Custom Pickup: can it be made?

[J D Sauser]

I play only C6th now.
12 string
My highest pitch string is #3 - E
with D on #2 and a B (1/2 below the high C) on #1

My lowest pitch is the low C with a o.o74

I play only Jazz and a lot of single note material.
I have always sought to even out the timbre of the strings. Evidently, on an equal scale length instrument with strings with cross sections of a ratio difference of 1:26 (smallest gauge cross section to largest) this has always been a challenge.

I would like bright lively bass strings and warm "round" (non-shrill), high strings.

I have come to the conclusion that one of the correctable issues could be pickup placement.
A pickup close to the bridge gives a "brighter" sound, which would be desirable under thick bassy strings, but that that a pickup closer to the fretboard under the thinnest strings would make those sound rounder and warmer and thus help them blend in better.

Evidently E on the 3rd string being the thinnest it is also the shrillest string unless I roll off the highs which in turn takes the life out the bass strings.

So, I would lido have a pickup which isn't a straight bar but that would have some poles closer to the neck.

If my tuning didn't have any "inside-out" strings (#'s 2&3), I longer pickup mounted slanted would seem a idea worth while trying. But I need mostly string #4 & #2 and most of all #3 closest to the bridge... which suggest that maybe a pickup built of individual coils which are connected into one signal and it's poles being placed individually would SEEM the best solution.

But can it work (impedance etc)?

Another idea I got -and please keep in mind, I do NOT understand electronics!- would be to use a pickup with screw poles like the ToneAligners and screw extension arms of magnetic steel to reach to the desired "pickup" point? I have NO idea if that even works!

Thanks!... J-D.

[Dale McPherson]

Telonics makes a pickup with adjustable poles. Call Sophia.

[Dave Meis]

It does work. I've used a ToneAligner, the original Danny Sheild CT on a Sierra, and now the Steeltronics. Having the adjustable pole screws is a great way to solve problems and really fine tune string response and timbre.

[J D Sauser]

Thanks.
I have a Telonics on two of my PSGs and I use the screw poles to balance tone, by turning the ones closer to the neck under the thinner strings up (out) and the the poles closer to the changer down (in) for a rounder/warmer tone and inversely likewise the ones under the thick strings up close to the changer and down closer to the neck for a clearer tone. It makes EQ'ing such a complex signal much easier as it is pre-"EQ'ed" somewhat.

I would like to see 3 or 4 coild or two 2-coil humbuckers with settable poles, especially for C6th, I think this is what builders should contemplate.
An array with a short coil up close to the neck under the thinner half of strings, followed by one with a full length running under all strings and finally a
"bright booster" under the lower half of the strings near the bridge/changer, all with settable height poles could also suffice to shape the output coming from strings as thin as o.o11 thu o.o74 (in cross section that's a 1 to 30 relationship... along an equal scale length).

I just retrofitted my first 25 1/2" scale Excel Superb S12 with the screw-pole humbucker I got it with from Carl Dixon... I from it's vintage I suppose it could be a "ToneAligner".
Thant guitar also had a volume and tone control I wasn't too happy with. I think that Carl Dixon may have wanted to have some "Rickenbacheresque" tone controls (a la Jerry Bird)... but I felt that not only was it not giving "that" sound but that it was draining tone. I used a BOSS Waza-Air headphone practice amp which by the way is GREAT, and had great tone with it, but plugged into an amp, with no matter how shore a cable (3ft even), the sound was in-EQ'able. Now I got direct, no controls and it took a big breath of "air".


... J-D.

[Paul Brainard]

This sounds like what Gibson did on the later Console Grande and Console 500.

Edit - actually those were the other way around, the bass strings had a partial coil forwards the neck & the treble strings had one towards the bridge. . . Here is an example:

https://reverb.com/item/26641743-rare-1 ... e-shipping

I wonder if Jason Lollar would be able to fashion something along those lines.

[Jim Palenscar]

Also- it has been my experience that the thumb picks by ProPik produce the brightest wound string tone of all that I've tried.

