E-mando pickups

[Ed Fowler]

Hello,
I've been thinkin' lately 'bout building my own e-mando based on Nash the Slash's custom mando.
What would be the best pickup to use? Would it be better to plan a four or eight string mando?

Look forward hearing from you.

EdtheSquid

[mandroid]

pickup selection depends on your sound preference .

a stratocaster format pickup is fairly compact, those are wound in many ways.

blades are less fussy on location of pole directly under the string , but a magnetic field is not focused like a flashlight.

4 string would be less subject to the 2nd one of the course being a wee bit out of unison, bendable; or that bit of phase dissonance may be useful.

if you build it in such a way as to make the pickup easily changed , you can try several, and see which is You.
build 2?

I like my 4 string in 'dola pitch CGDA, stacked humbucker type pickup.

[mrmando]

Nash's emandos, built by Vladimir Bosnar, are based on the Gibson EM200:

http://nashtheslash.byethost33.com/nashtalks.htm

Therefore you'll want 8 strings and a pickup equivalent to the 4-pole P-90.

[EdSherry]

I don't know of any readily available "stock" e-mando pickups. #That said, a lot of people use one-half of an Bartolini P-bass pickup for a four-string mando pickup. #(I retrofitted one into my Epiphone MandoBird four-string. #IMHO, it's a great improvement over the stock pickup.)

Blade-style pickups have the advantage that standard electric guitar pickups will work on a mando, in a way that pole-piece style pickups may not.

Personally, I'd suggest you contact Seymour Duncan; they'll custom-make you anything you want. #(There are other custom winders as well; I've dealt with Dan Torres in the past, and he's very good.) #

Then it's just a "simple" matter of figuring out what you DO want!

[mrmando]

There's always Steve Ryder.

[hotclub]

KentArmstrong makes mando humbuckers. I find the adjustable pole pieces to be ESSENTIAL for getting an even volume from each string, otherwise, generally the A is too loud and the E is too quiet.

[jmkatcher]

Jason Lollar will do mandolin P-90s. He's one of the most respected pickup guys around.

[clem]

IMO, Jason Lollar is the best pick-up guy around, particularly for P-90s.

Clem

[jmkatcher]

The other pickup guy I really like is TV Jones. I don't know if he'd do a mandolin Filtertron, but it's a cool idea.

[Jim Hilburn]

I've been working on a 5-string archtop and for this project, a pickup like the Bennedetto which glues to the underside of the pickguard is what I'm looking for.
I contacted Seymour Duncan and they will make a nice humbucker with the braket for pickguard mounting and polepieces to spec, but it's going to be expensive. $225.
I need to contact a guy in Kansas who had one of these instruments at Winfield last year to see what he was using. I took some photo's of his and whatever he used looks just right.
Gary, if you see this, PM me.

[mrmando]

Nice-looking instrument; looks like something Tom Durr might have made. I have an archtop like that in pieces right now; going to be an 8-string mandola. Might get Fletcher Brock to finish it for me. I was thinking about a floating pickup too, so perhaps, Jim, you could let me know what you find out.

[clem]

That looks like a Bartolini pick-up (long ago they were called called Hi-A). I have one as the magnetic pick-up in the dual source system in my acoustic guitar. GREAT pick-up. These days I think they primarily do bass pickups and some guitar (jazz) stuff, but I bet they can do a great 5 string mando pickup for you.

Good luck. Great looking mandolin.
Clem

[Jim Hilburn]

That's a long scale wide fingerboard instrument. It could be a guitar pickup.

[thistle3585]

Jim, here is a thread that has that type of setup. Jazz humbucker project Don't know if thats what you're looking for but I always liked the modification.

I use to be a fan of Bartolini 8CBP split bass pickups, even sold about a dozen or more to cafe members, for some reason they sound good in mandobirds, but the more I used them the more I became less impressed. They are made for covering two bass strings, so the blades are off center and shorter than the actual width of the pickup. So, if you get one, the front half of the pair needs to be turned backwards to get decent coverage on the E string. That aside, Bartolini does make another pickup, the AC10 I believe, and it is the same size physically but it has a wider blade in the pickup. Haven't tried that one yet, but will soon. Currently, I'm really liking the Carvin stacked humbuckers.

[Klaus Wutscher]

The other pickup guy I really like is TV Jones. #I don't know if he'd do a mandolin Filtertron, but it's a cool idea.

Actuall, I emailed TV Jones and he said that I could have a four- string Filtertron for an upcharge of USD 10.-(!)
That would make 130 Bucks for the pickup which is more than reasonable for a custom wound pickup. I am very temted to go that way- Filtertrons and Dynasonics are some of the best Pickups ever designed imo, very verstile, transparent, and they are so cool.....

[Klaus Wutscher]

I contacted Seymour Duncan and they will make a nice humbucker with the braket for pickguard mounting and polepieces to spec, but it's going to be expensive. $225.

Jim, I am currently in posession of the Neubauer five string emando which you can see in the eye candy section. It does have a custom Seymore duncan pickup which is screwed to the neck below the fingerboard. It sounds great but it is a stricly jazz sounding pickup - great for swing, bebop or western swing. Once a little twang or even slight distortion is wanted it does not work well. That´s why i am considering an electric with Filtertrons; they can do the jazz thing but they also twang.

[Jim Hilburn]

I hadn't considered the half of a P-Bass option. The size at 2.2" is just right. I guess you just solder the wires going to the second pickup and toss it in the dust collection bin.
However, your going to have a single coil, right?

[clem]

Wow, an emando with a custom TV Jones Filtertron!?! That sounds like a dream come true. I'm way into that set of tones. Can't wait to see and hear that one, Klaus.

Clem

[Jim Hilburn]

I've been on an internet chase.
One option...a DiMarzio split P. This is a P-bass pickup which is actually 2 humbuckers with 4 wires each giving you a lot of wiring options. about $60.
Problem...It has twin blades that appear to be too short to fully get under the outside strings by about an eighth of an inch.
Off to continue the search.

[thistle3585]

Jim, I have half of a split p bass if you want to try it. PM me if you are interested.

[Lee]

Jim, maybe Bill Lawrence can build what you want.

[MANNDOLINS]

Jim, I used half of a bill lawrence p46 once which is a p bass pickup but has 5 pole pieces instead of 4. Works great on 5 string but is still single coil, Becky (Bill's wife) said that he might consider doing a stacked humbucker version.

[Jim Hilburn]

There's a couple of P-bass Lace Sensor sets on e-bay right now. They're like 2 individual pickups with 4 wires each, so it's like getting 2 for 1.
The "sensor, which isn't a coil around magnets is in a plastic housing that's the standard P-bass size, but doesn't take up all of the interior space. But it does go from nearly end to end and is supposed to pick up uniformly across it's entire length so it looks ideal for the string spacing issue.
The biggest problem I see with these and all the p-bass type pickups is the big screw ears. I think those could be removed cleanly enough and a pickguard mount fabricated.

[Jim Hilburn]

Here's the result of the pickup search.
A custom built Kent Armstrong humbucker with alnico poles.
Encased in ebony, it's sure looks cool. We'll find out how it sounds within a month.
Just over $100, which doesn't seem bad for being hand-made by a legend.