Trying To Source Pups For A Psychotic Science Project

[magillver]

Hi There! I have a really weird idea that I want to try. I want to set up a guitar with 3 strat-sized Humbuckers, a la Little '59's, but install them parallel to the strings, so I have roughly one full coil for each string. As I have very little faith in this actually working worth a damn, I'm trying to source cheap knock-off pups, with adjustable pole pieces, rather than drop ~$300 in the name of science. I'm seeing a fair number of cheap rails, but not screws. Any suggestions? (About the pups, not the idea, I already know it's goofy...)

[ICTGoober]

Pretty sure this was done back in the 80's...

[Mincer]

I think something like indeed has been done. But you can also work backwards...what kind of sound are you going for that doesn't exist now? Usually things like this are done because there is a problem to solve.

[magillver]

Good morning, Mincer, this has absolutely nothing to do with sound improvement, purely curiosity as to WHAT it would sound like, then, of course, figuring out how to sort out 6 tone knobs and 6 volume knobs. Simply for giggles...

[beaubrummels]

I think dual row / rail type Strat pickups aren't far enough apart for the coils to sit right under the strings, but it would still work. As long as there is magnetic field above, it should generate voltage and make sound.

A while back I wanted to do some crazy experiments too, like wind a single pole coil for each string (which now exists as Zexcoil https://lawingmusicalproducts.com/zexcoil-design); and I still want to try a pool-routed guitar with a sliding pickup where you can position the pickup anywhere along the strings at will. A guitar did exist that did this - David Bowie used it on Station To Station.

[magillver]

Good morning Beau! At one point I'd been thinking of creating a bench top rail system, basically a rail, bridge and neck, to experiment with pup position/tone combinations, with a bread board to swap in various components...still might, one of these days. I measured the Little '59 that I have on my Swiss Army guitar, and the spacing's close . Somewhere in my weird parts bin I think I have an old Floer (sp?) rail that I recall being pretty narrow, which I should dig out and measure...

[magillver]

Hi Beau, I just checked out the Zexcoil link, pretty interesting, unfortunately it looks like they're having trouble keeping the doors open...

[Mincer]

Well, I'd love to see in-process pics of the progress. I'd be curious, too.

[beaubrummels]

Hi Beau, I just checked out the Zexcoil link, pretty interesting, unfortunately it looks like they're having trouble keeping the doors open...

Sorry, the editor messed up the link. It's https://lawingmusicalproducts.com/

[eclecticsynergy]

Seems to me that applying the magnetic field lengthwise along the string would hurt sustain.
But I guess it might have interesting effects on the harmonics.

Sorry to hear Zexcoil is struggling. He's done somereally innovative work.

[magillver]

The harmonics question is why I'd like to find something cheap with adjustable pole pieces, where I could potentially adjust the poles around the various nodes, probably getting way ahead of myself, though...

[beaubrummels]

Sorry to hear Zexcoil is struggling. He's done somereally innovative work.

I don't think Zexcoil is having problems. The forum editor just screwed up the link.

The store seems to be open (let's see if this link works, however.)

https://lawingmusicalproducts.com/zseries-strat-sets

[zionstrat]

Okay since you're thinking about experimenting, following is something I've wanted to do forever and can't find the time. And it's somewhat similar to your thinking, but I think it would have good results...

Start by winding three or six coils depending on how detailed you want to get.. if you do six coils, each one has a single pole piece or if you do three coils it's two pole pieces per coil.

Using six individual coils, it would be something like the zex, if you put them right next to each other under each string, you get one dedicated pickup for string. Same general idea if you do it in sets of two.

Where I think this might really pay off is doing this three times, one in each of the positions for regular Stratocaster pickups.

I've thought about ways to make switching easy, but just to get started you could just have a total of six times three input and output wires...

The idea would be to combine them to find what sounds are most interesting... The one that I imagine might be a great place to start would be "neck" pickup coils for e and b, mid coils for d&g and bridge coils for e and a.

In my mind, I imagine that would give a very tight bright bass with a very mellow sustained high-end...

Assuming that worked, adding additional coils might be very interesting... In the example I just gave, adding in the middle coils for the E and B strings would probably increase gain for lead sustain and I'm guessing it would make it slightly brighter as well.

Depending on if you do single coil or dual coils, there's a heck of a lot of combinations to try and the only downside I can imagine is bending..

But if the balance is correct, bending into another set of coils may make very little difference or maybe it makes a lot, who knows until somebody builds it :-)

[magillver]

Okay, for my first pass at science-ing, on the Fleor, DiMarzio DP188 and the Little '59, the coils are all spaced at 5/16", and on my MIM strat, the string spacing is 13/16" at the bridge, so I'm mostly in range. Also, I may have found my test-bed, a $25 Behringer strat knock-off...(MIM strat science project in pic)