs on the browsing pages. It used to be easy to quickly compare. Now I gotta click each one!?

[beaubrummels]

I don't believe the StagMag coils are single coils put on a humbucker base. I believe they are specially-wound slug humbucker coils with magnetic slugs.

[jeremy]

right. the stagmag is two bobbins with rod poles, also uses smaller wire than a typical vintage strat pup. it sounds good split, just not exactly like anything in the line up. sorta similar to the aps1 though

[moshuajusic]

There's no bar magnet in the Stag Mag, right? I think "2 single coils" and "humbucker coils with magnetic slugs" is semantics. I figured they were effectively winding a particular single coil model. Its DCR suggests each coil is 8.3kΩ. A2 mag + 8.3k = Twang Banger! But if the wire gauge is different, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What's the output like in humbucker mode? I'm familiar with JB and Full Shred.

PS - Their new site design is even more PITA than I realized. You gotta also select options to see EQ and DCR.

[Ace Flibble]

In series the output is a bit more than a Full Shred, but not much. It can sound louder than a FS, though, depending how you EQ your amp, what amp it is and what speakers you have. The Stag Mag in series has a little more bass thump than the FS and the treble can jump out a little more too, so if you have your amp set to really push a lot of bass and treble with a clean tone then the Stag Mag will sound louder than the FS, but if you have a more even clean tone then they'll end up sounding about the same volume. Under gain the FS sounds a bit hotter but not by much.

You have to be careful with the Stag Mag, though, since it's putting a much stronger magnetic field on the strings. The overall magnetic power isn't much stronger than a typical A5 bar magnet humbucker (like the FS and JB), but since the Stag Mag's magnets run right to the top of the pickup, the field is higher and closer to the strings. This is what gives the slightly compressed, sharp 'attack' to single notes, a signature of the single coil sound, but since there are two sets of magnets it also pulls on the strings much more than any normal humbucker or single coil and that can cause a severe loss of sustain or even pull strings out of tune. This is why they don't recommend the Stag Mag for the neck position, where the effects of magnetic pull on the strings is much greater; it's almost impossible to put a pickup with this magnet arrangement in the neck position without sending the strings crazy. For this reason it's a good idea to lower the Stag Mag further from the strings than you would with regular humbuckers, which also means the output becomes lower and the extremes of the bass and treble is rolled off as well.

And as others have said, in split mode it's nothing like any particular SD single coil, it's just a generic single coil tone. If I was pushed I'd say it was slightly closer to a Tele neck pickup than a Strat single or a Tele bridge single, but not by much. That's just the nature of the coil being very slightly smaller than a Strat's and the A2 magnets being quite a soft-sounding magnet. It's got no particular 'twang', nor much 'bell' or 'quack'... just very non-specific single coil. Personally I've enjoyed it more just as a Wide Range-esque series humbucker more than I liked the split or parallel sounds.

[moshuajusic]

Thorough! Thanks. Another option is Rio Grande Muy Grande or Half Breed. Or a 57TW. For bridge pickup, I'm trying to have cake and eat it too.

[beaubrummels]

There's no bar magnet in the Stag Mag, right? I think "2 single coils" and "humbucker coils with magnetic slugs" is semantics. I figured they were effectively winding a particular single coil model. Its DCR suggests each coil is 8.3kΩ. A2 mag + 8.3k = Twang Banger! But if the wire gauge is different, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What's the output like in humbucker mode? I'm familiar with JB and Full Shred.

PS - Their new site design is even more PITA than I realized. You gotta also select options to see EQ and DCR.

Single coils have the wire wrapped directly around the magnets and the bottom flatwork is effectively the baseplate. That arrangement would never attach to a humbucker baseplate and fit in a humbucker cavity.

The StagMag is using a humbucker bobbin, the wire wrapped around the bobbin, with magnetized slugs. It is a different construction.

[moshuajusic]

Single coils have the wire wrapped directly around the magnets and the bottom flatwork is effectively the baseplate. That arrangement would never attach to a humbucker baseplate and fit in a humbucker cavity.

The StagMag is using a humbucker bobbin, the wire wrapped around the bobbin, with magnetized slugs. It is a different construction.

According to Duncan's blog, single coils are made both ways. I prefer bobbin because the pole pieces can be adjusted for height (wound vs plain 3rd string). If you want the most authentic single coil tone, you'd go with wire wrapped directly on the pole pieces?