[J D Sauser]

Also- it has been my experience that the thumb picks by ProPik produce the brightest wound string tone of all that I've tried.

Yes that too... and for a time, I followed BE's experiment of getting rid of the finger picks... which gave some roundness to the upper strings on the same principles.

Hawaiian players, to whom WARMTH is as important as it was to Don Rickles, tried nylon and other plastic finger picks. They are however clumsy and too thick around the "arms".


... J-D.

[J D Sauser]

This sounds like what Gibson did on the later Console Grande and Console 500.

Edit - actually those were the other way around, the bass strings had a partial coil forwards the neck & the treble strings had one towards the bridge. . . Here is an example:

https://reverb.com/item/26641743-rare-1 ... e-shipping

I wonder if Jason Lollar would be able to fashion something along those lines.

YEAH... but just inverted, being able to pickup the thin strings at the neck and the thick string near the bridge instead!

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[Scott Swartz]

I could easily build what is being described but 3 rows of polepieces with 8-32 poles and normal sized bobbins will not fit within the 1.83 inch dimension of the standard wide mount base, and of course you would also have to move the mounting holes. I just did a very quick mockup from one of my 3D models.

With a bigger pickup cutout ala that Gibson console it would be no problem.

[James Collett]

This makes me think about the idea of a single coil pickup with laterally adjustable pole pieces, the way you can adjust the intonation of the bridge on a six-string guitar. There would have to be a relatively wide footprint of the coil to leave clearance for the adjustment though. I wonder if one could use a flatter coil like a Jazzmaster pickup, with smaller gauge wire to hit the right parameters, and recess the coil down further Into the case to leave room for the adjustment mechanism at the top so it could be accessed. The adjustment screws would probably have to be nylon or something else non-conductive or else they would become effectively part of the pole piece.

[J D Sauser]

This makes me think about the idea of a single coil pickup with laterally adjustable pole pieces, the way you can adjust the intonation of the bridge on a six-string guitar. There would have to be a relatively wide footprint of the coil to leave clearance for the adjustment though. I wonder if one could use a flatter coil like a Jazzmaster pickup, with smaller gauge wire to hit the right parameters, and recess the coil down further Into the case to leave room for the adjustment mechanism at the top so it could be accessed. The adjustment screws would probably have to be nylon or something else non-conductive or else they would become effectively part of the pole piece.

I thought about that and had a brief email interchange with one PU builder which left me with more questions than answers I could seem to use.

I must first warn away that I am completely in the dark when it comes to electronics.
The PU builder had concerns about what the different impedances of a third party pickup would to to my output signal. I got only so far to shrug and admit that I may seem logical that different PU's with different windings (gauge, length, amount of turns) would "act" differently and when put in series or in parallel (I barely understand the difference of these to ways to hook'em into one signal, and BELIEVE to understand that you are to connect humbuckers (their two coils' outputs) in "serie"... which is one into the next and connect the extremity of on and the other extremity of the other to the plug (?).

So, my initial idea was just that... add a third coil or a second pair of coils (another humbucker) to the total signal... a low rise 6 string guitar pickup under my treble strings nearer to the neck. Preferably one with screw out poles, to add a warmer signal from these otherwise shrill strings.

... J-D.

[Donny Hinson]

J.D., I suppose you might find someone to make you some custom designed pickups; maybe something like this?

[Jim Palenscar]

Teisco?

[Bill Hatcher]

You might consider using two pickups on your guitar. You could have a 12 string in the traditional bridge area and add another pickup towards the neck. It could even be a 6 string pickup to cover only your upper strings. It could be movable. Use a separate out put if you want with vol/tone. I have used split pickups and liked the sound control.

[J D Sauser]

J.D., I suppose you might find someone to make you some custom designed pickups; maybe something like this?

Not quite as complecated, but YES… with of course the exception to the silly colored buttons


The example seems to suggest that PU’s which can be switched to work together, need all to be of the same size.

Remember the sliding PU’s mounted on early acoustic Jazz guitars?

Imagine we’d have an individual coil per each string and they could be slid closervto either the neck or the bridge, like a graphic EQ for EACH string!

… JD.