Wood Mounted vs. Pickguard Mounted Pickups

[Diminished Triad]

Re: Wood Mounted vs. Pickguard Mounted Pickups

I invented a better way.

I use a direct mounted humbucker baseplate and modded screws for direct mounting pups. No need to stuff up pickup threads and the way i do it you can adjust it up and down like normal.

As for tone i don't think it does **** but it does look cool.

You can see the plate its mounted to in this picture


modded screw



If direct mounting is about getting vibration then with my idea you could ''if you wanted'' tap in 12 screws into the wood through the baseplate instead of just 2 and surly the added metal in the 2nd baseplate would do something? haha i am causing trouble.

I don't care what anyone says that ^^ is a ****ing smart idea.:nana:

Not bad idea! I think it's more likely than not there is a difference created by mounting directly to the wood/base of the guitar......which wood and how much difference will remaain as much a variable as flat mounted bridges versus those like 2tek, etc. If everything else seems to create a tiny change in tone, I think the jury still out on this one but there is more than a 50 percent chance this is just another addition to the end sound.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Wood Mounted vs. Pickguard Mounted Pickups

Has Seymour Duncan ever taken a position on the two related questions:
1. Is there a different sound/tone produced by wood and pickguard mounted pickups? and
2. Does the selection of wood for the guitar cause a different sound/tone from the pups, all other things being the same?

The related topics do cause strong emotions, and with relatively little empirical evidence supporting the various positions seems similar to debates on religion where there is always going to exist some evidence and lots of good arguments - but they remain just that.....an argument....or arguments. One day I will see if I can create a set-up to determine an answer....not sure if "the" answer but at least some first hand video taped results. Thanks for all that have contributed and given your opinions. Lots of good answers here.

It really matters little whether Seymour has or hasn't made any definitive call on it. The physics of it can be proved with or without anyone's belief or not. And the simple matter of being a pickup winder or guitar maker or roadie or guitar player etc doesn't mean suddenly all of your opinions are correct - anyone can be as wrong as the next man/woman/child.

Empirical evidence is variable.....it is impossible to find a baseline for 'does wood affect tone'. As there is no way of creating a string that can have tension without a structure to allow it to have that tension, it all becomes a test of relativity. Wood is variable, and the nature of playing is variable too. Often technique changes can either mask or highlight something that might or might not be present.

Thankfully physics steps in with the theory and allows us to get an answer without the need for 'flawed' testing. The answer - anything that is involved with the structure of the guitar which allows the string to hold tension will be inter-related when you introduce extra energy into the system. So plucking a string will mean energy is passed between all connected surfaces - with losses based on the interfaces and the structure of the item itself. Additionally the continual transfers between all items will continue based on the nature of the energy and its phase and amplitude.
The long and the short of it is that anything that is part of a physical based energy system on the guitar (wood, strings, hardware) will affect each other. Hence wood and the structure of the hardware will affect the way the strings vibrate due to the mechanical coupling and the way the structure of the wood is critical to the strings' ability to be tensioned to pitch.

Once you get out of the physical into the electromagnetic side then all things physical cease to matter. The direct mount pickup bit is on the cusp, but as others have already shown, any tiny movement in a pickup from wood vibration is far away from a legit tonal change.....unless there was something inherently poor in the initial mounting. However its pretty much 100% likely that the change that anyone has experienced is more likely from a different height or a different pickup angle.