Dream factory - Utopian Pickups

[Madsakre]

If you could be the architecht on a new pickup. How would it be?

My wish would be a pickup which combined the attack of the painkiller, the warmth of the alnico warpig and bark of a cpig. It should not be as hot as the warpig either. Actually something in between the vintage hot and contemporary range.

I dont know much about how to acheive this, maybe you do :P

Post your dream here :)

[Loomer]

4 words:

Built-in strawberry milkshake dispenser.

All else is just gravy after that.

[JacksonRR]

1. A humbucker that is wound like those tapped singles you see some winders do. Would be especially useful in the neck position to be able to swap between a vintage and a modern wind.

2. A humbucker that uses magnets instead of pole pieces/slugs and a steel base plate. More punch, more bite and actually authentic split tones. You could also experiment with having one row of Alnicos and one row of ceramics. I could see a bridge one with a ceramic row near the bridge and a partially degaussed A8 row on the neck side being very nice for metal.

3. A combination of both of those ideas.

4. The learn to play better humbucker that yells at me and calls me inappropriate things whenever I obsess about gear instead of practice which will make the most difference in my satisfaction.

[BigB]

4. The learn to play better humbucker that yells at me and calls me inappropriate things whenever I obsess about gear instead of practice which will make the most difference in my satisfaction.

Muah ha ha ha ha ha  :mrgreen:

Now while I agree that I should spend more time practicing and less time worrying about gear, having the right tool for the task does help - I spent so many years  trying to get "that" tone from totally inappropriate gear  :?

[Kiichi]

So I am just gonna throw out some ideas here....utopian and crazy indeed.

1. a strongly asymetrical PU. Like a P90 with a little extra coil, cancelling hum and getting something unique to the sound.

2.  I got this idea where I have a humbucker with bigger distance between the coils and one is angled (kinda like the bridge + middle on strats, but closer).

3. The half vintage half contemporary humbucker idea is awesome.

4. A big construction where there is basecally a single coil arranged vertically under each string so it can pick up differen harmonic nodes. The single coils can be optimized for each seperat string and its nodes then.

5. A pickup that can be build into the fretboard of the guitar somehow on the 12th fret or so^^


Well that is off the top of my (mad) head.

[JacksonRR]

 :( Bah. Just found out James Hetfield has a custom EMG humbucker set with the individual mags instead of pole slugs/screws. Well, at least it works.....

edit: Ah, hehe. My mistake. Ceramic slugs, powered by bar mags.....

[Zaned]

So I am just gonna throw out some ideas here....utopian and crazy indeed.

1. a strongly asymetrical PU. Like a P90 with a little extra coil, cancelling hum and getting something unique to the sound.

2.  I got this idea where I have a humbucker with bigger distance between the coils and one is angled (kinda like the bridge + middle on strats, but closer).

3. The half vintage half contemporary humbucker idea is awesome.

4. A big construction where there is basecally a single coil arranged vertically under each string so it can pick up differen harmonic nodes. The single coils can be optimized for each seperat string and its nodes then.

5. A pickup that can be build into the fretboard of the guitar somehow on the 12th fret or so^^


Well that is off the top of my (mad) head.

1. Duncan has done SOMETHING like that, I believe. The 'P-Rails Hot SHPR-2' humbucker. Haven't heard one, so I don't know how well it works.

2. Maybe could be done with regular single coils? Strat + customized pickguard + some soldering + a couple of beers :)

3. Rebel Yell has this approach (IIRC), dunno if it could be taken further, like JacksonRR described..

4. This is an interesting idea! Would probably look funny though  :lol:

5. That's pretty much done, Uli Jon Roth and his Sky guitar.

-Zaned

[Alex]

I would like a lower output pickup, that boosts all frequencies. Kind of like a ToneZone, but less output and more clarity. I think it would be like a mix of the Black Dog and the VHII. Oh, and I want it to not compress or distort by itself like some high-output pickups do.

[Kiichi]

5. That's pretty much done, Uli Jon Roth and his Sky guitar.

-Zaned

Wow, you are right....just saw a video of that...cerainly gives me ideas for my dream custom guitar...

[Philly Q]

1. a strongly asymetrical PU. Like a P90 with a little extra coil, cancelling hum and getting something unique to the sound.

If you want it to look like a regular humbucker, then that's basically the DiMarzio Bluesbucker.  One coil is overwound to roughly P-90 specs, the other is underwound and is really just there for humcancelling.

As already mentioned, the Duncan P-Rails is a different take on the same sort of idea, but it's more like an actual P-90 next to a narrow blade pickup.  In this case both coils have usable sounds.

[Kiichi]

1. a strongly asymetrical PU. Like a P90 with a little extra coil, cancelling hum and getting something unique to the sound.

If you want it to look like a regular humbucker, then that's basically the DiMarzio Bluesbucker.  One coil is overwound to roughly P-90 specs, the other is underwound and is really just there for humcancelling.

Now that you mention it, I remember that thing....must have planted it self in my subconcious.^^

There was a great sound sample on the page for it, great lead tone I just loved. Oh so beautiful clip....now it is gone...*cry*