Dave Breault's Page

Hey Dave - thought this might interest you. I am building a bass and thought I would use one of these pickups instead of a piezo but what was worrying me was the prospect of cutting the neck to fit the pickup rather than having the neck run the length of the box which is preferable from the stress point of view. So as an experiment I clamped an adaptor at the back of the neck with a big magnet attached - wrapped a strip of meccano round the neck in contact with the adaptor (so it was magnetised too) and twanged a loose string over it. It worked. So that might open up a few opportunites methinks. Maybe just putting bolts through the neck under each string and connecting them up will improve the aesthetics and give height adjustable pickups. Back to the workshop!

It's kind of neat that it works - but it'd be so much neater if we knew why

I can't rule out the possibility of current coming from the amp, but it seems a long shot. I understand amps and effects tend to have an input capacitor to cut out any unwanted DC current. I still think it's more likely that something's got magnetised.
I guess one way to check if there's a DC current turning your coil into an electromagnet would be to try a capacitor in the circuit (a value of 100nF to 1uF in the line between the pickup and the tip of the jack should allow full audio signal through while blocking any DC). That wouldn't rule out an effect due to AC current - but it would have to be AC outside the audio range because otherwise you'd presumably have heard it.

I'm very interested in your experiments with a transformer as a pickup - specifically I'm very curious about why these things seem to work when there's no obvious magnet involved. Logic says there's a magnetic field involved somewhere but the question is where's it coming from. I've talked over a few theories with MrRandomWritings but with no real conclusions. I have a bit of electronics & physics knowledge (up to the first year of an engineering degree) but that dates from a long time ago so there's a limit to my expertise.
Sounds like your brother might have some useful insight. However I'm not sure the observation about an induction coil is all that helpful. In a way all magnetic pickups are a type of induction coil. If he means an induction coil like in an automobile ignition system then that needs a power supply to energise the primary and I don't see any external power supply.
Have you checked to see if any part of your pickup or your guitar is magnetised (eg. by using a compass needle)?

Hi Dave - thanks for the comment and pictures - so glad it worked for you too with similar results. I stripped the guitar down yesterday as I need to modify the headstock and replace the jack socket but I will re-assemble it today and see what else I can do with it. I will have a go with some special FX pedals too as I don't normally use them with the piezo pickups (I seem to recall they don't work very well but I may be wrong - it's a long time since I tried). Look forward to seing the end result when you get your instrument finished

Hi - thanks for commenting. Yes I just put some black enamel paint on the metal to make it look better. I was thinking of using part of the casing as a cover but this was just a prototype

Hi, well I fretted the first 2 or 3 prototypes I made and then removed them from one of them so at present I have no plans to start adding frets again although you never know

Happy to accept your friend invite and thanks for the comment - was trying to create the illusion of country life with a scraggy tree in a pot LOL!

ok dave let me know im in the heart of the valley

ya dave that line has the sound ill still trade ya one for one dude,are you comeing to NS anytime.