Alembic Guitars Club
Alembic products => Alembic Basses & Guitars => Topic started by: jalevinemd on November 30, 2017, 10:26:37 AM
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This question is for the guitarists here. All of my Alembics have two HG pickups. Is the difference between the STR and the HG similar to the difference between a single coil pickup and a humbucker?
In other words, if I'm looking to get more of a Strat sound on certain songs (without making amp and effect changes), will an Alembic with at least one STR get me closer than where I am now? Turning up the filter and flipping the BRIGHT switch gets me close...but I'd like closer. Or is an STR such a different beast entirely from a traditional STRAT single coil pickup that the point is moot?
Regards,
Jonathan
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The simplistic way that I understand it is the larger pick up samples ("hears") more of the string (thicker sound) and the smaller pick up samples less (thinner sound).
That having been said, I can obtain a thin bright sound on my Skylark, which has the larger pick ups, by manipulating the tone and volume controls and the Q switches.
In fact, the only sound I can't accurately mimic on that guitar is the out of phase "quack" sounds produced by a single-coil equipped Strat-style guitar when using the 2 and 4 positions on a 5-way switch - but I can get pretty close.
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The STRr and larger cased HG pickups are the same inside. Both pickups just have one str sized pickup. The difference between the two is just the casing.
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Seriously?
So the only reason the Further has HG and STR pickups is for space or aesthetics?
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I found this thread (http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=735.0) from four years ago in which I state the following:
"The HG has a wider aperture magnet than the STR; thus the HG sees more of the string than the STR. The STR will thus sound cleaner than the HG."
I no longer remember stuff like that, but apparently at the time I felt confident that there was a difference in the size of the magnet and therefore the tone.
There are some other comments in that thread related to your question.
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Thanks, Dave. I’ll give it a read.
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Well I must have readl that and forgotten about it then Dave, thanks for putting me right. :-)
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Curious to hear more opinions on what people actually hear and experience themselves for audio differences between the larger and smaller Alembic pickups. For people that have used/do use both and still have some further opinions, I hope you will please share additional info.
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I'll try to find time to pull out my Electrum and listen to its pickups for you
http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8999.0
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I'll try to find time to pull out my Electrum and listen to its pickups for you
http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8999.0
Beautiful guitar you have! :-)