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
Thanks for the comment. For Truss Rods, just standard 18 1/4" two way rods. You can get them all over the place but I have a guy that I always go back to due to his price and quality.
Thanks for your kind words Dave,if it's ok with you when I finish the song from the harrods video I would like to call it "Bullfrog Boogie" after your great discription.
Thanks for your comment Dave. Well we are here to share our ideas and hopefully some people will be inspired to make their own instruements with whatever they have available - I think that is part of the challenge.
Hi, thanks for the video comment...mmm oak, could be..it certainly felt pretty hard when I drilled it. Let me know if you do build one , I'd like to see it : -)
I appreciate that, bro. Funny thing is I'm not the most expensive guy out there. I've seen some cats that are charging pretty crazy amounts for comparatively simple/basic guitars. I mean, if they can get that then more power to them but personally I feel I have to charge an honest amount. For a good custom guitar you probably start at $2,000 to $3000 and go up from there. I can make a guitar that plays just as well as those but I'm not working that hard on the body (it's just a box after all). Also, I can pay $5 to $10 for the box rather than minimum $60 for a body blank. If I want to make a solid body I just make a poplar insert for the box to the tune of $12. Pretty much all the price for one of mine goes into parts, the amount of effort I put into the neck, and a good set-up job, so you end up paying $500 to $700 instead of $2,000 to $3,000.
Better believe, though, that when I start offering conventional solid bodies the price will be equal to the instrument.
Regarding amount of time spent on the neck, my best guess is about 30 but it's really hard to know for sure because I don't work on a set schedule. It's however much time I care to devote to it on week nights and how much I can spare over the weekend. I can say that it's about 6-8 hours just to carve it properly once I get the fingerboard laminated on. A fret job from start all the way to end when I polish the frets takes me a whole day (not an 8 hour day but about 9 am to 11 pm or so). I should probably add it all up some time and see just out of curiosity. It always takes so long to do because it's critical that the neck be accurate for everything else to line up correctly, so it's always best to go slow, slow, slow.
Hey, thanks for the comment. Yes, French polish. If you're interested in learning how I can provide advice and point you to some great resources. Just let me know.
In this video I compare the three different wooden slides made by David Bell and Phil Young up against my Dunlop glass slide! I gotta say these wooden slides...
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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.
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)?
Better believe, though, that when I start offering conventional solid bodies the price will be equal to the instrument.
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