Precision-Style Passive Neodymium Pickup For Four-String Electric Bass. Mod. P4 ND ULTRA Mk III

 

                                             MORE PICTURES AT THE BOTTOM

Precision-Style Passive Pickup For Four-String Electric Bass. It was wound by guiding the wire by hand, of the AWG 44 type (0.050 mm in diameter) and equipped with neodymium magnets, which ensures impressive detail and superior definition especially on the low frequencies, always dry and in focus. The high frequencies, for their part, are extended and transparent. The articulation and naturalness of neodymium over the entire frequency range (both with bass and electric guitar) and the generous output level guaranteed by the use of these rare earth magnets, make it the winning alternative also to active pickups.

The generously wound coils, together with also proportionally sized magnetic groups, characterize this pickup for output levels unknown to most passive single-coil bass pickups, without sacrificing a balanced sound over the entire frequency range of the instrument. Frequency range which, thanks to the use of neodymium magnets, is however wider than those guaranteed by both passive and active pickups, equipped with traditional type magnets.

In addition to the adoption of neodymium magnets, the attention during the development phase was concentrated on the geometric characteristics of the magnets and pole pieces, as well as on the type of wire enamelled and relative quantity to be wound on each single coil, to obtain a sound characterized not only by a balanced naturalness, warm and difficult to compare (therefore without unwanted colors), but also by a dynamics, a richness of harmonics and an unknown touch response to pickups equipped with traditional magnets.

The richness of harmonics of the sound produced by this pickup is also due to the winding of the coils, obtained by guiding the wire by hand.

Note: The silver bars that are seen attached to the bottom of the two halves of the pickup (see attached photos) are not the magnets themselves, but simple aluminum covers. The magnets are located under the cover, immersed in resin.

The neck pickup has an overall series resistance (Rs) of 21.3 Kohm (10.65 + 10.65 Kohm). The two halves are made in Reverse Wound Reverse Polarity mode with respect to each other, in order to get the hum-bucking effect.

The waxing was carried out in a paraffin and beeswax bath (3/1 w/w).

The pickups have been tested. Included in the package are the screws and springs needed to install the pickups and a wiring instruction sheet plus some tips for getting the best sound results.

SOLD VIA REVERB (SHOP: ASAR Boutique Amplification & Pickups).

email: asar.amplification@gmail.com

                                                

       

                                                    

A "MYSTERIOUS" STRAT SIZED PICKUP WITH TWO STACKED COILS.

 Does a Strat sized pickup having two stacked coils necessarily have to be a "noiseless" one?

How can a pickup like this work?..

Handmade prewired HSH NEODYMIUM Strat pickguard with HB split switch, Treble Bleed and mid PU cutoff switch. PAF style HUMBUCKERS.

 

                                                   MORE PHOTOS ON THE BOTTOM

The humbuckers are a SHB-UD PAF (Neodymium magnets) model set. The middle Strat single coil is also equipped with neodymium magnets and is designed to be paired with SHB-UD humbuckers.

CONTROLS:

- VOLUME (B500K, Alpha), equipped with full range treble bleed (*);

- TONES (both A500K with 10nF / 100V MKP capacitor). The SECOND KNOB acts on the neck humbucker and the middle single coil, while the THIRD KNOB acts only on the bridge humbucker;

- Five-way selector;

- Push-pull switch of the second knob (tone control of the neck HB and middle single coil pickup): by pulling up this knob you get the exclusion of the middle single coil pickup while, at the same time, the neck humbucker and the bridge one will be connected in parallel, regardless of their operating status (ie the position in which the push pull switch controlled by the third knob is held). Once activated this mode, it always maintains the mentioned pickup configuration, regardless of the position taken by the five-way switch.

- Third knob push-pull switch (on the bridge humbucker tone control): by pulling up this knob, both the humbuckers will be split, working with only their NORTH coils operating (i.e. the one facing the middle SC and the one facing the neck). By keeping the knob down, both humbuckers will operate with both their coils connected in series (FULL COIL OPERATION). For further information, please see note (**) at the end of the Ad text.

  These pickups were wound and assembled by guiding the wire by hand (AWG 44). Then they were waxed in a paraffin and beeswax bath. Later, EVERY POLE WERE INDIVIDUALLY FITTED WITH A POWERFUL NEODYMIUM MAGNETS SET.

