pickup modding?

the_SLOP_king

the_SLOP_king

New member
I've heard about this before, swapping magnets and whatnot out. I have a more 'radical' idea...

Suppose you have a humbucker you like alot and you were to 'stack' the coils on top of each other, theoretically, I think it would work. Has anyone tried this with any success? Of course, it would mean trashing a perfectly good pickup in the name of good tone. Maybe longer pole pieces and the same magnet would be used. I'd probably substitute screws instead of pole pieces. The pickup would be a Screamin Demon and I'm just really apprehensive about screwing it up. I know they make a lil demon for that reason, but I have been experimenting with pup construction alot lately and I was just curious.

Also, has anyone thought of 'stacking' two humbuckers on top of each other? That might work, too...
 
Re: pickup modding?

I've thought about it, it wouldn't cancel hum though, either one of the coils would be out of phase or they would be the same polarity. It might work as a bridge "single coil". Plus you'd have to figure out how to put magnets on, you could fit rare earth on the bottom (of each screw), but that will give you a COMPLETELY different sound from a stock Demon; if you could find CuNiFe screws you might be getting somewhere with the idea.
 
Re: pickup modding?

well, if you have thought of it, you can be sure that someone else has too, and if it worked, you could buy one.
The issue is, that if you stacked one coil on top of the other of a regular humbucking pickup, it wouldn't sound the same as if in regular configuration. The "spread" or the area that the pickup see's wouldn't be the same. It certainly wouldn't sound like it did in a side by side config.
You can buy stacked single coil pickups from just about everywhere.
 
Re: pickup modding?

Is this a pure experiment, or is there something specifically you think it will do better than other pickup out there?
 
Re: pickup modding?

i would like to see this:

imagine how you have a stacked single coil... the 2 coils are wound in the opposite direction to cancel hum... now put a rw/rp one as the other coil. Basically it'd look like this:

N S (screw coil)
S N (slug coil)

wouldn't having the opposite directions make it even more hum-cancelling than a normal pickup?

Jason
 
Re: pickup modding?

Mark Le Comte said:
Is this a pure experiment, or is there something specifically you think it will do better than other pickup out there?
Click to expand...



Purely experimental. They have guys with electrical engineering degrees designing pickups...I'm just some dumb kid with too much time on my hands...

I have some crappy coils I was going to experiment with to see if I could get anywhere with it.

Most of the 'stacked' single coils or the single coils with hum cancelling have the coils next to each other, so that the coils are running up and down instead of clockwise.

I dunno, I posted this at the GW forums and you guys had better answers. I'm beginning to think this through...maybe an extra coil just for hum canceling? But then I'd be delving into a realm of physics I cannot understand.

I think it would work, but I gotta work up a plan for it. Replacing the pole pieces with magnets might work, too...just not sure about it right now. I'm gonna see if I can get some of those other coils to work right before I deconstruct that Screamin Demon. I'm beginning to think the out of phase thing might be an issue to some extent. Thank you guys for your responses. I have some more direction and some more tests to run to see if this will actually work.
 
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Re: pickup modding?

so are you actually trying to accompish something here or are you just trying to invent a rounder wheel?

i mean either way it's cool i'm just wondering what the desired outcome is here.
 
Re: pickup modding?

Empty Pockets said:
so are you actually trying to accompish something here or are you just trying to invent a rounder wheel?

i mean either way it's cool i'm just wondering what the desired outcome is here.
Click to expand...

Experimentation for the sake of finding out what happens. This is a basic element of Science and Research.

And just because one person thought of it does not mean there's one for sale.


I say go for it.

:friday:
 
Re: pickup modding?

so let me see if im picking up what you are putting down. you take a normal gibson style humbucker, pull it apart and put one coil stacked on top of the other one. like a quarter laying on top of another quarter.

that in essence is what a stacked single coil is. you could do it with two full size bucker bobbins but the bottom bobbin wont pickup anywhere near as much of the string and youll need a pretty deep hole in the guitar
 
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