The Steel Guitar Forum

This is very cool Scott! Would you be able to compare, roughly, the brightness of these pickups to whatever you had in the Williams previously? I’m assuming that would have been a BL710?

Thanks!

Marc,

In terms of brightness and how I would set the amp tone controls its in the ballpark of of an E66. However the character of the highs is very different. The highs have a smoothness that is not possible to achieve on a dual coil. This is due to the comb filtering from the two coils sensing the strings at slightly different places and therefore different phase. There is always a little sizzle in the highs of a dual coil, and some prefer that. Also single coils have better transient response, the attack of the note and the range you can get in how you attack the string. Guitar players say single coils have more “spank”, or a more precise attack.

If you compare the ZB design to the standard single coil Emmons Truetone etc there are some similarities but the different magnetic circuit and how the coils would be wound in the two designs lead to tonal differences. For the same tonal balance of lows mids highs the ZB design will be wound lighter, I think this gives more clarity in the mids.

Thanks Scott, all makes sense. Just to further help wrap my head around this - I’ve never played an E66, would that be generally considered brighter or less bright than a 710?

I would say both the E66 and 710 have plenty of highs, but the 710 has more upper midrange / low treble 2-3 kHz due to the strong pole magnets, strong pole piece magnets give a more aggressive tone. Like Alnico 5 vs Alnico 2 on strat or tele pickups, the highs are smoother with the lower gauss A2.

In humbuckers pole pieces also tend to have a snappier response on the low strings vs blade/bar magnets ala E66 especially high gauss like the 710. Although single coils are even faster and more precise on the low end.

Thanks Scott! Very helpful.

Just ordered two, and will be purchasing more sets for my other axes!

Zirbman is one of Sierra's test pilots so I look forward to his opinion.

My opinion is this pickup sounds great in my Sierra through my Webb amp. 👍👍 I am going to try it through some of my tube amps too. The sound is warm and smooth.

Thank you Scott!

They're keepers!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ir4o57clmkzz ... l.mp4?dl=0

Dang! Beautiful playing Eddy!

Wow Eddy thanks for that video!

Love the way all those extended chords are ringing so clearly, and the smooth highs. In my posts above I tried to explain what I was hearing in the vibe of the pickup, but this video nails it.

Eddy,Awesome playing!!

That's really sweet, Eddy.
I'm still breaking in my ears and touch with my Z12. Not ready to make any pronouncements just yet. But that, there, sounds so good.

Da Zirbster demonstrated this pickup to me this weekend. Sounds awesome. I'll definitely be adding these as a choice for new Sierras.

Great Job Scot!

Thanks, Jon, Dave, Stu, and Scott! The pickup is a homerun for my situation and I feel like I'm hearing myself. Same with my guitar. It feels more like an accurate depiction of what my guitar truly sounds like. Goodbye harsh top end, compressed thickness, and muffled, uninspiring signal, etc!

Eddy Dunlap wrote:Thanks, Jon, Dave, Stu, and Scott! The pickup is a homerun for my situation and I feel like I'm hearing myself. Same with my guitar. It feels more like an accurate depiction of what my guitar truly sounds like. Goodbye harsh top end, compressed thickness, and muffled, uninspiring signal, etc!

What pickup did you have in your Show Pro previously? ZB sounds ✅

Marc Jenkins wrote:What pickup did you have in your Show Pro previously? ZB sounds ✅

Marc, it was just a new 705. Which is my probably my fav humbucker. 710 is a little bit more masculine sounding, but pretty much the same tone. If I had to pick a George L, it'd definitely be the TW. The E-66 is good in an EMCI/MCI or Carter, but they're hit and miss depending on the guitar. As great as the 705's are, sometimes I feel like you could put them in any steel guitar and it makes it sound good. Same with some amps.(the Webb comes to mind) You could plug a guitar that isn't tonally whole into that and it has the capability of making it sound sweet to the ear. Plug in something that's a little more exposing or honest sounding, like a fender twin or direct and you'll notice the strengths/weaknesses a little more easily. The 705 has that quality to me. Kind of like in a movie when the character becomes the actor and adopts his/her real personae( like Jack Nicholson's movies) Humbuckers to my ear take over the sound of the guitar like you're getting more of the magnet and strings vs. the body/whole package.

Eddy Dunlap wrote:

Marc Jenkins wrote:What pickup did you have in your Show Pro previously? ZB sounds ✅

Marc, it was just a new 705. Which is my probably my fav humbucker. 710 is a little bit more masculine sounding, but pretty much the same tone. If I had to pick a George L, it'd definitely be the TW. The E-66 is good in an EMCI/MCI or Carter, but they're hit and miss depending on the guitar. As great as the 705's are, sometimes I feel like you could put them in any steel guitar and it makes it sound good. Same with some amps.(the Webb comes to mind) You could plug a guitar that isn't tonally whole into that and it has the capability of making it sound sweet to the ear. Plug in something that's a little more exposing or honest sounding, like a fender twin or direct and you'll notice the strengths/weaknesses a little more easily. The 705 has that quality to me. Kind of like in a movie when the character becomes the actor and adopts his/her real personae( like Jack Nicholson's movies) Humbuckers to my ear take over the sound of the guitar like you're getting more of the magnet and strings vs. the body/whole package.

Thanks Eddy! I have one of Scott’s pickups on the way to replace the 710 in my Show Pro.

My ears are not really good.....I rarely trust them when I'm A/B'ing two pickups (on the same guitar....essential!) with the installation time thrown in to weaken my ear/brain memory. But Scott called my attention to Eddy's Youtube of Blue Darling with the same guitar with the 705's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0COLSMyYdls

Side by side with the video in this thread, it pleased me in that it confirmed my own impressions on my Williams with a Telonics twin blade, maybe similar to the 705? and then with the Z-12.

With both of the Eddy Dunlap videos and on my guitar, I am still evaluating.....it is actually possible that the humbuckers are the sound I prefer (a gig at the end of the week will help me to decide.)
It is also quite possible that these grow on me. There is a lot to like.

But you can't beat having these two demos of one guitar, two different pickups.

Scott's ZB style pickup

The white looks great on the DR!

Scott,I agree...Thanks so much!!

Loving this pickup!