All pickups are equipped with shielded wires. The back of the pickguard is fully shielded with aluminum foil. Consequently, if the guitar body is also properly shielded (for example, by means of an adhesive copper sheet), by installing this pickguard the entire electronics of the guitar will be surrounded by a complete electromagnetic shield.

The series resistances (Rs) of the pickups are the following: NECK humbucker 18.4 Kohm (in FULL COIL OPERATION) - MIDDLE Single Coil 9.4 Kohm - BRIDGE 19.8 Kohm (in FULL COIL OPERATION).

As you can see from the photos, the pickups termination cables were left longer than necessary and wrapped to optimize space. This was done to possibly make the installed pickup set, eventually, more easily reusable.

(*) My "full range treble bleed" mod consists of three components: a capacitor, a fixed resistor and a potentiometer coaxial with the volume control potentiometer. This ensures that the tone of the guitar remains exactly the same (volume aside, of course) throughout the operating range of the volume knob, unlike what is possible with classic treble bleed circuits which are, typically, equipped only with a capacitor or with a capacitor and a fixed resistor (connected in series or parallel to the capacitor).

(**) In other words ...

1) by pulling up only the second knob, just the two humbuckers will work, connected to each other in parallel and with both their respective coils activated (FULL COIL OPERATION), similarly to a Les Paul with the pickup selector held in position 2;

2) by pulling up both the second and the third knob, just the two humbuckers still work connected to each other in parallel but in SPLIT OPERATION (i.e. only the NORTH coil works in each of the two pickups), similarly to what happens in a Telecaster with the pickup selector held in position 2;

3) by pulling up only the third knob all three pickups and also the 5 way selector work, as in a normal Strat, but the two humbuckers are in split mode and, therefore, the pickup configuration will be Strat SSS (split neck HB / single coil / split bridge HB);

4) with both knobs turned down all three pickups and also the 5 way selector work, with the two humbuckers in FULL COIL OPERATION and, therefore, we get a Strat HSH operation.

In cases 1) and 2), in addition to the middle pickup, the operation of the 5 way selector is also excluded. In fact, in these cases, even by varying all five of its positions, the configuration of the pickups always remains that described in the respective points 1) and 2).

ASAR Version TREBLE BLEED Demo

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwhKrpdg8mE&t=28s

The typical treble bleed circuits are equipped, in addition to the normal volume control potentiometer, also with a capacitor, or a capacitor and a resistor which can be connected together in series or in parallel, depending on the version adopted. The version of treble bleed that I developed on my own consists, in addition to, obviously, the volume control potentiometer, also of a capacitor, a resistor and an additional component which determines its perfection in operation, with maintenance of the tone at "full open volume" along the entire range of the potentiometer. The pickups installed on the Squier Bullet are a set of ASAR NEODYMIUM TELE Mk I, the preamplifier is the prototype of the ASAR F-3B, the power amplifier (here prototype in dual mono version) is also solid state, based on the integrated LM1875. The speaker cabinet is home-made and based on the EMINENCE V12 LEGEND speaker. The distortion pedal is a BOSS DS-1 Distortion.

Visit the ASAR pickups shop on Etsy. Boutique high performance electric guitar and bass passive pickups, handmade in Italy.

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/ASARpickups?ref=dashboard-header

URBAN LEGENDS AND PEOPLE'S VOICES ABOUT THE OPERATION OF HUMBUCKER PICKUPS (OR HUMBUCKING WHATEVER YOU WANT), ON PHASE AND COUNTER PHASE OF SINGLE COILS AND ON THE REVERSE WOUND / REVERSE POLARITY TECHNIQUE IN GENERAL.

 

URBAN LEGENDS AND PEOPLE'S VOICES ABOUT THE OPERATION OF HUMBUCKER PICKUPS (OR HUMBUCKING WHATEVER YOU WANT), ON PHASE AND COUNTER PHASE OF SINGLE COILS AND ON THE REVERSE WOUND / REVERSE POLARITY TECHNIQUE IN GENERAL.

The humbucker pickup was invented by Seth Lover of Gibson, with the main purpose of eliminating or attenuating the alternating current hum picked up over the air by the coil of single coil pickups.
To understand how things actually are, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the operating principle of the simplest pickup which is, in fact, the single coil. Let's take for example the probably most popular pickup ever, that is a single coil Strat with AlNiCo magnets.

