ASAR PICKUPS, pickups and pre-wired pickguards, handcrafted in Italy.

How and why was ASAR PICKUPS born? How do these pickups differ from the others?

With the same size and shape of the magnets, the neodymium ones, more precisely NeFeB, generate magnetic fields which, to put it very simplistically, boast much higher energy densities than in the case of the fields, instead, produced by other types of magnets commonly used for making both guitar pickups and speakers. These are AlNiCo (including grade 5), ferrite (or ceramic magnets if you prefer) and the samarium-cobalt alloy (SmCo).

Just to give a rough but explanatory example, imagine making a Stratocaster single coil pickup around the usual cylindrical magnets, but neodymium instead of being made of the classic sintered AlNiCo alloy.

Well, once the pickup is made and installed on the guitar, the magnetic field produced by the magnets would be so intense that it is practically impossible to play the guitar itself.

So much so that, as in the classic case of ceramic magnets (those dark gray bars that you have probably seen attached under some pickups), even the neodymium ones are normally used, in pickups, together with pole pieces made of carbon steel plated with nickel, which have the task of interfacing between the real magnets (placed in the lower part of the pickup) and the strings. In other words, the aforementioned polar expansions do nothing, once placed in close contact with the magnets, other than act as conductors of the magnetic field, which otherwise alone they would not be able to produce, towards the strings.

 

The most clever will immediately understand how it is possible to juggle with the dimensional relationships between the magnets and the polepieces to generate more or less intense magnetic fields. These magnetic fields, by appropriately and simultaneously managing the size (also understood as the number of coil turns) and geometry of the winding as well as the thickness of the wound wire, allow the sufficiently experienced manufacturer to vary, even by a lot, the sonic characteristics of the pickup that intends to realize.

Attack, soustain, output levels, more or less bright or fat tone, contrast, richness of harmonics (on which hand winding of the coils and the conducting style of the winding are also typically influent), are all factors which can be varied more or less at will by the expert manufacturer.

However good and experienced he may be, however, there are intrinsic limits of an eminently physical nature, beyond which it is not possible to go anyway. With the same spools and types of wire used (but also pole pieces), these impassable limits are dictated precisely by the peculiar characteristics of each type of magnet, of which I have already mentioned the most widespread and commonly available categories for the construction of guitar and bass pickups, without going unnecessarily into the sub-categories and classifications of each one.

 

As for me, a few years ago, that is in 2014, I wanted to take away the satisfaction of building some pickups on my own, but not so much for the sake of mere DIY, but with the intention of trying to achieve something, in particular, that maybe it left its mark not only on myself, but also on my guitarist friends. Unlike what I experienced in my thirty-year experimentation with amplifications, in which I have always had a very similar approach, the pickups seemed to be too simplified machines, at least in the number of components influencing the result and their available variables, to allow any "lift of genius” that could actually make the difference.

I must admit that I came across a video published by some good hobbyist on YouTube, almost by chance, in the same year, explaining how to "upgrade" guitar pickups by simply replacing the stock ceramic magnets with neodymium ones.

Neodymium was a material that was already known to me for its use in the loudspeaker sector and for the superior performance that these same speakers (alas, higher in cost) boast compared to their colleagues equipped with the almost ubiquitous ferrite or some replica cases vintage of AlNiCo equipped speakers.

So it was that ... I was conquered by the idea of ​​trying in my turn, to touch the goodness of the idea firsthand. Especially since, until that moment I had never heard of commercial pickups made around neodymium magnets. So I did a quick online search from which I discovered Entwistle in England and a craftsman in New York (if I remember correctly), and I-SPIRA pickup from us in Italy. That was enough for me to get the "hint" and from there I no longer started researching in this sense.

The next step was, of course, to investigate the possibilities of finding neodymium magnets of sufficient size, quality and quantity to make at least some pickups without necessarily having to take out a trentennial mortgage.

Since, since then, I have made dozens of neodymium pickups (but also ceramic ones), both for guitar and bass, the answer is obviously affirmative.

After the first, exciting experiments quite well exitated, I began to get carried away to fine-tune several sets of pickups and even pre-wired pickguards (mainly for Strat, but now I've started to do some for Precision 4-string bass too).

I wrapped my first pickups with a wrapping machine that I had crouched on a wooden frame, using, as a crank, that of the machine to make fresh pasta . So I made my first pickups by winding them completely by hand, in the sense that while the right hand guided the lwire into the bobbin, the left operated the crank that made the spool rotate.

 

Now I don't know I would still have all that patience, however within a few months, after having procured the right material, first of all the electric motor, I designed and built the electric winder that I still use today.

