STRATGATE, SET OF STRAT SINGLE COIL PICKUPS WITH EXPOSED POLES, IN THREE DIFFERENT VERSIONS.

 STRATGATE is a series of three sets of pickups (neck / middle / bridge) in Strat single coil format, made by basing their development around the innovative or, in my opinion, revolutionary neodymium magnets.

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My main passion is electronics, mainly both tube and solid-state amplifications, for guitars and for Hi Fi, on which I have been experimenting since the 90s of the last century. ASAR, in fact, is the acronym of Alter Sonus Audio Research.

 

I also decided to devote myself to guitar and bass pickups after having had the opportunity, now over a decade ago, to appreciate the superior characteristics of neodymium magnets in loudspeakers. From that moment on, given the similarities between the two types of transducers, i.e. pickups and magnetodynamic loudspeakers, I had the idea of first of all verifying whether it was possible to find, for a hobbyist craftsman like me, the materials suitable for experimentation. So it was and the three STRATGATE sets represent just one of the results obtained in the pickup sector, thanks to the use of neodymium magnets.

 

My idea was to update and give new life to at least the most popular and widespread models of electric guitar and bass pickups, using the basic materials that any hobbyist craftsman or DIY-loving guitarist can find on online sales sites without particular difficulties . In any case, it was not my intention to produce pickups characterized by particular aesthetic refinements as I wanted, more than anything else, to exploit first of all the adoption of neodymium magnets, together with the manually guided winding of the coils to make, in the sound, the difference compared to the pickups equipped with traditional magnets, standard or boutique production.

 

 

I would never have distracted resources and time from research in the field of amplifiers, in fact, only to become the billionth "experimenter" of pickups with AlNiCo magnets because, in my opinion, the maneuvering spaces (read parameters) that characterize a pickup are relatively few and trying to make the difference simply by choosing between the diameter of the enamelled wire (and the insulating coating type) and the relative number of coils to be wound, the type of spool and the use of AlNiCo 2, 3 or 5 magnets, would never have led to sufficiently appreciable results, so much so that it really stands out from the already endless production, past and present.

 

I then also experimented with ferrite, a material that I personally esteem more than AlNiCo itself, obtaining interesting results and with less investment of resources than neodymium-based specimens. This is why, while not reaching the sonic performance guaranteed by rare earth magnets (which also include samarium-cobalt, in addition to neodymium), I have always found the quality/price ratio of ceramic pickups interesting, to the point of producing them parallel to the models neodymium.

I have to admit that I don't hold much esteem for AlNiCo magnets, even though they accompanied the birth and evolution of the electric guitar in its first decades. This for several reasons, including the fact that these alloys do not have their own magnetism, but must be forcibly magnetized by external magnetic fields. Magnetization which in addition to being induced, can also be, accidentally or deliberately, attenuated or cancelled. The main reason for my lack of liking lies, however, more than anything else in the fact that except for rather rare cases, I have always found the sonic character of AlNiCo screaming and euphonic, especially in the mid and mid-high frequency range of the electric guitar spectrum , that is precisely those that most characterize the sonority of the pickups and, consequently, of the equipped instrument.

 

Another flaw that I was able to find in the AlNiCo pickups, even of current and famous production, noticed by practicing American style comparisons between my guitars equipped with neodymium pickups and my friends' guitars, is a more compressed sound, as well as less lively in general and less extensive in frequency, both low and high.

 

 

Neodymium magnets, thanks to the particular characteristics of their magnetic field, allow to obtain pickups equipped with an incomparable richness of harmonics equally distributed in the useful frequency spectrum, touch response, dynamics and also unrivaled output levels. The clean sounds are the warmest and most natural, while the distorted sounds are granite and consonant, already in the single coil pickups (not to mention what the humbuckers can do, i.e. real with juxtaposed coils, or stacked ones).

 

Since neodymium magnets have a somewhat different character than the aforementioned AlNiCo, it was to be expected that also the rest of the religion built around the latter in terms of enameled wire to be used and more or less official tables showing the number of coils to be wound to obtain certain results, could be widely "disregarded" in order to achieve the desired results.

 

So much so that even the STRATGATEs, like most of the pickups I make, are wound with AWG44 enamelled wire instead of the traditional AWG42, which allows me, in addition to obtaining the pre-set timbral characters, also generous output levels with relatively small coils.

 

It is with these assumptions that, after a series of tests, I developed the three sets of STRATGATE, all characterized by the use of AWG44 enamelled wire and each with its own existential logic.

 

 

 

The three pickups of the STRAGATE Mk I set represent the "family" standard and are equipped with three traditional coils, i.e. single output. Their character wants to approach, in terms of brilliance, the most typical sounds of the Stratocaster and they are balanced between them.

 

The Rs of the three pickups, in fact, are: NECK 8.2 / MIDDLE 8.5 / BRIDGE 8.8 KOhm.

 

 

 

The Mk II set is composed, again, of three single coil Strats with traditional coils, but the bridge pickup is overwound, compared to the equivalent of the Mk I set, by about 10%, for reasons that are known to every guitarist, especially if oriented on Stratocaster with SSS trim. In a nutshell, obtaining a bridge pickup with a slightly less brilliant tone and a slightly more consistent output.

 

Therefore, the Rs of the Mk II pickups are as follows: NECK 8.2 / MIDDLE 8.5 / BRIDGE 9.6 KOhm.

 

 

 

The Mk III set is the most versatile and performing, as the three coils are equipped with outputs identical to those of the Mk I set, but the neck and bridge pickups are tapped coils, i.e. also having secondary outputs characterized by more generous outputs, with timbre somewhat similar to those of the P90s.

 

In other words, the coils of the neck and bridge pickups of the Mk III set are abundantly overwound and equipped with two outputs, which can be selected via special switches: a lower level output, taken at the same number of turns as the corresponding pickups of the Mk I set and a higher level output, taken at the end of the entire winding of the coil itself.

 

The Rs of the Mk III set are as follows: NECK 8.2 Kohm in COIL TAP and 12.6 Kohm in FULL COIL / MIDDLE 8.5 KOhm / BRIDGE 8.8 KOhm in COIL TAP and 13.8 KOhm in FULL COIL operation.

 

 

 

The covers are available in white, black, cream, green and chrome, for your choice.

 

The middle pickup is always Reverse Wound/Reverse Polarity to the other two, in all three pickup sets.

 

 

 

The waxing is performed in a paraffin bath mixed with beeswax (in a 3:1 weight / weight ratio), to obtain reliability maintained over time and immunity from the triggering of annoying whistles.

 

POLE SPACING: PU at the handle 48 mm: central 50 mm; 52 mm bridge in all three sets.

 

The coils of the pickups are equipped with complete electromagnetic shielding (see photo), as they are covered with copper foil connected to the shielding / grounding of the relative connection cables.

 

The leads themselves are generously long.

 

Every single pickup is regularly tested.

 

STRATGATE Series pickups can be found on Reverb.

 

My email address is asar.amplification@gmail.com