Apart from the basic structural components made of insulating material (and permeable to magnetic fields, as are also the vacuum and the air we breathe), such as bakelite and plastic, the essential or functional components of our pickup are the magnets and the coil of enamelled wire. The magnets (in this case one for each string) have a north and a south pole.
It is essential that all six magnets on the same pickup are oriented either with their magnetic north towards the strings, or all six with their magnetic south towards the strings.

The coil of enamelled copper wire (ie covered with a thin insulating enamel sheath), also has its own sense of winding. Observing, as a reference, the pickup from its side facing the strings, the winding direction of the coil can be clockwise or counterclockwise. In addition to the clockwise or counterclockwise direction of the winding, to determine the electrical polarity of the coils of wound wire is equally decisive which of the two ends of the winding itself is assumed to be positive and which will be connected to the negative (or ground) of the circuit. The leads are the one at the beginning and the one at the end of the winding.
If we have wound two single coil pickups, one of which by turning the bobbin clockwise and the other counterclockwise, the opposed electrical phase, between the two pickups, will be mantained only by assuming the winding start terminal as electrical positive in both; or assuming as electric positive the winding end terminal, always in both.

In conclusion, if two coils are wound in mutually opposite directions and then the winding start terminal is taken as the positive on one coil and its end on the other, it follows that the two coils will have the same electrical phase.
The choice of which terminal to take as positive is free and indifferent but, once made, it must then be consistent in order to avoid unfortunate drawbacks.

In the making of my "hobby" pickups, to reduce the number of variables involved from three (one determining the magnetic polarity and two determining the electric polarity) to only two (one magnetic and one electric only) I adopted the habit of assuming, always, as electrical positive of the coil, the winding end terminal. Therefore, to obtain the hum-bucking effect or hum cancellation between the two halves of a humbucker pickup or between two contiguous single coils such as bridge and middle or middle and neck in a Strat, I wind the relative coils in the opposite direction. with respect to each other (i.e. one clockwise and one counterclockwise as seen from the string side, in my case).

Other pickup makers prefer to always wind the coils in the same direction (e.g. always clockwise looking from the string side?) and determine any reciprocal electrical phase reversal simply assuming as the positive terminal the one at the end of winding for one coil and the one at the beginning of winding for the other one.
The final effect is however the same. It is only a matter of subjective choice which, however, as I repeat, must then be constantly respected to avoid undesirable counter-phase problems.
Having said that, we find, in a nutshell, that the magnets can be oriented in two possible ways, diametrically opposite, that is mutually out of phase by 180 sexagesimal degrees and that also for the coils one of the two possible electrical orientations must be chosen (again mutually out of phase by 180 degrees).

The strings of electric guitars and basses are composed of materials that interact strongly with fields
magnetic, called ferromagnetic materials.
In an electric guitar, its strings are typically immersed in the magnetic field constantly emitted by the magnets of the underlying pickups. The same magnetic field which strikes the strings simultaneously also affects the coil of enamelled copper wire wound around the magnets.
As a result of Lenz's law, when one or more strings are made to vibrate, a time-varying electrical voltage signal is produced at the ends of the pickup wire and contains, in real time, information relating to the musical event determined by the movement of the strings themselves.

In other words, the movement of the strings produces a perturbation in the magnetic field emitted by the magnets which strikes the coil of wound wire causing it to produce, at its ends, a variable voltage proportional to the variation of the magnetic flux induced by the mechanical movement of the strings.
We would like the system just described to be closed but, in some ways, unfortunately, it is not.
In fact, while the coil of wire of our hypothetical single coil pickup is immersed in the magnetic field produced by the "on-board" magnets, it can also be simultaneously hit by magnetic or electromagnetic fields produced outside the "environment" of the electric guitar.

So far I have tried to explain, in the most colloquial and understandable way, how the simplest of guitar or bass pickups, that is the single coil one, is made and how it works.
Before moving on to the whys and wherefores of humbucker pickups, I would like to say a few words about the reason that prompted me to publish what you are reading. Just today, June 10, 2023, while I was in the internet in search of historical information on the evolution of pickups, I came across an article which, at a certain point, while talking about humbuckers, states verbatim: "Furthermore, the deletion of the Hum also cancels out frequencies, which results in a loss of harmonics, which is most noticeable with a clean sound (tanslated from Italian language)".
This, for me, was the classic straw that broke the camel's back. I've read and heard all sorts of things on the subject and the phenomenon, go go go go, it can always be traced back to the same basic reason: the average electric guitarist (i.e. the vast majority) finds himself in the hands , despite itself, an instrument characterized by its conceptual and structural complexity, not knowing enough about which, too often falls victim to self-produced suggestions, the result of urban legends or sentenced by the neighborhood "guru" or other non-technical handyman, but very good at telling and supporting nonsense).
Among the many D.O.C. nonsenses on the relationship between the electric phase and the sound of the pickups that I came across there was another one, in particular, which is worth narrating as it is emblematic.

