Re: Forum design pre-revote discussion (Zebro construction update)
The major difference between the Zebro and the 3+3 was that the coils were supposed to half sized like the G&L Comanche, so I'll ask of anyone who knows, what is the difference in tone between a 3+3 and a G&L Comanche?
The Wide Range Humbucker isn't really comparable because it has 12 pole pieces, magnetic or otherwise, with the poles being forced under the cover, by design.
Also I agree that losing bending volume on the D and G is trivial, at least for me. I have to admit, I don't understand the technical reason for this, since as it gets further from one coil, it's getting closer to the other.
...why...more affected by the G bending than the already existing CS 3+3 pickups?
I've made pickups like this in the past, and I own a G&L Comanche.
First to address Drex's question, the reason SOME split coil pickups can have dropout in the center is because the magnetic circuit is such that between the two coils there's a magnetic void. I'm not using void as a technical term because there is magnetism there, there is flux, but the way that flux drives audio into the coils makes for a section in the center where a lot of information is out of phase with other, competing information. And this is most certainly the case with side-by-side hum cancelling single coils. Fralin's split single attempts to deal with it by smearing the flux around and manipulating the return path:
http://www.fralinpickups.com/images/splitBlade2_big.jpg Even Fralin doesn't 100% get rid of the issue.
I hope I'm explaining it well enough. It's not a volume drop out like when you're between two pole pieces on a Strat. It's a "phase out" and entirely due to the fact that you have a north magnet on the G, and a south magnet on the D, (or vice versa) and when you have smaller 3x3 coils, the edge of the coil takes input from the flux of both magnets.
So one thing that helps the situation is to offset the coils, like Z-coils or Fralin's P92:
http://www.fralinpickups.com/images/p92_nickel_100.jpg Offsetting the coils brings the magnetic field further apart, but also the harmonic content of the string is different when one coil is sensing just a few mm's behind the other, so there's less phase cancellation in the audio. The G&L's use a different magnetic circuit, where there's a large ceramic on the bottom of the coil.
If the Custom Shop is having trouble with phase-out between the two coils it just means they haven't got the coil geometry and the magnetic circuit right. You could lay one full sized humbucker magnet down between the two coils, and just flank it with two half-sized ceramics on the outside of each coil and it would work. The field's return paths would guide the flux to the right places. It absolutely can be done. I mean, if any of you wanted to perform a poor-man's test to see what I'm talking about, you could take something like a Full Shred or Screamin Demon and pull out 3x3 poles. It shouldn't really phase out in the center when you bend.
