Un-air-ing an Air Norton

zakk_speed

zakk_speed

New member
I need a standard spaced bridge pickup and I have this homeless Air Norton lying around - I hear great things about the standard Norton so I want to un- air (suffocate!?!) it.

I opened it up and I see the spacers for the air mod, however the bottom of the slug coils has been designed with a smaller diameter to leave room for the spacers, so even when I take them out the gap remains - I'd thought of using a nail or some other kind of metal to bridge the gap, but then I though I'd ask you folks first in case theres a more elegant solution.

Any ideas?
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

Just buy some replacement screws without the taper. A few people sell these. You can even ask DiMarzio, they should be able to provide them for a few bucks.
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

Good point although I'm not sure the bobbin will accomodate standard slugs - if it does that'll work as I've lots of those kicking around in oem pickups. I'd normally just go for the stewmac solution, but a) I'm in Canada, so postage is expensive, and b) we have no postal service at all right now, so I dont fancy waiting a month.

I'll let you know how it progresses.
 
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Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

See if you can find some metal the size of the plastic spacers. Maybe a machine shop. Or, scoot the magnet all the way over to one coil and see how that sounds. ;)
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

WGTP said:
See if you can find some metal the size of the plastic spacers. Maybe a machine shop. Or, scoot the magnet all the way over to one coil and see how that sounds. ;)
Click to expand...

This is actually what I meant. They have the metal parts there iirc
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

Make sure they conduct magnetism. The more the better. ;)
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

I though some pictures might help - This is an air norton before, note plastic spacers.

air-norton-b4.jpg


I used an old Ibanez V6 pickup as a donor for new slugs and was also able to modify the keeper bar for the screws to fit (it was f-spaced so i just widened all the holes). I used the outside spacers from the other pickup too. Heres it finished, with the air mod slugs and spacers in front

norton-after.jpg


Off to work now, will wire it into the guitar later on. Thanks to all for the great suggestions, much better than just sticking a nail in there :)
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

you can get some drill rod at your local "tractor supply" store. It comes in various diameters and lengths and is reasonably priced.
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

:clap: great. I was wondering myself about the pole pieces with different diameters. Now I get it. thanks for the pitures.
looking forward to hear about the differences before/after the mod.
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

zakk_speed said:
I used an old Ibanez V6 pickup as a donor for new slugs
Click to expand...
Good, but be aware that the alloy of the slugs will change the tone of the pickup. There is little chance the V6 has the same slug alloy as Dimarzio. Screw alloy makes a big difference as well, though you've kept Dimarzio's screws in this case. But as an example if you pull Dimarzio's screws and hold them in your hand, they're lighter than Seymour Duncan's and make a different "clink" sound when bouncing into one another.
zakk_speed said:
was also able to modify the keeper bar for the screws to fit (it was f-spaced so i just widened all the holes)
Click to expand...
We've conducted listening tests and we are able to hear a difference between spacers that have tightly drilled holes and looser ones (by just a few thousandths!) Dimarzios holes in their keeper bars are not very tight, but they are tighter than your widened ones.

I say both of these things just to say you do not technically have a "Norton" because you have material and dimensional differences. In other words, its not a fair audition for a Norton. If you bought a new one you might like it more.
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

Thanks for responding Frank, educational as always - I was wondering about how the new parts would affect it, but as usual with any amateur meddler I dont have enough of a sample base to make true comparisons. Fact is I've had this darn pickup in every guitar I own and liked it nowhere, and its been on ebay twice and not sold... so with our current postal stoppage curtailing my other projects I reckoned it was worth a crack....and I have to say I'm pleased with the results.

Output wise it seems to be in the custom ballbark i.e. not as hot as the JB I had in this guitar before. For this one I wanted a medium output rock/blues tone. I'd tried stock JB, JBUOA5 and JB2 but none of them quite got there and the stock air norton was too thin - my mutant suffocated air norton (not-norton?) is hitting the mark with a nice growly medium output tone, and pairs well with the smooth 59A4 in the neck.

One screw up I did make is the magnet was the wrong way around in the photos above, as it was out of phase with the neck so I had to flip it round...and the matt dmz bobbins are never my thing, so I might have to slap a cover on it

Anyways heres the finished article, in my little s-classic. The extra bits I used actually came from the original V6 neck pickup in this one.

dd.jpg
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

Applause here also. Always liked the s-classic.... Wished i picked one up when they were made years ago.
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

I did the Air Norton de air mod but left the slug coil aired. It sounds a bit clearer and I use it in the neck.
 
Re: Un-air-ing an Air Norton

Thanks guys - I'm pleased with how it worked out, its a 12K bridge pickup with a nice crunchy tone, and there are lots of cheap used air nortons out there.

jmcorey said:
Always liked the s-classic.... Wished i picked one up when they were made years ago.
Click to expand...

Keep an eye out on CL and the bay - I picked this one up for $180 a while back, these are real sleepers as you can get MIJ quality for not much cash.
 
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