I read it on a well-known Italian site/forum and it features a stratocasterian guitarist who, evidently in good faith and relying exclusively on his own, unfortunate experience, intervenes in a discussion advising another to avoid SSS pickup configurations in which the central single coil is of type RW/RP because, according to him, it "ruins the sound" when the Strat is played in positions 2 or 4 .
Evidently, in his case the middle pickup had been wired in the wrong order, resulting in a mismatch in positions 2 and 4 of the five-way selector.

RW/RP stands for Reverse Wound / Reverse Polarity, or "reverse winding and polarity".
Inverted with respect to whom? But to the "neighbor", of course, which in the case described, with the middle single coil as RW/RP protagonist, are the two single coils mounted on the neck and bridge positions.
In the case of the humbucker pickup, on the other hand, which is composed of nothing more than two single coil pickups side by side and connected in series (in the case of positions 2 and 4 of the Strat, the two single coils are connected in parallel, but the cancellation or hum-bucking effect is obtained equally), the “neighbor” RW/RP is the other functional half of the same pickup.
Note that when I speak of "single coil" pickups I don't necessarily mean Strat single coil ones. Even the two halves of a PAF can be considered as two single coils. Telecaster and P90 pickups are also single coil pickups, okay? The geometries and other details change, but the basic structure always remains the same.

Let us now explain why both of the statements I have reported are nothing but colossal nonsense to be firmly and categorically disavowed, but first it is necessary to delve into a fundamental fact which I have already mentioned before. In fact, I wrote that the coil of wire, which is an essential part of the single coil pickup, is subject not only to the magnetic field produced by the magnets of the pickup itself, but also to any other magnetic or electromagnetic field that can be found in the vicinity of the guitar on the which is installed.

Physics teaches us that any conductor, when it is crossed by an electric current, is the seat of a magnetic field, which is proportional and linked to the current itself. The same occurs for the power cable, and not only, of our amplifier, television or other appliances.


When the amplifier is switched on, a variable electric current flows in its (typically unshielded) power cable (more precisely, alternating with a 50 or 60 Hz cycle, depending on the country) which consequently emits a variable electromagnetic field which can be picked up by the coils of our pickups, even at a certain distance.
Therefore, it is worth emphasizing that the pickup magnets are not affected, at least appreciably, by the influence of the "polluting" electromagnetic field just described, but only the coils are.

Now let's finally move on to the explanation of the humbucking effect.
The pickups, both single coil and humbucker have, as described, a double "personality", in the sense that the voltage signals produced at the ends of their coils can be due either to the magnetic field (variable over time) produced by the interaction of the magnets "on board" with the movement of the strings or by the accidental magnetic fields present in the surrounding environment.
In the case of single coil pickups it is not possible to completely contrast the phenomenon and the only effective remedy is to move the guitar away from sources of electromagnetic pollution which produce effects in the human audible frequrncy range. Of course, it is never possible to remove the guitar from the electromagnetic fields emitted by TV, radio, mobile telephone repeaters, but their effects, however present, are not audible as they are emitted at ultrasonic frequencies.

The overall phase of the musical signal produced by a pickup is due half to the orientation of the magnets (magnetic polarity, each magnet has a north and a south pole) and the other half to the electrical phase of the wound wire coil.

Inverting the polarity of the magnets OR that of the coil (even simply by exchanging the two output wires, as already explained) means, however, inverting the phase (that is, anticipating or retarding it by 180 degrees) of the signal produced by the pickup.

Given two single coils that are also identical in terms of magnetic polarity and electric phase, if both the polarity of the magnets and the electric phase of the coil are inverted in only one of the two, the output signal from the latter undergoes not one, but two single phase rotations of 180 degrees which, added together, make a total of 360 degrees, i.e. a complete cycle!
The same can be obtained by inverting the magnetic polarity in one of the two and the electric polarity in the other.
Saying that you have shifted a periodic signal by 360 sexagesimal degrees means exactly, in practical terms, the same thing as not having shifted it at all (with respect to the reference), or rather having it "shifted" by 0 (zero) degrees.



