Airy, mismatched HB coils

[esandes]

My two favorite pickups have mismatched coils - Bare Knuckle Rebel Yell and Cold Sweat. Specifically in thicker, more midrangey guitars that need a little extra snap. I know I yammer on about them sometimes but they're both great pickups for more aggressive music, if you're a hard picker. The high end detail and comparative lack of compression is what sets them apart for me. It's easier to really drive my amp and get a lot of good natural crunch while still keeping the beginning of each note intact. "Clarity under gain", etc. I made a cool hybrid out of a JB and a BKP Brute Force recently, with a ceramic magnet, and I wouldn't call it "airy" - maybe more jangly and grindy - but it has the same lack of compression, and it rewards digging in.

I have to disagree with Chistopher about the effect of scatterwinding only being evident in low-wind pickups. The extra openness in the top end comes through even with higher windings and symmetrical coils. I'm a fan, I find that scatterwound pickups are more fun to play through, somehow less fatiguing to listen to.

There's also the "tuned aperture" winding that Elysian Pickups uses. The wind is wider at one end of the bobbin and tapers down towards the other - asymmetrical from bass to treble. I don't have a pickup that's exactly the same except for that bobbin shape to do an apples to apples comparison, but I can say that the Elysian set I have is remarkably clear-sounding.

I think hearing any of this will also come down to the rig you're using. Some amps and pedals and so forth don't bring out the nuances or don't respond to them in the same way. My main head distorts in a really nice way when it gets hit with a high mid spike, so I tend to go for spikier pickups. Sometimes I will dial in an extra high mid boost with an EQ pedal or HX Effects if a guitar is almost there. I like brighter pickups in darker guitars. All of this pushes me into the asymmetrical/handwound/scatterwound camp more often than not.

that's the first time I heard about tuned aperture but I know exactly what you're saying because I had a pickup in the 90s that had copper bulging out at the low E side of the pickup and much less at the high E side.

that pickup died and became a fridge magnet and I had a replacement of the same pickup that was evenly wound and it was disappointing in comparison.

 

[ToneFiddler]

the bare knuckle humbuckers i am most familiar with are the RiffRaffs and they are wound "with a more symmetrical wind of 42 AWG plain enamel wire providing more focus in the upper-mids and brighter highs", which i think is marketing bull for matched coils.
That's a characteristic i noticed in most duncans i tried, too and really helps to cut through.
EQ wise this is not the most pretty tone to my ears, but those voiced PUs seem to be my favorite for playing.

I own the SD hybrid too, but i am clearly no expert on asymmetric PUs and don't know if they do something i like.
But the descriptions always sound good to me and i am kind of curious to try one.
But then, the slug and screw coil don't sound identical and don't pickup the signal at the same spot, so you have some asymmetric behaviour anyway.​

 

[Seashore]

the bare knuckle humbuckers i am most familiar with are the RiffRaffs and they are wound "with a more symmetrical wind of 42 AWG plain enamel wire providing more focus in the upper-mids and brighter highs", which i think is marketing bull for matched coils.
That's a characteristic i noticed in most duncans i tried, too and really helps to cut through.
EQ wise this is not the most pretty tone to my ears, but those voiced PUs seem to be my favorite for playing.

I own the SD hybrid too, but i am clearly no expert on asymmetric PUs and don't know if they do something i like.
But the descriptions always sound good to me and i am kind of curious to try one.
But then, the slug and screw coil don't sound identical and don't pickup the signal at the same spot, so you have some asymmetric behaviour anyway.​

In this case, "more symmetrical" means "closer to being symmetrical than some of our other more offset pickups". The owner has said the only two symmetrically matched humbuckers in their "standard" range (not signature models or Boot Camp) are the Aftermath and Blackhawk.

 

[ToneFiddler]

In this case, "more symmetrical" means "closer to being symmetrical than some of our other more offset pickups". The owner has said the only two symmetrically matched humbuckers in their "standard" range (not signature models or Boot Camp) are the Aftermath and Blackhawk.

yeah but the PUs they are based on, where likely symmetrical.
So we make a small offset that really doesn't matter, but we can still use it in the marketing to set us apart from other makers.
I wouldn't be surprised if that's whats going on with this PUs, but that's just wild speculation on my part.

I have no reason to doubt you, though. Good to know.
I know the Black Hawks, too.
I seems to pick the more symmetrical/symmetrical ones, although the sample size is too small.
​

 

[marcello252]

I have an unused tonerider set in a drawer, that idea of mixing the coil from both the pickup it's intersting, got to try it