Lipstick Tube Musings

[idsnowdog]

I was thinking this morning that if someone built a lipstick tube pickup with a neodymium magnet instead of a ceramic or alnico you could build a stronger pickup. If the Neodymium bar was half the thickness of a standard ceramic or alnico, you could use more turns of wire increasing resistance and output. You also wouldn't need to put the pickup so close to the strings. You could also wind it on a bobbin instead of directly on the magnet and improve potting at the same time.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Lipstick Tube Musings

If you employ some form of bobbin to support the coil, you then need to find space inside the metal cover for the bar magnet.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Lipstick Tube Musings

If you employ some form of bobbin to support the coil, you then need to find space inside the metal cover for the bar magnet.

I would have the magnet in the middle of a plastic bobbin with bottom and top lips. The lips would fit inside the case and suspend the pickup in the center of the case.

 

[jolasa]

Re: Lipstick Tube Musings

So in the picture above the N end of the magnet is one end, the S end is the other end of the magnet (say left and right respectively)?

JonS

 

[jolasa]

Re: Lipstick Tube Musings

So in the picture above the N end of the magnet is one end, the S end is the other end of the magnet (say left and right respectively)?

JonS

You just told me in another post that the top is N, bottom south (diametricaly magnetized, as opposed to axially magnetized left and right in the picture).

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Lipstick Tube Musings

Yeah, mr always-has-a-hot-chick-for-an-avatar! :lol:

At any rate, I was under the impression that N-D mags are far more powerful than standard/pickup mags, so "half as thick" would still seem to me to be a bit strong. I'd think maybe the diameter of a polepiece would do the trick? Even then, that would leave a nice bit of room for a bobbin and coil. You could easily reach Distortion-class.

How about 1/8" thick N-D "dots" stuck under standard metal pole pieces? Obviously that would be more for a non-lipstick, though.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Lipstick Tube Musings

You just told me in another post that the top is N, bottom south (diametricaly magnetized, as opposed to axially magnetized left and right in the picture).

The diagram below is looking at the pickups end on. The strings have to pass over at least one of the magnetic poles. The movement of the string over the poles creates a charge in the coil. Most single coils have magnets with vertical magnetic axis while P90's and humbuckers have horizontal axis where screws or studs change the sensing window from horizontal to vertical. If the poles on the magnet were on the ends of the pickup only the E strings would be sensed.