The phenomenon just described particularly affects the signals produced as a consequence of the movement of the strings.

Now let's consider the classic electric guitar humbucker pickup, whose two constituent coils are typically connected in series to algebraically add up their contributions and thus obtain a "high output" signal.
The two coils in question have, by definition, electrical phase reversed with respect to each other.
Consequently, any magnetic or electromagnetic field that invests them (in an almost identical way, being close and oriented in space in the same way) will consequently produce electrical signals having practically identical amplitudes, but opposite mutual phases (0 and 180 degrees ). It follows that the two distinct signals produced by the same number of coils due to an unwanted electric field will mutually, annihilate each other.
This algebraic cancellation phenomenon occurs for all the signals that the two coils, in mutual electrical opposite phase, produce due to electromagnetic fields produced externally to the guitar.
To put it bluntly, the algebraic cancellation of the two signals could also occur by plucking the strings, so our guitar would remain silent both in terms of buzz picked up accidentally and trying to play it. However, this particular situation would occur only and only if all the magnets of both single coils making up the humbucker face the same magnetic polarity towards the strings, i.e. all twelve north, OR all twelve south.

In fact, Seth Lover's genius consisted in inverting BOTH the electrical phase AND the magnetic polarity between the two constituent single coils. That is, a coil wound in one direction and with its magnets oriented with north towards the strings and the other coil wound in the opposite direction to that of the first and with its magnets facing magnetic south towards the strings.

So, in summary, by inverting the respective electrical phase of the two coils we obtain the hum-bucking effect (or hum cancellation) with respect to the magnetic fields generated externally to the guitar.
Simultaneously orienting the magnetic polarities in an opposite way between the two single coils, we obtain that only the signal produced by the coils due to the movement of the strings undergoes, in one of the two, two phase rotations added together and having the same sign (+ 180+180 = 360 = 0 / or -180 -180 = 360 = 0, clear?).

So if one of the two humbucker coils, by plucking the strings, produces a signal that we consider as a reference, i.e. zero phase, the other coil produces a signal that undergoes two simultaneous phase inversions, i.e. 360 degrees overall, of which 180 degrees due to the reversed orientation of the magnets and another 180 degrees due to the electrical phase reversal between the coils. 360 degrees corresponds to a complete cycle, i.e. zero, so the signal produced by the movement of the strings, in an humbucker, is exactly the same(!) in the two possible cases, i.e. when both the two constituent single coils have both opposed electrical phase and magnetic polarity (i.e. are RW/RP) and when they have the same electrical phase and all the magnets facing the strings with the same polarity (all 12 north OR all 12 south). In the latter case, however, the signal produced by the movement of the strings is superimposed by the hum picked up by the coils alone.

When, on the other hand, both the electric and magnetic phases of one of the two single coils are inverted, the entire humbucker pickup will almost exclusively produce the signal due to the movement of the strings.

After all this (deliberately) long-winded and redundant explanation, it should be clear even to the hardest, I hope, as in a correctly wired humbucker pickup that makes use of the Reverse Wound / Reverse Polarity technique, there will be absolutely no harmonic or polar impairment. output level. Indeed, in a pickup with two paired coils connected in series, but without RW/RP technique, the timbre and the output remain exactly the same, but the signal produced due to any picked up hum overlaps that of the musical signal, polluting it in a certainly unhealthy way.

The same can be said, almost identically, in the case of two single coils (e.g. P90, Telecaster SC or Strat SC) that are triggered together and connected in parallel. In fact, everything concerning the hum-cancelling effect due to the RW/RP technique is valid both for two single coils connected in series and for two single coils connected in parallel.

So if you have purchased an SSS set with an admittedly Reverse Wound / Reverse Polarity middle pickup and your Strat, when used in position 2 and/or 4 produces a sound with a clearly lower volume and a shrill and nasal timbre, the fault lies only and exclusively of the handyman who performed the installation


So if you have purchased an SSS set with an admittedly Reverse Wound / Reverse Polarity central pickup and your Strat, when used in position 2 and/or 4 produces a sound with a clearly lower volume and a shrill and nasal timbre, the fault lies only and exclusively of the handyman who carried out the installation who, in spite of himself, inverted the wires of one or more pickups during the wiring of the circuit. This eventuality can happen, theoretically, even to a non-improvised technician. In the latter case, however, at the next dutiful test of the guitar, being an expert, he should immediately notice the error and proceed accordingly...
All of this, of course, can also happen in the case of a four-wire humbucker.

Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that a four-wire humbucker is wired so that only one coil is ever working. The unfortunate person on duty finds himself playing with a single coil believing it to be a humbucker, and maybe, he doesn't realize it for years.

The distinctive sound of one humbucker (with both coils working and connected in series) or two single coils (connected in parallel, e.g. position 2 or 4 in a Strat) operated at the same time, whether or not the RW technique is used /RP, is due solely and exclusively to the fact that the two single coils (even in the extreme case of Hot Rails or JBs) "read" the movement of the strings ("magnetic window") in two different points (distinct and distant, mi pass the pun). Different both in terms of the amplitude of the vibration of the string and the percentage content of harmonics produced by the same vibration of the string in its different points, depending on the distance from the bridge.

If your SSS set, on the other hand, DOES NOT have the RW/RP central pickup (happy you...), the same handyman mentioned above could, again, make a mistake in the wiring and make sure that, even in this case, you find the counter-phase in positions 2 and/or 4 of the five-way selector (or in position 2 if you have a Telecaster or Les Paul having two P90s).

Generally the accidental counter phase is quite evident and eliminating it is decidedly part of the ordinary administration, for a proper technician but also for a sagacious guitarist able to carry out decent soldering.

Two neighboring single coils, when activated together, are almost always connected in parallel (many guitarists, however, exploit, with satisfaction, the series connection between the bridge and middle single coils or between middle and neck, for example). The output signal of the parallel is practically the average between the two individual signals which, being fairly balanced between them, give as a result a signal having an amplitude very close to that produced individually by each of the two pickups. To give a practical example, one could think of what is obtained by placing two identical batteries in parallel.

The timbre of the parallel, on the other hand, is characteristically (and well-liked) different from those produced individually by the two single coils.

I quote, again, the example of positions 2 and 4 in a normal Stratocaster.

When, on the other hand, the parallel between the two single coils is accidentally counter-phase, you realize it immediately because you notice the substantial lowering of the volume and that the "little" that remains of the musical signal has a decidedly shrill tonal character (to some guitarists, however, like it).
If in a correctly wired single coils parallel the average of the two single signals is obtained, in a parallel wired in opposite phase the subtraction is obtained, which never gives zero (i.e. silent guitar) because the two signals are never completely identical, neither in breadth nor in terms of harmonic content.

To understand how to put back an accidental counterphase let's consider the example of the “usual” hypothetical Strato SSS.
Once this is understood, it should also be clear how to intervene in the case of guitars equipped with only two single coils.

First hypothesis: set of SSS pickups with RW/RP middle pointing counter-phase in positions 2 and 4.

In this case either the middle pickup has been wired “upside down” or so both the neck and bridge pickups have been wired wrong.
In any case, before adjusting the electrical phase it is always advisable to check that there have not been any mistakes in the positioning of the pickups. That is, the bridge pickup must be in the bridge, the middle in the center and the neck pickup in... the neck.

To fix this, it will be sufficient to unsolder the wires of the middle single coil and re-solder them in their respective seats after inverting the pre-existing order.

Second hypothesis. Set of SSS pickups with RW/RP middle that accuses counter-phase only in position 2: the wiring of the bridge pickup wires must be reversed.


Third hypothesis: Set of SSS with RW/RP middle that accuses counter-phase only in position 4. The wiring of the neck pickup wires must be reversed.

If the SSS set installed is declared by the manufacturer as having the middle pickup NOT RW/RP (again: happy you...), then both the possible cases and the relative solutions indicated in the three hypotheses described above are repeated exactly.

In all cases, when the SSS set is correctly installed and wired, the one and only difference that is immediately evident is that in positions 2 and 4, with the set having the RW/RP middle pickup, the guitar is completely (or almost? ) silent, while in the case of the set with NON RW/RP central pickup the audible hum will be the same found in positions 1, 3 and 5. That's it!

If the two sets of pickups have been made in a perfectly identical way except for the adoption or not of the RW/RP technique, apart from the cancellation of the hum only in positions 2 and 4, everything else remains exactly the same, both in terms of timbre and as output levels, in each of the five positions of the five-way selector. I know that for more than someone I can be boring and repetitive but, since it turns and turns you always come across the same nonsense that many subjects without the necessary knowledge of the facts insist on affirming, then it is appropriate that someone also undertakes to declare how things really are.

