Skylark

[rooney]

I've been lurking around for a bit of time now and have noticed all the Skylarks only ever have two humbuckers which seem to be larger than the normal humbucker. My plan is to one day get a custom Skylark (One day being about 10 years from now) and I'd like to know, can Skylarks be set up with a humbucker at the neck, a single coil in the middle, and a humbucker at the bridge with a brass ring surrounding the pickups similar to those on the Tributes and Further?
 
Thanks in advance,
Tom

[valvil]

Hello Tom,
 
our Skylarks have humcanceling pickups rather than humbuckers (no coil tap possible on humcancelers).
 
The only single coil pickups we make (for bass or guitar) are our series pickups, and those cannot be mixed with the humcancelers. We make humcancelers in different shapes, and we do make one that looks like a single coil guitar pickup but it's not.
 
The brass pickup ring is possible, we've done it before though it does add a LOT of weight to the instrument.
 
We can do a 3 pickup Skylark, we can also fit the electronics from the further/tribute models in a Skylark if that's what you want.
 
Valentino

[pace]

Would it be possible to do Series electronics in the Skylark, even if it meant a thicker body?

[rooney]

Are the pickups that look like single coils on the Tributes just humcancelers? (I've tried to do some research on the pickups but I seem to be having a bit of trouble, if a link could be supplied it would help me grealy)

[mica]

You're correct. With the exception of the Series I and II instruments, all our pickups are stacked humcancelling type. We don't employ the pickups like many other makers. In our scheme, they aren't tone controls, just transducers. All the tone control is done with the electronics.  
 
Now, different sizes of humcancelling pickups will sound different. Larger apertures (width of magnet), will generally yield fuller sounds.  
 
One place to find information on lots of good stuff, including some posts about pickups is the  and FAQ pages.  
 
If you have any other questions, please post them here, and between us at the shop and the kind club members, we'll help you figure out what's best for your long-term plan.  
 
If you get a chance to play an Alembic guitar sometime, it will probably be helpful as a reference.

[bsee]

I'll add one more question here.  Are there different magnets in the Skylark pickups vs. the ones that look like single coils, or is it just a larger housing for appearance?  If the difference is all about appearance, you might as well stick with the smaller ones.  On the other hand, if they use wider magnets in the larger housings, then maybe there's a difference in output and/or tone between them.
 
-bob
 
[edit - looks like Mica was answering my question as I was asking it...]
 
(Message edited by bsee on July 29, 2006)

[grateful]

From my experience with my delectable Further, the  Strat-size neck pickup has a different voice to the two humbucker size pickups:  it is definitely Stratocasteresque.  I assume this is because of the amount of string the pickup actually picks up.  Therefore, I'm sure the larger pickups must have larger (physically) magnets in them.
 
I also feel that the difference in sound  between the individual pickups is less with an Alembic than a conventional guitar:  i.e. the difference in sound between the bridge and middle pickup on my Further is less than the difference between those pickups on a Strat.
 
I have noticed that the pickups on a Skylark are not the same as the humbucker sized pickups on the Further:  I don't know if they sound different as I've not played a Skylark.
 
Hope that helps a bit.
 
Mark