Pick Ups by David White, Cornwall

[ElTel]

Hi,

About 14 years ago I bought some Strat pick-ups from a maker in Cornwall called David White. At the time his pickups were causing quite a stir to the point where, I believe, Fender themselves were more than interested in his output. David made Strat and Tele pick-ups using a winding method he called "variable tension" or something like that? The pick-ups I bought I fitted to a 70s Strat where they still are today, many toneful gigs later. They are lowish output but very toneful and at the time in my view they were better than any single coils I'd tried [I had tried Seymour Duncans, EMGs, DiMarzio... and others] The David Whites blew them all away whether through a Marshall JCM900 or a Fender Twin or a Blues Deluxe and others!

Sadly I understand that David has passed away. He was always keen to receive feedback from guitarists about his pick-ups. I would ring him up and chat about the sonic performance of the pick-ups in each position. He was particularly keen that the middle pick up sound should be good by itself as he felt its characteristics were not used much by guitarists.

Does anyone out there have any David Whites loaded or remember him?

Cheers
ElTel

D'Oh... another bum note... take 143..... :roll:

[Twinfan]

Yep, I remember the guy and I have a set of his "Old Glories" in my '83 Squier JV Strat - currently fitted with 12s and dropped to Eb.  The guitar sounds superb and very Hendrix/SRV.  It's the best strat I've ever played, and the first guitar I ever bought!

Apparently David used to use an old Spectrum computer to automate the windings!

[Elliot]

I also have an 83 JV Squier - which is also the best strat I have played (and now expertly set up by Feline).

ZX Spectrum windings - that must almost be like being by hand  :D

[ElTel]

Yep, I remember the guy and I have a set of his "Old Glories" in my '83 Squier JV Strat - currently fitted with 12s and dropped to Eb.  The guitar sounds superb and very Hendrix/SRV.  It's the best strat I've ever played, and the first guitar I ever bought!

Apparently David used to use an old Spectrum computer to automate the windings!

Hi,

That's them... Old Glories, now I remember the name... thanks for that!
Just out of interest... what exactly does "handwound" mean when it comes to pick-ups. Basically it's a magnet [or 6!] with copper windings, several thousand I believe, that determine the output and tone. So a standard single coil at say 5.7K will have less windings than a Texas Special single coil and both will sound and output different? Some machinery must be involved somewhere whether a Spectrum or something else? If you look at the windings on say a Seymour Duncan, they are totally precision wound. I think David White was trying to get back to the reason why a lot of the pick-ups made in the 50s & 60s seemed to have more character. The windings were more random and not so cleanly precision wound.

It's all interesting stuff about which I understand just a little.....

Cheers

ElTel

D'Oh... another bum note... take 143...

[deg0ey]

By "Handwound", I think (in Tim's case at least) the bobbin is attatched to a kinda modified lathe which rotates the bobbin at speed...The winder then guides the wire onto the bobbin by hand, enabling them to control the tension and placement of the wire in various places.

Well, that's my understanding at least :drink:

[Peter Antal]

The windings were more random and not so cleanly precision wound.

I think there's a nice explanation on the FAQ page:

What is scatterwinding?
Scatterwinding is the process of guiding fine copper wire by hand in a random or scattered pattern around a bobbin that is spun by a machine. True scatterwinding can only be done by hand and requires a degree of skill to get the required tension along with consistent results.

Are all scatterwound pickups unique?
To a certain extent each pickup will be unique and have it's own character but within the boundaries of its specification. For instance no two Riff Raff humbuckers will be identical but they'll all have the same number of winds, the same wire, the same magnet and therefore similar overall sound characteristics and performance.

Why do scatterwound pickups sound different to machine wound ones?
Scatterwinding by hand can be time consuming but it has many advantages over conventional machine winding, not least a far superior sound. When a coil is scatterwound, the wire isn't as close or even, layer on layer, as with a machine and this lowers the distributed capacitance that exists between the turns of the wire. Lower capacitance allows more top end through, the resonant peak increases slightly and the pickup has a flatter frequency response across its range. The result is a clearer, more open sound that has the impression of being louder purely by the amount of extra detail and dynamics present.

[tremblox]

I too have a set of "Old Grlories" which I ordered from Dave White himself. He seemed like a real gent and his pickups were/are terriffic. I remember an old "Guitarist" review which said something like "the folks at Fender better watch out and start installing Dave White's".

I was very saddened to hear of Dave's death. A few years later I got an E-mail from his daughter who was trying to compile a book about her father's life and his music. I wrote back but unfortunately didn't hear from her again so I don't have any idea whether that project got off the ground at all.
There must be something about the air in the south west of England that is most condusive to making great sounding guitar pickups!  :lol:

  tremblox

[Twinfan]

How do Old Glories compare to a set of BKPs I wonder???  Are they closest to Apaches or Mother's Milks???  It would be interesting to do a back to back....