Teach me

[Antlurz]

OK....

The fact is one of the first mandolins I ever built 30 some years ago was constructed using parts from a salvaged electric guitar, but in reality, my interests have always been miles away from electronic instruments, so it follows my understanding falls along those lines as well.

Lately, though, I've had the urge to build an electric again, but to do it reasonably right from the start, without spending a lot of money on electrics. Yeah, I know, that puts a crimp on the project from the start, but social security has that effect on reality, sometimes..

My roots are from back in the days of Johnny Horton, Chuck Berry, Dwayne Eddy and etc. so it follows what sort of sounds I'm enamored by.

Here's the question. what could a person expect from a set of cheepie pickups like these: http://www.stewmac.com/shop....ps.html be expected to do? Visually, they wouldn't look too bad.

I'm also aware that Bass pickups aren't considered too cool for mandolin use, but at the time I heard this, I wasn't paying a lot of attention, so the dog ended up eating my homework. Would they be expected to sound like something from barfsville or what?

Ron

[thistle3585]

The issue with the bass pickups not being very good is twofold. One, that you are taking a 8 ohm pickup and turning it into a 4 Ohm pickup by only using one of the pairs. Two, the internal rails, or magnets, on some bass pickups don't extend the whole length of the pickup because they are designed to only cover two strings.

I would suggest a mandolin pickup or a guitar pickup. If cost is an issue, you can often find decent used pickups at online auctions or classifieds. Try a repair shop too. They generally have lots lying around from having swapped out pickups.

Andrew

[Antlurz]

I'd considered buying one of the Stew Mac kits and cutting off one end end, eliminating two of the magnets and shortening up the whole assembly, but that would leave a problem with modifying the cover to look decent. One would think there would be more options available, but I guess the demand is less than we who are consumed by them would realize.,

I've got a few guitar pickups laying around, but the huge size of them in comparison to the mandolin is what I was trying to stay away from. The one I mentioned in my opening post works just fine, but looks like a bucket full of non mentionable, non attractive things.

Ron

[Shelby Eicher]

Ron,
After trying all of the blade technology I couldn't obtain the string balance I needed. I got Seymour Duncan to build me custom humbuckers and they are great. They are lil '59 Humbucker Strat style with tele tops and 4 pole pieces. The tele top gave the correct string spacing. They are sweet. Seymour Duncan 805-964-9610 ask for Derrick They were $300 for the pair. You could always go with one for half of that.
Shelby

[Antlurz]

Well, yeah. I know the good stuff is out there, and a Seymour Duncan would tickle the frets outta me, but like I said, social security is the biggest roadblock.

Just have to work with what is available. Likely as not, I'll end up with something like the EMG select.

Ron

[thistle3585]

Seymour Duncan makes a replacement pickup for the Fender Mandocaster. It's in their Antiquity line Item # 1034-51. There is one on ebay right now for $65.

Andrew

[Tebbie bear]

Those p-bass pups you linked to are the ones I used in my emando build:



I LOVE The tones I am getting. a nice fat jazzy tone, with a mandolin bite. I wouldn't recomend these if they were for your only emando but they sound great for a jazz axe.

[Antlurz]

I'm still kind of leaning that way some. Your description is fairly encouraging.

Ron

[MikeEdgerton]

Why not try a hand at making them yourself? Check this out.

[Antlurz]

That's kind of a neat little website!

[MikeEdgerton]

I'm sure you could dress them up a bit and they'd look just fine.

[Antlurz]

I'm curious about the polarity on a bar magnet pickup. Every magnet I've ever seen, the polarity would run lengthwise. Is that still true on a bar magnet pickup, and if so, do the windings go from north to south instead of around? Like Duh and stuff..........

[Antlurz]

So the N/S polarity of the magnet on a bar magnet still points up and down instead of crosswise?

[MikeEdgerton]

Yes, it points up and down. Look at the example on that page of the three magnets glued together.... assuming the example is correct and works

[Antlurz]

What I'm trying to say is, is the magnet polarized along it's length as normal, or is it polarized crosswise to keep the orientation the same in the finished product?

If the magnet was polarized "normally" the N/S would be on the ends of the construct, and I'd think the windings would not work that way.

[MikeEdgerton]

Those three magnets are N/S. The wire goes around them like it was the equator.

[Antlurz]

I understand that is how it is on his example, Mike, but on an actual bar, how is it done?

[MikeEdgerton]

I believe they are all N/S or S/N or a combination of the two. Check out the bottom portion of this article.

[Antlurz]

Mike..

I'm not sure you are seeing what I'm getting at about the polarity. If the bar isn't magnetized differently than normal, I don't see how it will work. Maybe this drawing will explain what is in my twisted mind.

Ron

[Antlurz]

On the stewmac polarity tester, just a simple cheap compass will save you $7

The North pole on the compass will point to the south pole on the magnet.

Ron

[MikeEdgerton]

North and south have to be oriented towards the strings and the top of the instrument. Your example two is the way a bar would have to work.

[Antlurz]

Yup. That's what I was talking about. A "normally" magnetized magnet wouldn't work.

Ron

[Antlurz]

I wonder what a person could come up with using an 8 ohm speaker magnet and coil?

Might be an interesting expirement.

Might end up with a microphone.



Ron

[bppubjr]

Yes, Antlurz, the bar magnets in a blade-style pickup are different from a typical bar magnet, in that the edges are the poles, rather than the ends. As in the middle drawing of the above graphic.

[bppubjr]

You can use a speaker as a microphone, but it works better with smaller (i.e., headphone or smaller) speakers since the air pressure of most sounds won't be able to deflect the weight of the cone and coil of a typical speaker enough to produce any output. Microphones have VERY light elements.

I don't think you could use a speaker coil and magnet as a pickup because you need lots of windings (higher impedance) to produce more output. After all, the mass of metal that the pickup actually "sees" vibrating is very small. Also, if the string were close enough to pick up, the strong magnet would kill the vibration.

Although, I can tell you from experience that they like experiments here.