Strat pickups with magnet on bottom

[Sam SG]

You know the el cheap generaly considered POS pickups.
Am I the only one thst thinks some of them dont sound bad?
Ive got a Squier Affinity strat from 2000 Ive seriously neglected its been case bound for 2yrs.Has flat poles and is 100% stock. Broke it out today at rehearsal and it really didnt sound bad at all( granted I didnt try positions 4 and 5)

 

[freefrog]

Some well known brands (DiMarzio, Fralin) offer a few models of single coils like that, so the recipe is valid.

But "steel poled" single coils are often their own thing: inert magnetic poles boost the inductance. Magnets underneath give a weaker magnetic field at the surface of these poles. Q factor of such PUs is lower than for pickups with rod magnets... So their sound is not reflected by their look.

I liked those in my Ibanez Blazer in the early 80's. Not traditional sounding but powerful and nice sounding.

Those that I've found later in a MIM Strat were just dull and uninspiring. Swapping them for 3 "normal" Duncan Strat PU's was clearly an improvement.

So, for me, "it depends"...

 

[marcello252]

Those that I've found later in a MIM Strat were just dull and uninspiring

this is the same feeling I got everytime I tried one , very dull compared to regular single coils with alnico poles, I think none could hear differences just listening to them, but you clearly feel this stiffness under the fingers playing

 

[ehdwuld]

I have an 09 Squire with the underneath magnets and an IYV with alnico poles

Had the Fesley with the Wilkinson singles with the underneath magnets

They all sounded alike

If i didn't tell you which had the pole magnets
You couldn't tell

 

[Mincer]

They might not sound 'bad', but I don't think they sound much like traditional singles.

 

[jeremy]

i think perspective has a lot to do with how we hear things. there are some good ceramic magnet strat pups out there. can i tell the difference? absolutely. im a strat guy for the most part, ill pick up on things that plenty of others might not notice. does it matter to the people in the audience, absolutely not.

 

[Sam SG]

They might not sound 'bad', but I don't think they sound much like traditional singles.

Yea Im not nessasily looking for traditional single coil sound.
I dont really play allot of strats anymore. I realized after years of playing strats that if I was chiseling( yes chiseling) the cavity out for bridge humbuckers that I should just play sonething else.
But I like the magnet bottom pups especially in bridge position, middle pup I could go either way traditionsl or cheapo..that said I have pair of older ones in a partscaster that sound dull and blanketed.

 

[playas]

I have a couple stock in my Hohner that are decent. I will change them over the next year most likely as they are nice but not amazing...they've lasted this long (37 years) though, while I've changed the bridge humbucker several times.

 

[freefrog]

I think none could hear differences just listening to them,

In the case that I mentioned, I could hear a noticeable difference, exactly proportional to the difference of inductance (twice higher with the stock steel poled / double ceramic bottom magnets single coils). It was clear to me that Fender had decided to mount "bad" stock pickups in MIM strats in order to maintain the desire for MIA models.

Anecdotically, hearing the difference is not that hard: find a single coil wound on a plastic bobbin. Try it with AlNi(Co) rods then with steel poles and some magnet(s) underneath. The experience should be instructive, unless your audiogram is impaired.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I used to have a DiMarzio SDS-1 that had a couple of small ceramic magnets glued to the bottom of the pickup.

It wasn't really to my liking, but most single coils normally aren't, admittedly. But my point is it's not necessarily a trait exclusive to cheapo pickups.

 

[Mincer]

Are you going after a specific sound or just trying to save money?

 

[marcello252]

In the case that I mentioned, I could hear a noticeable difference, exactly proportional to the difference of inductance (twice higher with the stock steel poled / double ceramic bottom magnets single coils). It was clear to me that Fender had decided to mount "bad" stock pickups in MIM strats in order to maintain the desire for MIA models.

Anecdotically, hearing the difference is not that hard: find a single coil wound on a plastic bobbin. Try it with AlNi(Co) rods then with steel poles and some magnet(s) underneath. The experience should be instructive, unless your audiogram is impaired.

I meant none of the audience, especially listening to yt videos, I hear big differences instead but the major difference is under the fingers

 

[freefrog]

I meant none of the audience, especially listening to yt videos, I hear big differences instead but the major difference is under the fingers

No worry, I had understood. ;-)

My joke was a generalization, not something for you.

 

[Chistopher]

I left the stock single coils in a Bullet Strat that I had because I was turning it into an art project. They weren't bad

 

[Juanhanglo]

Steel pole/bar magnet strat pickups dont have to be cheap or dull, and can sound really good.

Case in point:

Harmonic design vintage plus vs fralin or others' steel poles.

HDs are ~5k boutique ceramics. They are very loud and have a fuller bottom and mids, but never sound overwound. They are very clear too. You'd never know they were ceramic.

I think the fralins are more like 9 to 10k with A5s.

OP, if you like those Mexican fender ceramics, you should check out the HD V+.
They make an s90 (more like a p90) version too.


Their tele pickups are killer as well

 

[Chistopher]

In general I'm glad that the corksniffers are managing to take ceramic more seriously.

 

[ehdwuld]

In general I'm glad that the corksniffers are managing to take ceramic more seriously.

This is my conclusion as well

 

[freefrog]

Anecdotically, hearing the difference is not that hard: find a single coil wound on a plastic bobbin. Try it with AlNi(Co) rods then with steel poles and some magnet(s) underneath. The experience should be instructive, unless your audiogram is impaired.

To come back on topic : another interesting experiment is to put a generic ceramic bar vertically in the coil, instead of the steel poles, rather than under the PU. It's tonally / harmonically closer to the same single coil with AlNi(Co) rods, albeit it's (logically) a bit brighter and louder of 3 to 6dB...

Of course, it requires to modify a coil or to have a Melody Maker single coil at disposal... but it's a viable option.

I've an array of screenshots about such experiments somewhere in my way too crowded archives. I'll share more info on request.

 

[ehdwuld]

To come back on topic : another interesting experiment is to put a generic ceramic bar vertically in the coil, instead of the steel poles, rather than under the PU. It's tonally / harmonically closer to the same single coil with AlNi(Co) rods, albeit it's (logically) a bit brighter and louder of 3 to 6dB...

Of course, it requires to modify a coil or to have a Melody Maker single coil at disposal... but it's a viable option.

I've an array of screenshots about such experiments somewhere in my way too crowded archives. I'll share more info on request.

Isn't that what lipstick pickups are
Just a coils of wire around a magnet because of space constraints inside the lipstick tube?

 

[freefrog]

Isn't that what lipstick pickups are
Just a coils of wire around a magnet because of space constraints inside the lipstick tube?

It's what lipsticks are. Like a bunch of Rowe / DeArmond models... vintage correct Burns Tri-Sonic's are also based on bobbin-less coils wrapped in tape:

https://www.blackguitars.com/IMAGES/gallery/burns-white-sonic/early-burns-trisonic-2.jpg

But all can sound noticeably different because of variations in coil geometry, magnetic materials, measured LRC specs, Q factors and eddy currents.

EDIT- Just to be clear: vintage correct lipsticks are like Tri-Sonic's above. Many modern iterations of both models include coils wound around plastic bobbins. Vintage Rowe DeArmond that I know of were also wound around plastic bobbins from the start... and are another example of interesting "cheap" pickups with their rubber magnets (albeit a bit hit or miss: I like a Rowe DeArmond Diamond Foil, for instance... while a Gold Foil with poles like those mounted in Harmony H-75 guitars appears to me as really dulled by Foucault currents).