Retirement....Time to take it easy!

[Soundfarmer Pete]

Due to increasing hand problems, I regret that Almuse has ceased trading.....I should have been more careful when building instruments but hey ho! ..... had a good run!

Firstly, I`d like to thank Andrew Jerman and Martin Stillion for their valuable help when I first started producing pickups but also, the many people (and contributors here) who helped me keep food on the table and the light bulbs glowing

Have fun and stay safe!
Pete.

[Bill McCall]

A very good run for you indeed. I hope your retirement is healthy and as active as the times permit.

[mandrian]

Pete,

Sorry to hear that, but enjoy your retirement. Thanks for the advice you have given freely to me and others over the years. I recently got a Belmuse 4 string and I am very impressed with it. Hope you’re still able to play.

Regards,

[Bren]

You are retiring with a good track record Pete.

Enjoyed your eMando Zoom call video back in August with Hayes Griffin and Jonathan Raphael and your colleague Chris Lawes.

[journeybear]

Congratulations! I wish you all the enjoyment and fulfillment you can handle. I also wish I'd moved a bit quicker on my plans to make my Dream Machine a reality. That's a mandolin-mandola doubleneck. With whammy bars on each, of course. Well, someday ...

[Tom Wright]

I add my congratulations and admiration, as well as gratitude I was able to commission my go-to axe, the electric 10-string you made. The sweetest neck and fingerboard I've had on any instrument, and visually stunning finish.

Enjoy retirement -- I am, with much more time to devote to playing electric jazz on my Almuse 10-string.

[Rick Jones]

Congrats, Pete - well deserved for sure. You will soon wonder how you ever found time to work.

Are there competitors out there we can turn to for pickup needs in the future? I know I for sure am in the market for one 4-string humbucker, not sure where to look next.

Again, congrats - and thanks for any and all guidance!

- Rick Jones

Due to increasing hand problems, I regret that Almuse has ceased trading.....I should have been more careful when building instruments but hey ho! ..... had a good run!

Firstly, I`d like to thank Andrew Jerman and Martin Stillion for their valuable help when I first started producing pickups but also, the many people (and contributors here) who helped me keep food on the table and the light bulbs glowing

Have fun and stay safe!
Pete.

[Thumbler]

Tip of the hat your way while wondering which handful of mandolins were your favorite builds.

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Take care of yourself Pete.

We will miss your work, but staying healthy is more important!

Daniel

[Soundfarmer Pete]

Tip of the hat your way while wondering which handful of mandolins were your favorite builds.

Hmmmmm.......Favourite builds?..... probably Tom`s SG, a mini "Red Special" complete with the six switches (that was fun to wire up) and the "Barney Bo" (such a whacky shape and fun to bind/paint.....then there`s..... loads more

[Thumbler]

I’ll bet Brian May have liked that mini “Red Special” too ;-)

[thistle3585]

Nope. Can't do it. Not allowed. We're all going to pretend that you didn't post that and you'll go right back to the bench after having had a pint or two.

[Philippe Bony]

Congrats, Pete! Take it easy and thanks for the good work, Philippe.

[mrmando]

Thanks for the shout-out, Pete, and enjoy your retirement.

Will Belvoir continue to build mandolins without your involvement?

[Soundfarmer Pete]

Hi Martin, yes...... Belvoir will continue the Belmuse building...... Chris has taken on his son officially as apprentice and they`re getting trained up next week.

After that, I`ll be handing over all my patterns, materials and winder to them - Chris has invested heavily in tooling and their eventual ambition is to have instruments in shops rather than just selling via website.

...........and I`ll be buying a stack of balsa wood and tissue

[thistle3585]

Hi Martin, yes...... Belvoir will continue the Belmuse building...... Chris has taken on his son officially as apprentice and they`re getting trained up next week.

After that, I`ll be handing over all my patterns, materials and winder to them - Chris has invested heavily in tooling and their eventual ambition is to have instruments in shops rather than just selling via website.

