Lipstick Pickup Help

[idsnowdog]

This is true...I am not a fan of the tone, either. But their lower power might be a plus if they were mounted vertically. Is there a problem you are trying to solve by doing that, or is it just a 'wouldn't it be cool' idea?

That idea is more on the supply side of problems.

[cmac]

The idea for me is just a more of a, could it work sort of thing, and it might be a fun way to test parallel and series switching. Or to run a traditional pickup in parallel or series with the 5-6 tube pickups

[freefrog]

One lipstick PU per string and parallel to it = 0.64' (width of the baseplate). Six of them would take 3.84' = 9.76cm.

String spacing in my Strat with lipsticks is of approximatively 5cm under the mid PU. It leaves enough space for 3 lipstick PU's, not six. i'd rather think to 3 rails PU's with one blade per string.

Regarding the "sensing windows": the effect of its width would be a drastic diminution of harmonics, as shown in the simulation below (black line = fundamental & harmonics of a neck PU perpendicular to strings. Blue line = the same with PU parallel to strings. Thx to don Tilman for his useful applet allowing to do this : http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/).



It would sound very muddy and with lipsticks, mud would be aggravated by Foucault currents. Unless the PU's would be wired in parallel, in which case they would sound very weak - without solving potential problems with "stratitis" and shortened sustain due to magnetism.


Regarding lipsticks in general: they are low inductance pickups whose response is softened by Eddy currents. Their interest is in their chime IMHO and IME. Anybody who would find them too soft and/or weak can pair them with a 500k volume and a no load pot: that's what I have and my Strat with lipsticks does not sound weak (at least its lipsticks are not weaker than its CS69 bridge PU). If it's too bright, just add a low value cap (470pF to 1nF) from ground to hot - or plug the guitar through a long cable...

FWIW: morning post before coffee. Have a nice day! :-)

[cmac]

One lipstick PU per string and parallel to it = 0.64' (width of the baseplate). Six of them would take 3.84' = 9.76cm.

String spacing in my Strat with lipsticks is of approximatively 5cm under the mid PU. It leaves enough space for 3 lipstick PU's, not six. i'd rather think to 3 rails PU's with one blade per string.

Regarding the "sensing windows": the effect of its width would be a drastic diminution of harmonics, as shown in the simulation below (black line = fundamental & harmonics of a neck PU perpendicular to strings. Blue line = the same with PU parallel to strings. Thx to don Tilman for his useful applet allowing to do this : http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/).



It would sound very muddy and with lipsticks, mud would be aggravated by Foucault currents. Unless the PU's would be wired in parallel, in which case they would sound very weak - without solving potential problems with "stratitis" and shortened sustain due to magnetism.


Regarding lipsticks in general: they are low inductance pickups whose response is softened by Eddy currents. Their interest is in their chime IMHO and IME. Anybody who would find them too soft and/or weak can pair them with a 500k volume and a no load pot: that's what I have and my Strat with lipsticks does not sound weak (at least its lipsticks are not weaker than its CS69 bridge PU). If it's too bright, just add a low value cap (470pF to 1nF) from ground to hot - or plug the guitar through a long cable...

FWIW: morning post before coffee. Have a nice day! :-)

I don’t think I was quite ready to learn all this LOL, but thank you!

[ArtieToo]

I think freefrog hit the main points of the problem, but you could do three angled so that each pup covered two strings, at a slight angle.

I like my Lipstick equipped Squier Surf Strat, but I usually run it through my SFX-01 to give it a bit more girth. Nice jangly tone. Especially the notch positions.