Hey Lew! (One 'mo time.)

[Artie]

Sorry. I know I've asked a variation of this question once before, and I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but your comments in this thread got me to thinking. (Again.)

You have a Strat with a 59TB, and one with a PG/59TB. Does that little magnetic pull of the PG make you think twice before you decide which of those two to pick up? (Relative to just turning off the PG in one.)

I just think this is an interesting issue. If you don't mind elaborating.
Take your time.

Artie

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Hey Lew! (One 'mo time.)

Hi Artie, I don't think having a neck humbucker affects the tone nearly to the degree that having a neck Strat or Tele style single coil does. The magnetic pull on the strings seems to be alot less with a humbucker, probably because the actual magnet is underneath the pickup coils in a humbucker. With a single coil the wire is wrapped around the 6 magnetic pole pieces and it's a very differant design...also the reason a single coil Strat or Tele pickup sounds the way it does and why when we split a humbucker into a single coil it doesn't really sound like a Strat or Tele single coil. Anyways, a neck Strat pickup has the poles of the magnetic polepieces just 1/8" or so away from the underside of the strings and that pulls them just a little out of tune and prevents the string from vibrating as freely and evenly as it would if that pickup wasn't there. But I don't notice a neck humbucker having anywhere near as dramatic effect on the strings as a Strat or Tele neck single coil has.

Lew

 

[Artie]

Re: Hey Lew! (One 'mo time.)

Ok. To veer away from the technical side, and more towards the aesthetic side . . . how do you decide which of those two guitars to pickup?

(I know . . . dumb question.) Nosey minds want to know.

Artie

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Hey Lew! (One 'mo time.)

It was an easy decision: one Strat was routed for just a bridge humbucker and the other one was already routed for two! My humbucker Strats are both 80's MIJ Fender Squires...great guitars and I paid less than $200 each for them. Lew

 

[Artie]

Re: Hey Lew! (One 'mo time.)

I didn't mean "pick up" as in "buy", I meant . . . when you're sitting there looking at them, and you want to play . . . how do you decide which to "pick up"?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Hey Lew! (One 'mo time.)

I didn't mean "pick up" as in "buy", I meant . . . when you're sitting there looking at them, and you want to play . . . how do you decide which to "pick up"?

I didn't think you meant "buy" either but I did think you were asking me to explain how I decided on which guitar to make a single pickup guitar and the other a dual pickup guitar! (LOL!) So you're asking how do I decide which one I want to pick up and play???

Boy...it's one of things where if you have to ask, I can't tell ya! :9:

Actually, when I want to rock out a little on a Strat with a humbucker I play my single pickup Strat. It just sounds and plays better than my other one.

The other Strat with two humbuckers I bought as a test guitar to try humbuckers in and just liked the PGn/59tb combo I put in it when I first got it so much that I haven't bothered to change them. But when I do change them, I'm going to try Alnico 2 Pros just so I have a little more experience with them.

 

[Artie]

Re: Hey Lew! (One 'mo time.)

Cool. Believe it or not, that was exactly what I was wondering.
It's the same thing I go through when trying to decide which of mine to pick up. Good to know it's "mojo", more than science.

Artie