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Al Watsky
February 13th, 2010, 11:00 PM
40946
I bought a Duncan Antiquity from a member of the forum sometime last year. I had always wanted to try a Mini in the neck of a Tele. Seemed logical, and it is. The mini works well and seems to split the difference between a stock single coil with metal cover and a full sized humbucker.
I've had plenty of experience with mini hums and although I knew they "worked" I wasn't "thrilled" or anything. More curious than totally hopeful.
In context I have always seen them installed on Gibson's or other Gibson products. They used this bobbin and magnet with and with out pole adjustment in lots of product. Very clever really. ( Cool but limited for most applications, but interesting in their own way.)
So, I buy this thing , I have to do something and finally I parted together the guitar you see above.( Its Fender timber, goto tuners, the usual CTS and Carling electro bits , stock fender plastic and control plate/knobs. I had decided to use a Lawrence TL48 in the bridge. (a pick up that I find I like alot.)
I weighed the Mini in at 4oz.
Installed it and found myself charmed. It was just like a pickup in a Casino.
It was everything the old pickups were, EXCEPT noisy. A very quiet pickup .
I think Duncan is doing something right. The only "problem" I had with it was that it was SUPER microphonic. Lots of handling noise. (I half expected that ) Which honestly is what I remembered about these things. There's a lot of air in them, no potting and a non-waxed cover. Interesting.
First thing I did after I decided to work with the pickup was to wax the cover in. I took the cover off and paraffin waxed the cover on then re-soldered it.
In the process of doing this wax job on the cover I discovered that the coils were backed 1/32 away from the cover, in other words there was a 1/32 gap between the top of the 2 coils and cover with the pole screws extended to be about flush with the cover. I decided to wax the coils flush with the inside surface of the cover to damp it , which is a typical procedure.
When I reassembled the pick up I still had a very microphonic set of coils on my hands,only slightly improved by damping that cover, you could almost talk through the thing. Still to much micro for high gain, so I went "nuts" and fully Potted it.
It sounds dandy. This is a very good pickup. I liked it without the wax and for some applications like a semi-hollow where you want lots of "mystery", two of these might be just the ticket. Its fun that if you want to clean it up some, the typical paraffin/bees wax treatment has a very positive result. All in all a nice pickup and a fun Tele for this touring season.
Heres the question. Have any of you folks taken enough of these apart to know if Gibson or Duncan "always" set the coils 1/32 back from the cover, or if my pickup was just a random variable ? (I could call them, but they're closed. Its the weekend!)
Any body rip a few of these apart ? Aside from those Johnny Smiths ? Those I know are flush. The Plastic covered single coil models which use the same bobbin, are flush as well.
Any body tear down some epi's or LP Deluxe's back in the day?
Or perhaps one of you intrepid souls has taken down several of the Antiquities and we can compare notes.
Finally do any of you other folks fully pot these? I totally filled the PU with the wax by taping over the pole holes (with industrial strapping tape) before dipping and letting it cool with out any wax being lost. Its essentially encapsulated.
I gotta tell ya , a pal a mine in Austin saw the picture of this guitar and said," Yo, Watsky , they make that thing in girls sizes?" Guess he likes his Tele's stock.
Cheers to all the guitar geeks !
I bought a Duncan Antiquity from a member of the forum sometime last year. I had always wanted to try a Mini in the neck of a Tele. Seemed logical, and it is. The mini works well and seems to split the difference between a stock single coil with metal cover and a full sized humbucker.
I've had plenty of experience with mini hums and although I knew they "worked" I wasn't "thrilled" or anything. More curious than totally hopeful.
In context I have always seen them installed on Gibson's or other Gibson products. They used this bobbin and magnet with and with out pole adjustment in lots of product. Very clever really. ( Cool but limited for most applications, but interesting in their own way.)
So, I buy this thing , I have to do something and finally I parted together the guitar you see above.( Its Fender timber, goto tuners, the usual CTS and Carling electro bits , stock fender plastic and control plate/knobs. I had decided to use a Lawrence TL48 in the bridge. (a pick up that I find I like alot.)
I weighed the Mini in at 4oz.
Installed it and found myself charmed. It was just like a pickup in a Casino.
It was everything the old pickups were, EXCEPT noisy. A very quiet pickup .
I think Duncan is doing something right. The only "problem" I had with it was that it was SUPER microphonic. Lots of handling noise. (I half expected that ) Which honestly is what I remembered about these things. There's a lot of air in them, no potting and a non-waxed cover. Interesting.
First thing I did after I decided to work with the pickup was to wax the cover in. I took the cover off and paraffin waxed the cover on then re-soldered it.
In the process of doing this wax job on the cover I discovered that the coils were backed 1/32 away from the cover, in other words there was a 1/32 gap between the top of the 2 coils and cover with the pole screws extended to be about flush with the cover. I decided to wax the coils flush with the inside surface of the cover to damp it , which is a typical procedure.
When I reassembled the pick up I still had a very microphonic set of coils on my hands,only slightly improved by damping that cover, you could almost talk through the thing. Still to much micro for high gain, so I went "nuts" and fully Potted it.
It sounds dandy. This is a very good pickup. I liked it without the wax and for some applications like a semi-hollow where you want lots of "mystery", two of these might be just the ticket. Its fun that if you want to clean it up some, the typical paraffin/bees wax treatment has a very positive result. All in all a nice pickup and a fun Tele for this touring season.
Heres the question. Have any of you folks taken enough of these apart to know if Gibson or Duncan "always" set the coils 1/32 back from the cover, or if my pickup was just a random variable ? (I could call them, but they're closed. Its the weekend!)
Any body rip a few of these apart ? Aside from those Johnny Smiths ? Those I know are flush. The Plastic covered single coil models which use the same bobbin, are flush as well.
Any body tear down some epi's or LP Deluxe's back in the day?
Or perhaps one of you intrepid souls has taken down several of the Antiquities and we can compare notes.
Finally do any of you other folks fully pot these? I totally filled the PU with the wax by taping over the pole holes (with industrial strapping tape) before dipping and letting it cool with out any wax being lost. Its essentially encapsulated.
I gotta tell ya , a pal a mine in Austin saw the picture of this guitar and said," Yo, Watsky , they make that thing in girls sizes?" Guess he likes his Tele's stock.
Cheers to all the guitar geeks !