Blade pickups
- Thread starter Nsatke81
- Start date
idsnowdog
Imperator of Indignation
Blades have good string coverage which can help if your string spacing is an issue. Improved string coverage can also be a benefit if you play lead with wide vibrato and bends. The pick attack on blade pickups is sharper though which you may or may not like. You could get a blade humbucker that uses the same materials and wound to the same spec as a JB, but the blades will make it sound different because the magnetic field is different.
Aceman
I am your doctor of love!
Think of it like this:
Poles emanate a circular field around the pole. It goes up and down the string, and so far to the right and left. So it gets "more" of the string length, but not all of it as you bend the string in and out of the field right to left.
Blades give off a field that doesn't run as far up and down the string, but the cover the entire set of strings right to left, so good volume as the string moves right to left. But the slice of strings is more narrow.
That is by no means entirely correct - but you get the gist...
Poles emanate a circular field around the pole. It goes up and down the string, and so far to the right and left. So it gets "more" of the string length, but not all of it as you bend the string in and out of the field right to left.
Blades give off a field that doesn't run as far up and down the string, but the cover the entire set of strings right to left, so good volume as the string moves right to left. But the slice of strings is more narrow.
That is by no means entirely correct - but you get the gist...
eclecticsynergy
New member
Exactly, a more focused magnetic field, giving a brighter, tighter sound.
This was Joe Naylor's logic for using blades under the wound strings when he designed Railhammers.
This was Joe Naylor's logic for using blades under the wound strings when he designed Railhammers.
Although, the string balance argument doesn't really work on a pickup like a JB because it is so powerful. A string can miss the pole completely and still be plenty loud. So while a JB with blades will likely sound different, it isn't string balance you are hearing.
freefrog
Well-known member
+1 about the more focused mag field with blades.
Containing a higher amount of magnetically sensitive materials, pickups with poles should also generate more inductance and more Eddy currents. That's what potenitally makes them a smidge darker and less edgy than the same coils and mag + blades...
Containing a higher amount of magnetically sensitive materials, pickups with poles should also generate more inductance and more Eddy currents. That's what potenitally makes them a smidge darker and less edgy than the same coils and mag + blades...
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