NEW PICKUP IDEA!

[BluesOwl]

I play blues and almost exclusively use the neck pick up.
Currently a S.D. 5 2 with the cover taken off.
But the wound strings can be mushy sounding....not a crsip enough attack.
It's a real problem with a pseudo-Baritone (subsonic-type) Tele I have (11-64 strings tuned four half steps down to "C")

I like the sound of the bridge pickup with regards to the wound strings.
And I like the neck pup with regards to the plain strings.

So here's my idea:
Have some pickups made where the bridge pup only senses the wound strings and run it in series with a neck pup that only senses the plain strings.
Option:
1) make 2- three mag pole pups....half pups. same # of windings but half as much wire, i.e., half as big/wide as reg. pups
or
2) make two full size pups with three poles each that are not magnetized. (Fralin suggested this route 'cuz if'n it doesn't work, he can magnetize the remaining slugs and I'm left with a useable set of Tele pups)

Option 1 should equal one full pup (when the two are hooked in series) but a half-size, three-slug pup may not sound like a usual 6 slug pup, even when hooked to another half-size pup

Option two provides for two pups with the usual amount of wire in the windings, but hooking them together in series may result in high output, like a humbucker. I like a darker sound, so this effect may work in my favor

Possible con:
strumming a chord may sound real weird.

Questions:
should the pups be split 3 and 3 or should the "d" string be put with the plain string pup, i.e., 4 and 2 slug pups?

Could discrepancies between the pups be minimized with judicious use of Alnico III vs Alnico V mags for either of the pups ? (I ref. Alnico III 'cuz I know Fralin has them available) I'm think Alnico III for the wound string pup and Alnico V for the plain string pup.

What do YOU ALL think?
I didn't patent the idea yet...so go for it!!!

[Mark Davis]

Look at Leo Fenders Z coil design on the G&L Commanche and ASAT Z3. He designed them so the bass part of the pickup is higher up than the treble part.

On the Commanche VI he added mini toggle switches that can turn off or on the treble side or the bass side of the pickup.

The other way you can make your Bari sound a little more clear on the wound strings is use steel saddles on whatever strings you want to have more clarity. Steel saddles gives a slightly more sharper more clear attack and tone than the brass ones do.

[BluesOwl]

Thanx MD.
Have seen the Z pups and saw they were backwards to what I wanted.
I have steel saddles on the baritone. Maybe I should put some brass ones on for the plain strings and just use the bridge pup.
For a long time I just used the bridge pup on Teles and all my efforts were to get the treble bite out. Including going to semi-flat GHS Nickel Rockers.
Then I got into a blues band and switched to primarily using the neck pup. Got mush with an Alnico II pro pup, swutched to a S.D. 5 2, took the cover off for more clarity, and finally switched back to round wound GHS Boomers.
Now I want to try the subject idea.
Fralin said I should try it out on a guitar with 2 P90s (I have a suitable ES-137). He said I could achieve the desired effect by removing the appropriate screw type pole pieces....experiment with parallel vs series...etc...
Just not sure experimenting on a Gibson semi-hollow body would show me what would happen on a Tele.

[RJB]

You could pickup a Squier Tele Custom II.
2 P-90s mounted to a pickguard.

List for $229 @ MF. Or with GC's 30 day 100% refund ......

[chickenpicker]

A few years ago, I played in a duo - both of us on 6-string guitars, with a drum machine. The sound was quite thin, so I modified my guitar in the following way, and it made a huge difference:

The guitar had 2 humbuckers. I tapped them so I could switch to single coil if necessary.

Then on the neck pickup, I removed the 3 screws relating to the thinnest strings, wound the pickup down into the body, and wound the three remaining screws out to their proper height. In single coil mode, the output from this pickup came only from these strings.

Then I rewired the guitar so each pickup had its own output. I took the output from the neck pickup to a bass amp, and the bridge pickup to a guitar amp.

Then I played with an alternating thumb bassline. Many people watching us came to ask where the bass was coming from!