In the case of two coil humbuckers, such as a PAF, a Hot Rails or a JB, the pickup often terminates with four separate wires (or four wires + shielding bare, as also in my humbuckers, signed ASAR). There is no universal convention on the meaning of the color of the individual threads, so each manufacturer decides on his own as he sees fit. As far as I'm concerned, my humbuckers, being equipped with generous output levels, I always make them usable in "split mode", so I finish them with four-wire cables + braid. Obviously, I always use the RW/RP technique for the two single coils that make up my humbuckers.

The colors have the following meanings:

RED: NORTH coil positive;

WHITE: negative (or mass) of the NORTH coil;

YELLOW: SOUTH coil positive;

BLACK: SOUTH coil negative (or ground).


For the avoidance of doubt, by NORTH coil I mean the one facing the neck. Conversely, for
SOUTH coil I mean the one that, once the pickup is installed, faces in the direction of the bridge.

If I install the humbucker on one of my prewired Strat pickguards, in addition to making it always splittable via a push-pull switch, I make sure that the coil that always remains active is the NORTH coil, both in the case of bridge and neck.

If some unfortunate person comes into possession of one of my loose humbuckers or supplied as a neck/bridge pair, if you want to make it splittable, you can obviously orient yourself as you prefer, but in case of doubts, I strongly advise you to leave the NORTH coils working as always.

That said, let's see how to wire these humbuckers correctly. The red wire is always the positive of the entire humbucker and must be connected to the appropriate selector contact. The white and yellow should be soldered together and left floating (after insulating the joint with electrical tape, shrink tubing or other suitable material) if you decide to always use the humbucker with both coils working. If, on the other hand, you intend to take advantage of the opportunity to split it, then the junction between yellow and white should not be isolated, but soldered to one of the two contacts of an ON/OFF switch. The other contact of the switch must be connected to the circuit ground. The black wire, as well as the braid of the cable, must be grounded in any case. If the switch is turned ON (contact closed), the south coil is bypassed by shorting its start terminal to the winding end terminal.

When both coils are working, the hum-bucking effect is exploited and this is true both in the classic case of coils connected in series and in the less usual case of parallel connection of an humbucker pickup.

The level of the output signal, with the coils connected in series, is almost double compared to what is produced by both the parallel connection and the "split mode" (i.e. a single working coil). Returning to the example of two identical batteries, this time it is as if they were placed in series, with the consequent addition (or doubling) of the overall voltage supplied.

In the three distinct cases, output levels aside, the sonic behaviors are different from each other. So those looking for a single coil pickup but also wanting it to be silent cannot find a way out tout court by adopting a RW/RP humbucker and connecting its coils in parallel.

As already explained, a single coil pickup detects the movement of the strings in a single point (what some define as the "magnetic window"), while a humbucker (two single coils side by side, but NOT coincident in terms of physically occupied space) detects it in two distinct points to each other, however close they may be.
As a result, the tone of a humbucker, especially with the coils connected in series, appears "compressed and middling" compared to the sound of a single coil pickup.
With two working coils, the harmonic content of the output signal is always the result of the interaction between the two different harmonic spectrums of the same number of coils with different algebraic operations, depending on the series or parallel connection.

There would also be the matter of stacked humbuckers, but I won't go into that here, having gone on enough already.

At this point it should be clear, or at least I hope so, why in the sound of a humbucker the cancellation (or, more correctly, attenuation?) or the emphasis of certain frequencies has nothing to do with the RW technique /RP and the hum cancellation that it entails.

What I have said so far is the result of almost a decade of direct experience in the design, development and construction of passive pickups for electric guitars and basses.
Part of the specimens produced I also use them for the creation of prewired pickguards.
My pickups, which I produce on my own, are equipped with either ceramic (ferrite) magnets or, for the most part, with the incomparable neodymium magnets.
I always wind the bobbins by guiding the thread by hand, using a self-built electric winding machine.
I note that I wrote this article almost in one go and without any claim to scientific rigor, in fact the intention was to give it an eminently practical and understandable cut to as many guitarists as possible. I hope I succeeded and not receive inappropriate criticism.
If, after careful and perhaps even repeated reading, something is not clear to someone, they can contact me at asar.amplification@gmail.com .
I will try to answer as soon as possible.

Alessandro (ASAR pickups – Cassino, Italy)

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.

                                   OTHER PICTURES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE

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