Obviously, in my pre-wired pickguards I only install pickups of my own production and, in their conception and construction, I believe I have done my best not only with regard to the electromagnetic shielding of the pickguards themselves and the pickups, but also in terms of versatility of use. In fact, having the pickguards for Strat typically three pickups installed, it is my custom to also install one or more switches (almost always of the push pull type) in order to:

1) allow the connection (always in parallel) also of the neck pickup with the bridge pickup, as well as the classic bridge + central and central + neck, typical of positions 2 and 4 of the 5-way selector;

2) allow you to split the humbucker at the bridge (HSS) or both the humbucker at the bridge and the neck (HSH) depending on the pickup configurations adopted, as my pickups are always characterized by lively charachters and generous output levels to which, even when in humbuckers only one coil is operated, their single coil sound is more than believable and it would be a shame not to use it.

Furthermore, since more often than not I produce single coil pickups (by the way: P90, Strat and Telecaster bridge) so-called "coil tap", that is, equipped with a single coil but equipped with both the output taken at the end of the winding and a 'output taken at an intermediate level, the last switch named can be used, instead of splitting the humbucker (s), to select the COIL TAP / FULL COIL output of the coil tap bridge pickup, or the same outputs if they are coil tap both the bridge and neck pickups. I have also produced and produce pre-wired pickguards equipped with a bridge humbucker (PAF-like or Hot Rails-like dimensions) and a Strat single coil "coil tap" installed on the neck so that the switch, typically installed on the third knob, splits at the same time the humbucker and “coil tap” the Strat single coil.

I hope that anyone who has been able to read this far hasn't had a headache or other discomfort ...

Someone might ask, at this point, if I make only and always pickups equipped with neodymium magnets or not.

The answer is no, as I also make ceramic ones because, although they are cheaper and at least to a certain extent less complex to produce, they still boast more than decent performances, even if, intuitively, not of the absolute at the top as in the case of neodymium.

I have never made and never will make any pickup equipped with AlNiCo magnets, for three precise reasons:

1) It will be my personal whim, but I don't like the fact that, since AlNiCos are not natural but induced magnets, in the same way (relatively easy, at least in the factory) with which they can be magnetized, just as easily or accidentally, they can come demagnetized.

The latter could happen, in theory, even with neodymium magnets, but only if they were to exceed the temperature of 80 degrees Celsius at which, however, I believe that not only the magnets installed in the pickups should be thrown away, but the same musical instrument. I do not think it is easy to find a musician capable of leaving his guitar in a car exposed to the sun and with the windows completely closed, in summer and in a hot country.

2) I am not enthusiastic about "vintage" sounds and, in any case, there is such a boundless and too often homogeneous production of AlNiCo pickups (also for reasons of force majeure) that, also for the originality and effectiveness innovation reasons above mentioned, do not arouse my interest at all.

3) As for sonic performances, both on paper and based on the results of the "American style" comparisons (not boundless but in any case anything but episodic) that I have experienced together with guitarist friends on the same types of pickups, I mean humbucker vs humbucker, P90 vs P90, Strat sigle coil vs Strat single coil and so on, the typical trend is characterized by generally compressed and euphonic sounds of AlNiCo, even famous ones, compared to the greater dynamics, contrast, depth, touch response and extension in frequency of my neodymium ones.

With neodymium the clean sounds are of a disarming naturalness and depth while, thanks above all to the richness of harmonics, the distortions are really full, granite and consonants at the same time.

 

Waxing topic: I mix pure paraffin with beeswax purchased from beekeepers in my area, in a 3:1 ratio (weight / weight). I melt the wax inside a glass jar of the appropriate size, heating it in a water bath. Then I immerse each wrapped coil in it (obviously when the wax is in the right temperature range) for about fifteen minutes. This, together with a certain treatment that I carry out on my reels (of industrial origin) and following the necessary destructive tests performed on the samples, makes me sure that my waxing method also reaches the innermost turns of the reels. So much so that, since I developed it, I have never had "squeal" problems with my pickups, nor have they ever been reported to me by those who bought them.

 

I also published a short video, about the creature, in which you can see the bubbles of air that leave the inside of the coil to make room for the wax. The video link is the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXQqwbUemyc

Finally, the official channel with which, at least currently, I am exhibiting my pre-wired pickups and pickguards to the public, is the window of my virtual shop ASAR boutique amplification & pickups which can be found on the Reverb.com website.

 

Anyone wishing, for various reasons, to contact me directly, can do so via the email address asar.amplification@gmail.com. If it's not some time wasters, I usually reply within a few days at the latest.

As for the demonstration videos topic, since I am practically only a former electric bassist (despite myself, due to lack of free time), as well as an electronic technician, it is not easy for me to organize myself in this regard. That's not definitely for the future, however, until recently I improvised some amateur videos together with a guitarist friend of mine, I elaborated them and then published them on my ASARchannel YouTube channel. If you really want to get at least a vague idea about my pickups sound...