Stag Mag Trembucker Coil swap?

[pacho]

Hi mag swappers,

I just bought 1981 Ibanez Blazer in very nice shape. It came with 80's SD pickups - MGJ (Stag Mag) and JNJ (Jazz Neck). I absolutely love the neck pickup! It's perfect.
The bridge is also nice but there are some problems.
Since the Blazer has tremolo the magnet spacing in Stag Mag is too small. I know some say it doesn't really matter but I think in my case it does. For some reason the previous owner rotated the pickup a la Hendrix so the higher magnets are under H and high E strings. Suprisingly E A D strings are equal in output but the stagger makes G string sooooo loud and I can't hear high E string. The magnet is so far from this string. The radius on this guitar is 12 inches.
I could just buy a different humbucker but I need true single coil and I like Stag Mag concept. My idea is to buy a trembucker, install rod magnets from my Stag Mag and remove bar magnet. I would rearrange the stagger to make output more equal.
I read on this forum, that Stag Mag has JB coils. It would be easiest to buy a JB trembucker but it is tempting to explore some new areas
Do you think some different pickups could work? I was thinking bout 59/Custom Hybrid. How would it sound with A2 rods? For split tones I would use higher output Custom Coil.

Michał

 

[Mincer]

Re: Stag Mag Trembucker Coil swap?

Could you just flip the pickup back? You could get another pickup but nothing else sounds quite like the Stag Mag, since it is really 2 single coils in series. No other humbucker splits to a more single coil tone. In a Stag Mag, the rods are the magnets (like a true single coil), and in a regular humbucker, they are directing the magnetic field from a magnet below the coils. The construction is completely different. So while you can get another pickup, you really can't modify it to sound like a Stag Mag, and while it will sound good as is, it won't sound like it does now. You could, however, order a Stag Mag with any stagger you want from the Custom Shop (and have a Trembucker version). Cool guitar!

 

[pacho]

Re: Stag Mag Trembucker Coil swap?

I'll flip it back first but I don't think it will improve things much. The high E magnet will be even lower... Ordering from Custom Shop seems PITA since I'm in Poland. It would be much cheaper to buy trembucker here. I know Stag Mag uses rod magnets. That's what I wrote. As far as I'm concerned the bobbins are the same as in regular humbuckers. So why not buy trembucker and swap slugs for rod magnets and remove bar? If I go with JB I will simply get Stag Mag trembucker after the swap of magnets. Am I wrong?