Russian conversion project - very strange Pickup.

[Rainer Schmidt]

Hello and happy new year all of you!
I'm a jazz nut, bassist and guitar player. Got turned on to the hawaiian style by a rather cheesy German LP featuring George de Fretes on steel.

Although I found a cheap D-8, this is what I plan to keep for E-Tuning:



it was built in the Soviet Union in the sixties, being the first solidbody model from there. Its tone is very warm and thick (well, a bit dull maybe).
I like it so much that I got another one for restoration. And I was puzzled to find this pickup on it:

Four sets of coils instead of three! (photo underneath, from guitar above.)
Wouldn't it be better suited for a seven or eight string? Or doesn't it matter at all?
Magnet poles this distant should cancel out some of the high harmonics, shouldn't they?
I'm looking forward to your suggestions.

[Max Laine]

Maybe they were using readily available coils, like from telephone handsets or earphones. Like this:
http://www.searcystringworks.com/mlere.html

[Ron Whitfield]

I love Russian instruments. We have missed out on so much by being their enemy for all these years.

Thanks for posting, and please put up some sounds when you can!

[Tom Pettingill]

Good call Max, I'd bet that is the case.

[Rainer Schmidt]

Yes Max, you're probably right. (Although one could have expected more from "Moscow experimental factory of musical instruments", as the manufacturer was called.)

But what happens practically? There's a bar magnet. Do strings need to align with coils for an even response? (guitar 1, 1966 model: easy; guitar 2, '61 model: not yet tested, in doubt)

Signal then has to travel through extra resistance, therefore giving a rather weak output? As I just saw, this has also been reported by someone on sovietguitars forum, who even posted scans of the original manual. (Can't read it off course).
Unfortunately I don't have any recorded material, need to get friendly with today's technology first.

[basilh]

A really interesting guitar, just as interesting is as to why you call George de Fretes "Cheesy" ?

[Alan Brookes]

...Do strings need to align with coils for an even response?....

As Basil pointed out to me a couple of years ago, those strings with strings on both sides of them are affected by the magentic fields of the poles on either side, but those strings on the outside are only affected by the magnetic fields of the pole underneath and the one to one side. Logic suggests than in order to have a uniform field for all strings there should be more poles than strings, or if there is only one coil, it should be wider than the strings. That is, an eight string instrument should have ten poles.

I once built an instrument with five double courses, i.e. ten strings. I used a 6-pole pickup aligned so that the poles aligned with the spaces between the strings. The field is very uniform.

[Rainer Schmidt]

Cheers Basil,
thank you for reading and pointing out an error.
in fact this record is among the most enjoyable ones in my collection of now nearly 50 "hawaiian" records.
It just sounds very "pop", more "Oktoberfest" than Luau, if you like. The session was led by Frank Valdor. De Fretes' playing is superb here, his versatility stunning.
I tried to upload it to one of them sites, but that has gotten too tricky (Flash-y) for me since last time. Sorry about that.