[beaubrummels]

According to Duncan's blog, single coils are made both ways. I prefer bobbin because the pole pieces can be adjusted for height (wound vs plain 3rd string). If you want the most authentic single coil tone, you'd go with wire wrapped directly on the pole pieces?

Single coils can be made both ways, but the StagMag (or any pickup mounted on a humbucker baseplate) can only be made one way. Let me try this another way. See how the single coil is narrower and the poles are farther apart and the baseplate with screw holes is built into the pickup extending well past the end of the coil? And see how the StagMag humbucker bobbins are fatter and not as long, and you can see some coil wire showing through the molding hole on the bobbin? They are different construction and not interchangeable. (Photo is probably not the best example as the single is a modern DiMarzio type, not a traditional Fender with felt flatware, but the point remains; two typical Fender single coils couldn't be mounted on a standard humbucker baseplate.) Or let's look at it the other way - you couldn't take one of those coils off the StagMag and install it as a single coil in a standard Fender guitar (without mounting it to a second single coil flatware / baseplate to provide the mounting screw holes, and cutting your pickguard larger to fit the coils through.) The StagMag is a special humbucker coil, it's not just a single coil mounted on a humbucker baseplate.

[moshuajusic]

I think you're misinterpreting my q. I wasn't suggesting or presuming that the Stag Mag is literally 2 Duncan single coils stuck together. I was asking which single coil model they adapted to that housing/format. If they have a bobbin style single coil, I see no reason they couldn't replicate it in the Stag Mag, or at least get extremely close given the slight difference in string spacing (or maybe exactly with F-spacing?). But thanks for clarifying that the Stag Mag is bobbin type single coils.

[beaubrummels]

I think you're misinterpreting my q. I wasn't suggesting or presuming that the Stag Mag is literally 2 Duncan single coils stuck together. I was asking which single coil model they adapted to that housing/format. If they have a bobbin style single coil, I see no reason they couldn't replicate it in the Stag Mag, or at least get extremely close given the slight difference in string spacing (or maybe exactly with F-spacing?). But thanks for clarifying that the Stag Mag is bobbin type single coils.

Well, you did say this:
"Which model single coil is the Stag Mag using?"

and this:
"I think "2 single coils" and "humbucker coils with magnetic slugs" is semantics. I figured they were effectively winding a particular single coil model."

[AlexR]

They most likely didn't adapt any singlecoil.....for the very reasons that have been stated here around about 4 times now.
If you are winding on a different housing, you have to start from scratch in designing the pickup's geometry. Additionally they were winding for the tone of the 2 coils to be combined in series, not just taking potluck that 2 of a random K reading worked.

[Ace Flibble]

In fairness to OP, there are many SD pickups that the company have adapted to different form factors, and not always compensating for the change in shape. 8-string, 7-string, trembucker and regular humbuckers all have bobbins of different dimensions and with some humbuckers SD do alter the winds to account for those differences (e.g. Nazgul, JB), while with other models they don't appear to alter the wind at all (e.g. Invader) and just kind of 'stretch' the same recipe and construction to different sizes. It's not unreasonable to assume the winding of an individual Stag Mag coil might be the same or close-enough to a separate single coil model; it just-so-happens that in this case it is indeed its own thing.

As it happens I do have a couple of pickups by other manufacturers that are similar to the Stag Mag in construction—Oil City Brassknuckle, Swineshead AMP, Catswhisker S-Bucker, and several Creamery designs—and only one of them (the Swineshead) doesn't have at least one coil wound to copy another of the manufacturers' standard single coils. Seymour Duncan don't make the Stag Mag that way, but that doesn't mean it's not viable or unreasonable to expect.

[moshuajusic]

@ beaubrummels, indeed I said "effectively." I.e., not literally.

@ Ace Fribble, thanks. The interwebs fosters literal interpretations even when they make no sense. I know stagmag isn't 2 stock single coils stuck together. Seems you're keen on this type of humbucker. Ever try Rio Grade? Their Muy Grande humbuckers are in fact their Muy Grande single coils side-by-side. I once got one and had to modify the routing or baseplate (or both, can't remember) due to its size. So there's a fair warning for ya. Beastly tone though, in both modes. Duncan is less expensive, so I was curious. (Swinsehead! They had really cool options and configs.)