Question About Base Plates for Single Coils.. ​​​​​​​.

[JamesPaul]

freefrog has a lot of this type of knowledge. If he does not see this topic, maybe PM him for his thoughts?

[ArtieToo]

Yup. I think freefrog is the man. I'll wait.

[freefrog]

Gentlemen, that's putting much trust in my geekiness. :-)

I had seen this topic. I've not replied because I had no useful data to share about alloys & thickness of Callaham / Fralin and other "inductance plates".

Now and if generic thoughts have any interest:

-steel baseplates boost a wee bit the inductance and alter a tad the magnetic field, making the resonant peak slightly lower pitched and flatter. Which makes the pickup theoretically warmer. But that's old news that people can find by googling...

-Yep, materials have an influence: a brass baseplate would make the resonance flatter but also and paradoxically higher pitched when measured because of Foucault currents. A copper plated steel plate would flatten the resonance too but would promote only the frequency range under resonant frequency... and so on. But that's not really relevant here, since Callaham / Fralin BP's appear to be made only of steel (whose grade is unknown: a metallurgical analysis would be necessary);

-such added baseplates haven't the same influence according to the lenght and staggering of the rod poles: flat poled single coils seem more sensitive to the presence of a steel baseplate (IME. YMMV). That's maybe the only "useful" thought that I can share here but it makes the effect of inductance plates strongly dependent on the model of pickup used. So I'm still not sure that my rambling is helping. :-P

FWIW. :-)

[ArtieToo]

Now and if generic thoughts have any interest:

They do. Thanks for weighing in. All info is good. I guess, the ultimate test would be to try several, and see if a difference can actually be heard.

[beaubrummels]

While we're on the subject, does the material matter? Copper, brass, plated or unplated steel, zinc-coated steel?

Yes, absolutely. Duncan has variants of the first Tele pickups: ,copper, stee baseplatesl, changes the sound.

[ArtieToo]

Duncan has variants of the first Tele pickups:

Yeah . . . the Duncan Tele pups seem to favor copper-plated steel. That might be just the formula that would soften my CV 50 Strat bridge pup.

[jafo]

Copper-plated steel is also part of what makes the Twangbanger (https://www.seymourduncan.com/single...g-banger-strat) work. You can also buy such plates from various places to test it out; attach them with silicone adhesive to avoid squeal. IIRC, the Twangbanger has a hotter wind.