pickup suggestions for a Filmore MK II

[raygun85]

Ok, finally got around to making the kind of pickups that I suggested early in this thread. The bridge is actually wound to around 13K and the neck to 12K. These pickups came out very loud, but also very dynamic. Very responsive to your picking technique - play softer and it cleans up nicely; play aggressively and they really drive your amp. To reduce the pulling effect that the ceramic magnets would have on the strings, we used a steel blade pole-piece as opposed to flipping the magnets up as in other common smooth-top pickups. The magnets were reading at about 1380 when installed. The strength at the top of the pole-piece was reading around 300 - about 1/3 of what you would be reading in a normal smooth-top pickup, but about twice as much as you would have an Alnico V. Therefore, the string-pull won't be nearly as bad as a normal smooth-top, but you'll have higher inductance than a standard Mosrite pickup (e.g. the RH-100). Steel is more permeable than the magnets themselves and therefore reduce some of the "ice-pick" harshness that is common in most ceramic-equipped pickups.

The samples below were recorded with a Tascam handheld sound recorder directly in front of a Class A amplifier with the gain at about 9 o' clock. (My playing sucks because I did this in a hurry and didn't take time to go back and do it right. ) I never touched the controls on the guitar, except for the pickup switch. The amplifier settings are exactly the same on all demo tracks except "Med_Sample_00" when I pushed the gain up to about 12 o' clock. I will repost this in the 'Projects & Parts Forum' where it belongs, later. Enjoy!

Sample #1 (Low Gain): http://www.m3california.com/audio/Tone_Samples/PICKUPS/RC-120/Lo_Sample_01.mp3
Sample #2 (Low Gain): http://www.m3california.com/audio/Tone_Samples/PICKUPS/RC-120/Lo_Sample_02.mp3
Sample #3 (Med Gain): http://www.m3california.com/audio/Tone_Samples/PICKUPS/RC-120/Med_Sample_00.mp3
Demonstration of Dynamics: http://www.m3california.com/audio/Tone_Samples/PICKUPS/RC-120/Dyanmics_DEMO.mp3

[MWaldorf]

Man, those pickups have grind galore. The tone you get on Outer Limits could pass for fuzz!

[MOSDAN]

What was the amp you were running through for the sound samples? Most tube amps will have heavy break up at "9" and give a heavy "grind" sound even with plain Fender stratocaster single coils. I would be interested in hearing the pickups at differing volume and gain settings of the amp with the pickup volume maximized on the guitar showing reaction of the pickups to varying amounts of amp headspace. Overall from what could be heard from the recordings they do sound like great pickups.

[MWaldorf]

I could be wrong but I think Matt was talking about where the knob was pointing, rather than the number on the amp. I'd say 9 o'clock usually is a volume set at about 3, and noon would be maybe 5/6, like on these Bassman faceplates:

[raygun85]

Thanks, Mel. That was exactly what I meant. Like a clock face. The amp I was playing through would be the equivalent of a 15-watt Class-A Vox type amp. I also didn't attenuate the volume or tone controls on the guitar, they were wide open on all the samples. On the 'Low Gain' samples, 9 o' clock would have put as at just under "3" on the faceplates in Mel's picture. On the 'Med Gain' sample, at 12 o' clock, that would be between "5" and "6", pointing straight up. The volume control on the amp was also at about 10 o' clock for both the 'Low Gain' and 'Med Gain' samples.

[doombuggy]

sounds good, Ill be in touch soon

[MOSDAN]

Thanks Mel and Matt-that clarifies a lot and also demonstrates these are really quite
"hot" pickups. I bet they would sound super through an old Twin Reverb with a lot of headspace.