What are the common baseplate materials?

[Blobby]

Brass (usually Dimarzio)

Nickle (usually Duncan)

Some use plastics, right?

What are the black ones found in pickups like the Black Winter? Other than a cool looking and matching aesthetic lol.

And can any tone generalizations be made between them? Brass, a bit darker? Nickle, a bit brighter?

 

[hamerfan]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

Brass (usually Dimarzio)

Nickle (usually Duncan)

Some use plastics, right?

What are the black ones found in pickups like the Black Winter? Other than a cool looking and matching aesthetic lol.

And can any tone generalizations be made between them? Brass, a bit darker? Nickle, a bit brighter?

Yep!

Want real bright, try stainless steel.

 

[Blobby]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

Yep!

Want real bright, try stainless steel.

Ah cool!

For the practical use here, I finally tried a Tone Zone...a bit dark, but no surprise. I'm going to tinker, and baseplate is one mod I've heard of. I'm going to look into the "air" mods as well, but one at a time.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

FYI...the half-air mod is easier than fully swapping baseplates

SD's black baseplates, like the ones found on the Black Winter, are just powdercoated standard SD nickel-silver baseplates. Nothing special.

Some pickups out there, like the post-'90s Tom Anderson stuff, use a vulcanized fiber board (LINK)

 

[Masta' C]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

Yep!

Want real bright, try stainless steel.

Let's be clear...baseplate material has only a very mild affect on a pickup's tone.

Also, any non-ferromagnetic material, such as aluminum, fiber board, etc., will have the same effect as a proper stainless steel, reducing eddy currents and raising (slightly) the resonant peak, making it a bit "brighter". One isn't brighter than the other, because the magnetic properties are virtually identical between these materials.

Additionally, brass and nickel-silver are actually VERY close in composition (nickel-silver essentially being brass with nickel added) and, therefore, have similar ferromagnetic properties, though not exact. It's true that nickel-silver seems to have slightly more "transparent" qualities in real-world testing, but, when discussing the use of either in a thin humbucker baseplate, you're practically splitting hairs.

 

[freefrog]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

"A few" tests have been done here with BP materials but I lack of time to publish once again an excerpt of my archives.

So, I'll just share this link about some other experiments done by someone else: his conclusions converge with what have been found here.

https://alexkenis.wordpress.com/201...e-material-effect-on-self-resonant-frequency/

 

[Francois]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

Baseplate goes to ground... right ?
No need to spend time trying swapping this.
Better work your fingers and your feeling when you play.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

So, I'll just share this link about some other experiments done by someone else: his conclusions converge with what have been found here.

https://alexkenis.wordpress.com/201...e-material-effect-on-self-resonant-frequency/

From his summary: "The two materials closest to the control were Nickel-silver and Brass"

Exactly my point...unless you're tossing a thick copper or mild steel plate under your bobbins, the baseplate material makes a minimal, virtually indiscernible difference on a pickup's tone.

When we're talking humbuckers with typical baseplates, it's energy spent in the wrong area when it comes to tweaking the tone.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

From his summary: "The two materials closest to the control were Nickel-silver and Brass"

Exactly my point...unless you're tossing a thick copper or mild steel plate under your bobbins, the baseplate material makes a minimal, virtually indiscernible difference on a pickup's tone.

When we're talking humbuckers with typical baseplates, it's energy spent in the wrong area when it comes to tweaking the tone.

I have swapped the baseplates on humbuckers and while the difference may not be as pronounced as a magnet change there is a difference. I have an Entwhistle HDN that's very bright and hard and a switch from nickel silver to brass warmed the sound up, beefed up the midrange and rounded off the treble. I also put a nickel silver baseplate on a Dimarzio Super distortion and it sharpened the highs, attenuated the midrange and tightened the bass. I have also added a brass baseplate to strat pickups for some Tele like chunkiness. I have a copper baseplate on an SSL-5 for a new project to see how that works.

 

[freefrog]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

Baseplate goes to ground... right ?
No need to spend time trying swapping this.
Better work your fingers and your feeling when you play.

FWIW, I needed a 24 frets guitar for a recent series of concerts. My bandmate has played his Vigier. I’ve used a spare axe bought by the band: a cheapo Cort X6 with its cheapo stock PU's. No problem of fingers or feeling with this ostensibly crappy axe : conversely, I was pleased to make it sound to my liking despite of its low price.

Now, it’s not a big deal nor a crime to tinker with guitar parts… Steve Morse or EVH did it all the time, with more or less success, but without harming their feeling and talent, IMHO.

From his summary: "The two materials closest to the control were Nickel-silver and Brass"

Exactly my point...unless you're tossing a thick copper or mild steel plate under your bobbins, the baseplate material makes a minimal, virtually indiscernible difference on a pickup's tone.

When we're talking humbuckers with typical baseplates, it's energy spent in the wrong area when it comes to tweaking the tone.

The link was not meant to refutate your previous statements: it was a delayed answer to the OP.

I agree about the difference as minimal. I'd still qualify it as discernible personally. Not to split hair: simply because it's an honest sum up of some tests done here. But it's true that resonant peaks are not the best way to show where it has a subtle influence on tone. Maybe I'll try to share a few other "slices of archived data" when I'll have more free time to do it.

 

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

Some use plastics, right?

Swineshead pickups (handwound pickups from the UK, not on the market anymore) used plastic ones, it was their biggest disadvantage if you ask me, of course it breaks pretty easy and I was not too crazy putting metal screws into it because of that. Otherwise those were really good pickups, but the fact that the baseplates were made out of plastic was a bummer.

 

[Masta' C]

Re: What are the common baseplate materials?

The link was not meant to refutate your previous statements: it was a delayed answer to the OP.

I agree about the difference as minimal. I'd still qualify it as discernible personally. Not to split hair: simply because it's an honest sum up of some tests done here. But it's true that resonant peaks are not the best way to show where it has a subtle influence on tone. Maybe I'll try to share a few other "slices of archived data" when I'll have more free time to do it.

Oh, I didn't take it that way. I was just using what you posted to reiterate what I was suggesting, I didn't think you were in disagreement by posting that

These are interesting topics for sure. If you have other cool stuff in your "archive", definitely share!

:beerchug: