Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: syr2012 on February 21, 2009, 11:52:08 PM
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My next project has me purchasing a fender tele with two humbuckers wired for a coil split (I'm a bit of a fender/squier junkie, they just feel right to me, even some of the squiers). I was going to take the MQ out of my strat and put it in the tele, but I don't really like dealing with braids that much, I like the MQ where it is, and it does seem like a bit of a waste of a coil split. Humbucker-wise, I'm only somewhat knowledgeable of the Nailbomb. I won't be undertaking this project for a few months, so I have some time to make an informed decision. Since humbuckers are two coils, I was wondering if it were possible to do something crazy like have one coil wound hotter than the other. I'm looking for something a bit hot and fat which will clean up nicely and even retain some bite when split. Is the Nailbomb (possibly 1-2k hotter) the right choice?
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nailbombs (standard ones, i mean) DO clean up amazingly well and DO retain bite even when split... if you ask Tim i'm sure he will have no problem to wind asymmetrically your coils, or to tell you there's no need to do it!
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AFAIK the Nailbomb is already asymmetrically wound.
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I'm thinking that there will be a change of plans. Instead of buying a new guitar, I'll probably just order a birdseye maple neck with ebony fretboard and stainless steel frets, a swamp ash body, have everything routed out and just install electronics myself. I might put a sustainer at the neck, so would a nailbomb at the bridge keep that bite and crunch, even when split (maybe wound a little hotter), or should I look for something else?
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i don't know if they work well in your guitar, but if you want a thick and crunchy coil split sound you should consider a warpig too... they're surprisingly good for blues, when split...
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Hmm, a warpig sounds nice, no matter what I get I'm firm on wanting a chrome cover with allen bolts, how do the bolts affect the sound, if at all?
I'm also thinking of a pig-90, with a coil tap. If I get a sustainer, the bridge will have to work well on its own, and I'm positive that a pig-90 could crunch and bite and burn... :twisted:
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Hmm, a warpig sounds nice, no matter what I get I'm firm on wanting a chrome cover with allen bolts, how do the bolts affect the sound, if at all?
I'm also thinking of a pig-90, with a coil tap. If I get a sustainer, the bridge will have to work well on its own, and I'm positive that a pig-90 could crunch and bite and burn... :twisted:
i just got mine in neck and YES, it definitely does!
but pig90 is a single coil, you can't split it!
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But it can be tapped, achieving a similar effect.
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how, exactly?
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how, exactly?
When you "tap" the single coil it shortens the coil, giving the effect of less winds. Didnt have any use for it on my pig90 though, could be because of incorrect wiring, but a tech did it. Thought the tap was to far along the coil so that the volume dropped to much.
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it sounds like a risky business...
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When you "tap" the single coil it shortens the coil, giving the effect of less winds. Didnt have any use for it on my pig90 though, could be because of incorrect wiring, but a tech did it. Thought the tap was to far along the coil so that the volume dropped to much.
Perhaps he took the wrong end of the tap? In mine the volume doesn't really drop that much at all but the sound cleans up.
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When you "tap" the single coil it shortens the coil, giving the effect of less winds. Didnt have any use for it on my pig90 though, could be because of incorrect wiring, but a tech did it. Thought the tap was to far along the coil so that the volume dropped to much.
Perhaps he took the wrong end of the tap? In mine the volume doesn't really drop that much at all but the sound cleans up.
Depends on how much distortion i have already. Sigh, cant be arsed, im selling that guitar anyway.
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it sounds like a risky business...
Well, with Tim doing the tap, I trust that everything would go smoothly. For some reason (maybe the :twisted: :twisted: within me), I'm interested in knowing about what a nailbomb would sound like wound to 17 or 18k instead of 16. I'll be using 1 meg volume pots and probably 500k push-pull tone pots (if I could find 1 meg, I'd work with those). I want allen bolts instead of screws (it would look cooler, plus keep me from screwing with 'em while I'm bored). How would bolts affect the sound?
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Just wondering... would it be possible to get a nailbomb with two sets of screw poles instead of one screw and one slug? How would that affect the sound? Would I be able to get it with allen bolts instead of screws?
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Just wondering... would it be possible to get a nailbomb with two sets of screw poles instead of one screw and one slug? How would that affect the sound? Would I be able to get it with allen bolts instead of screws?
MDV has got pickups with twin screwpole rows, and he says that this definitely enhances the bass. i've never tried. you can also have allen bolts or cap heads... just ask. it will take almost a month or so because they'll have to make your pickups from scratch...
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A month... well, the body and neck will probably take that long, so that couldn't hurt. Do allen bolts affect the sound, or are they purely aesthetic?
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they affect the sound, even if i'm not sure of how and how much they do... if i didn't get it wrong they should add a bit of presence, but you'd better ask Tim about it... he usually replies in few hours
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Dheim speaks the truth.
I use double screw or allen as my default bridge config. It increases the bass, all things being equal, maybe 15% or so, as a hand-waving guess. The biggest thing is you can use the relative height of the neckwards and bridgewards coils as a clumsy EQ - neckwards coils higher, more bass, and vice versa.
Allen poles give less dispersal of the magnetic field and so direct it more strongly at the string = slightly more focussed tone and more attack, itsy bit more high end.
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AFAIK the Nailbomb is already asymmetrically wound.
All BKs are. Its just a question of how much!
Tim is quite scornfull of perfectly symmetric humbuckers.
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BTW, has anyone experimented with overwound Nailbombs, or do they just go for Warpigs? I'm wondering what those would sound like, since I kinda have this thing about aiming for sounds that nobody has tried before. Any ideas?