...........and I`ll be buying a stack of balsa wood and tissue

So, you're saving your hands for model airplanes? Good for you. I assume you will still be around to keep us straight on how strings work in relation to magnetic fields?

[CES]

Sorry you’re have the hand problems, but congratulations on retirement and best wishes on your next endeavors!!

[Soundfarmer Pete]

So, you're saving your hands for model airplanes? Good for you. I assume you will still be around to keep us straight on how strings work in relation to magnetic fields?

Quite possibly
P.S. ............Effectively, the string IS the magnet

[journeybear]

P.S. ............Effectively, the string IS the magnet

Huh? The string is the wire moving through the magnetic field, and the magnet induces into the coiled wire an electric current - leastways, that's how I understand things like electric motors work. Or is it that magnets moving around a wire induces an electric current ... Oh geez, college was 45+ years ago, and I flunked electronics anyway, which pushed me toward the arts, and poverty, instead of physics and unimaginable wealth.

Come to think of it, I guess I don't completely understand how magnetic pickups work. The vibrations of the string cause something to occur in the magnet's field, which becomes an electric signal, that reproduces the sound in the amplifier ... OK, it's magic.

[Tom Wright]

The string is magnetized and when moving causes the local field to move relative to the coil. The magnet can be in a different location than the coil, but the field strength drops.

The string can also be the coil if the output is connected to the two ends, and a magnet near the strings yields a signal. It’s a neat idea but difficult to make reliable and balanced, due to resistance variations. I tried this, and learned about the effects of different field types. A huge loudspeaker magnet makes a very dark and bassy tone. Tiny neodynium magnets very close the string are bright and clip when the string goes outside the useful field. Also, magnet location has the same effect as location of regular mag pups.

[journeybear]

I thought the string was conductive, not magnetized ... but it doesn't matter what I think, as I never could get all this stuff right. Thanks!

[lowtone2]

I thought the string was conductive, not magnetized ... but it doesn't matter what I think, as I never could get all this stuff right. Thanks!

Ya gotta have 3 things: magnetic field, a conductor, and relative motion. If the string were the conductor, where would it be conducting to?

[journeybear]

No, no, I wasn't implying the string conducted electricity - of course, it doesn't - but that it is made of conductive material. I mean, doesn't it have to be in order to get those electrons moving around? I mean, nylon strings won't work on an electric (magnetic pickup) instrument, right? Maybe I should just go and read up on this stuff, as it's clear I'm missing something here. I appreciate you guys trying to give me some edumacation, but this might not be the place. Didn't intend to derail the thread.

I'll bet the OP is having a good chuckle reading this, glad he's retired and doesn't have to contend with ignorant blokes like me anymore.

[lowtone2]

No, no, I wasn't implying the string conducted electricity - of course, it doesn't - but that it is made of conductive material. I mean, doesn't it have to be in order to get those electrons moving around? I mean, nylon strings won't work on an electric (magnetic pickup) instrument, right? Maybe I should just go and read up on this stuff, as it's clear I'm missing something here. I appreciate you guys trying to give me some edumacation, but this might not be the place. Didn't intend to derail the thread.

I'll bet the OP is having a good chuckle reading this, glad he's retired and doesn't have to contend with ignorant blokes like me anymore.

I'm sure he is. Nylon strings won't work with magnetic pickups for the same reason that other non-magnetic strings won't work with magnetic pickups.

[Tom Wright]

Conducting strings are not sufficient, as bronze is an electrical conductor but not ferromagnetic. Only the steel cores of bronze-wound strings are able to produce a signal. Steel, nickel, cobalt, are ferromagnetic.

With a stationary coil you need a moving (or oscillating) magnetic field. A coil transformer works because the AC causes a fluctuating field that induces a flucuating in the other coil.

In the case of the oddball "moving-coil" setup I described, the strings could be just copper wire, like the coil in the mag pickup.