Idea for Alembic-inspired Strat Mod - Will It Work?

[lbpesq]

I was wondering if I replaced the middle pickup on a Strat with a dummy coil - windings without any magnets, would I not get a hum cancelled single coil in the 2 and 4 positions of a 5 way blade switch?  And could I wire the third position to use both neck and bridge pickups together, along with the middle hum canceller?  I'd love to hear opinions from those with more electronic and technical knowledge than me (it doesn't take much- lol).


Bill, tgo

[cozmik_cowboy]

I await the responses of the adepts; I have looked the wind-your-own humbucker kits in the Stew-Mac catalogue and wondered, "Hmm -  if I were to leave out one magnet.....I wonder?"

Peter

[lbpesq]

I recently picked up a used pickup winding machine and am about to dive off the deep end.  The ideas are percolating!  I'm going to start with single coils employing Alnico 3 magnets.

Bill, tgo

[cozmik_cowboy]

Sounds like fun; keep us posted!

Peter

[gtrguy]

The 2 & 4 positions on a 5 way Strat are already hum-canceling, due to the middle pickup having a reverse polarity. I have wired up Strats using on-off switches for the pickups and you do get a few more sound combinations that way.

Most folks just find a good sounding Strat (from the thousands out there) and keep them and play them. A good sounding set of pickups makes a big difference on a Strat, and there are many companies out there who make them

Fender Custom Shop & Van Zandt pickups out of Texas are two that I can recommend.

[mario_farufyno]

It will have to be phase inverted to both remaining pickups, so you have to check how each Fender PU phase is as they're usually phase inverted (don't know who is out of phase though). But to work as Alembic does, dummy strengh have to match PU's strengh.

As far as I remember, in Alembic Series the dummy PU have two coils with separated gain control to match noise amplitude from each pickup. Seems to be difficult to have the same magnetic strengh on each coil (there are so many factors, as winding number, wire gauge and how magnet was made), so their signal (and induced noise) tend to be slightly different and thats what can affect how much cancel you will get.

Other thing to consider is that the dummy in Alembic have two coils, one per PU, and that's why you can use one single PU and sum keeps silent. If you'll use just one single dummy coil, your strat will have to use both PU on same phase and always on. If you want to use just one of them sometime, you will need two coils on this dummy and they have to match noise level from each PUs. Not easy to achieve, and that seems to be why Ron added gain adjustment to each coil in the dummy.

This is not easy subject and I hope my lousy english doesn't mess with it some more...

[lbpesq]

David, I know the 2 & 4 positions can be "humcancelling" if the center pickup is wound in the opposite direction and the magnets inverted in relation to the neck and bridge pickups.  But what you are getting is more like a wide-spaced humbucker.  Both pickups are producing a signal.  That's not the same as just the neck or bridge producing a signal.  What I'm thinking about is a true single coil tone from either the neck or bridge without the single coil noise. 

Mario, I don't understand how a dummy coil can have the same magnetic strength as the regular pickup when the dummy coil has no magnets?  Also, I don't believe my Series instruments have independent gain controls for the dummy pickup.   And, if I understand you correctly, you are saying that the Alembic Series dummy pickup is actually two separate dummy pickups in the same housing?

Bill, tgo

[tx196059]

I recently purchased a Strat with Alembic PU's, and I had similar thoughts. Reference this past thread, and the quote below from the thread;

http://alembic.com/club/messages/16271/18779.html?1117034562

>>>Mica:
All the non-Series Alembic pickups are stacked humcancelling pickups, we don't make any humbucking pickups. Even the ones that look like single-coil guitars pickups are stacked humcancelling pickups.<<<


So in fact, you already have the 3 stacked dummy coils in the 3 Strat PU's, if I understand correctly. Changing anything would have interesting if not mixed results. And maybe the same goes for the P style PU's. Originally, Leo Fender wired the separate halves of the PU's in reverse, to act as humbucking. So, my question is, are the separate dummy stacked halves of the P style PU's wired in reverse to produce a humbucking/humcancelling combination. Thoughts?

Joe

[lbpesq]

Joe, you are really confusing me.  First, I'm talking about regular, ordinary passive single coil pickups, not Alembic pickups.  And I have no idea what you mean by "Leo Fender wired the separate halves of the PU's in reverse".  Fender single coils don't have "separate halves".  What I mean is this:  take a regular, ordinary, run-of-the-mill, unmodified Strat with stock, regular, ordinary, unmodified passive pickups.  Remove the middle pickup and replace it with a dummy coil - the windings without any magnets.

Bill

[cozmik_cowboy]

Bill, before the sentence you quote, Joe says "And maybe the same goes for the P style PU's."

P-bass p/ups (and Electric XII p/ups, for that matter) are actually two RW/RP p/ups, 2 (or, for the XII, 6) strings per p/up.  And just to completely geek out on you, the E XII p/up was also used on the Custom (some samples were labeled Maverick), a 6-string made to use up parts after they stopped the E XII; on that they, of course, ran 3-to-a-p/up.

Peter

[tx196059]

Ah, I see what you are thinking about now. If you try to match the coil of a dummy PU with passive strat PU's, that will be a challenge. Good luck, and I hope you share any info on your work. You may invent a whole new sound.

Separate halves of the offset "P style" (Precision) bass pickups. Sorry for the confusion.

Also, on the Series front, I believe I read somewhere that the center two adjusters on the back plate are used to adjust the dummy(s) for quietest output. I have never touched those adjusters, since they are set at the factory with better equipment and expertise than I have. I will try to find the reference on that.

[gtrguy]

I once bought a vintage 78 Strat with the pickups replaced by a set of 3 carvin single coils. The Carvins were made perfectly and measured exactly the same for output. Luckily for me, the original owner had included the original Fender pickups with my guitar. They were all over the place in ohms and output. However, when I put the original pickups back in it, it came alive!

The moral to the story: The 'flaws and quirks' were what made the Fender Strat sound so good. It is even more true for 1950's & 1960's Fenders.

[elwoodblue]

The moral to the story: The 'flaws and quirks' were what made the Fender Strat sound so good. It is even more true for 1950's & 1960's Fenders.

My buddy mentioned it took him a while to get the hang of scatterwinding.
Have fun Bill, I bet you'll come up with some good sounding pups after a little
learning curve.

[bigredbass]

At one time, Lindy Fralin sold an assembly with some sort of hum-canceller wired into the tremolo cover back plate that was a 'drop-in' for most wiggle-stick Strats.  It wasn't something he'd designed, but was for sale in his website.  He no longer lists it, but you might contact them to see if you can track one down.

www.fralinpickups.com

Joey

[lbpesq]

I found a youtube video where the guy takes a Strat single coil pickup, pushes out the magnets, and wires it between the output lug on the 5-way switch and the input on the volume pot (removing the direct wire that connects these two points).  Then he just leaves the dummy coil in the control cavity.  Any reason whay this shouldn't work?

Bill, tgo