EXTENSION CHORDS

IN SEARCH OF THE ULTIMATE PICKUP

EXTENSION CHORDS

Allen Hester

Guitar players are constantly in search of elusive sounds, sounds that they have either heard on record, or at a concert, or just in their own unique imagination. This endless search for a musical identity, a unique “trademark” sound, has led guitarists off in search of the Holy Grail, and there appears to be no end to the chase. Unfortunately, in the process, many good instruments have been butchered by enthusiastic but unskilled do-it-yourselfers, and it is probably safe to say that very few people have found their “ultimate” sound.

Of all of the myths and legends surrounding guitars, no other area is more widely misunderstood than the ares of pickups. Guitar players, designers and manufacturers have been in an ongoing debate for decades over how to build the “best” pickup, and which pickups sound best, when in fact, there is no ultimate pickup and no pickup sounds “best” all the time.

Why? Because a pickup does not operate in isolation from the many other parts of the guitar that also have an effect on the, sound of the instrument. Strings, woods, bridges, tailpieces, cords, amps—all these things, not tp mention the individuality of the player himself— have an effect on the sound of the guitar. Besides, any pickup design must of necessity be a compromise between high output on the one hand and wide frequency response and clarity on the other.

Basically, a pickup is a transducer which changes mechanical vibrations of a string into, electrical signals. Pickups generally fall into two categories: dual-coil (“humbucking”) or singlecoil (such as found in Fender Stratocasters, for example). Generally speaking, dual-coil pickups have a higher output than single-coil pickups do, and single-coil pickups are cleaner sounding than the dual-coil ones. And single-coil pickups are noisier.

However, because of the many mechanical and electrical options available to pickup designers, scores of pickups are now being made which, while they fall into the two broad catagories of design, do not necessarily follow the basic pattern of output vs. clarity. This is because of several things: strength, size and type of magnet(s) used, number of turns of wire on each pickup coil, the gauge of that coil winding, the use of individual polepieces vs. a continuous thin blade across the pickup, impedance, inductance and so forth. •

It would be impractical to try to define all the terms and lingo associated with pickup design in the short space provided here. It is recommended that those readers who are seriously interested in learning more about pickups consult the wide range of music industry publications that deal with this sort of topic; better yet, I encourage anyone to write directly to the manufacturer and ask specific questions. The important thing to keep in mind is that there is no ultimate pickup, at least not yet. All of the manufacturers listed below make pickups of one kind or another. Some of them have a higher “name recognition” than others, and some of them cart boast of a long list of professional endorsees. However, buying a pickup because Johnny So-and-So uses one on his guitar is by no means a,guarantee that your guitar will sound the same way. In the final analysis, >only your ears can tell you if the pickup sounds the way you -want it to.

PICKUP MANUFACTURERS Seymour Duncan Research Laboratories (Box 4746, Santa Barbara, CA 93103). Young Mr. Duncan started out with a pickup rewinding service. For a modest fee he would rewind the pickup coils to suit the taste of individual players. Later he expanded into replacement pickups for Fender-style instruments, and lately has further expanded his line to include humbuckers as well. Duncan currently offers seven different humbuckers and over 30 kinds of single-coil pickups. In addition to that, Duncan has just developed a replacement for the old Gibson “soap bar” (P-90) single coil pickup. Seymour’s guarantee is pretty straight-forward: If you don’t like it, he will replace it, rewind it, or give you a refund. ’Nuff said.

Schecter Guitar Research (Box 9783, North, Hollywood, CA 91609). These people not only make individual pickups (most of them single-coil), they offer complete pickup and wiring assemblies for Strats, Telecasters, and Les Paul-type guitars. Schecter has a product called the Tapped Pickup Assembly for strat-style guitars that affords the player a total of 21 different sounds to choose from. Similar assemblies for P-bass and J-bass are available with a wide variety of pickguards. The Z-Plus assembly is for Les Paul-type instruments, and it, too, delivers high output and a wide variety of tonal possibilities via the use of pull-pots on both the tone ans volume controls. Overall, quality is excellent and “snob appeal” is held to a minimum.

DiMarzio Musical Instrument Pickups, Inc. (1388 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, N.Y. 10310). The DiMarzio Super Distortion Humbucker has been a big favorite among guitar players in the last few years, but the fact that DiMarzio offers so many other variations of the humbucking theme points out what I said earlier: there is no ultimate pickup, I However, if it is output that you are preoccupied with, you might want to try the -Super Distortion. If you are .gullible enough to think that the color of the pickup bobbins makes any difference in the sound, you will be impressed with the cream-colored bobbins that are used by this company on many of their popular models. One of the most popular is the PAF, which stands for “patent-applied-for,” which is another way of saying “absolutely cool.” The PAF purports to produce the classic sound of the original Gibson humbucking pickup which bore the stamp “patent applied for” during the years from 1955 to 1959. The personification of hip, DiMarzio pickups carry a five-year warranty. Bill Lawrence Products (1003 Saunders Avenue, Madison TN 37115). This man was born in Germany and served as a consultant to Framiis, one of the largest European guitar manufacture ers, before coming to this country. He has since collaborated with Dan Armstrong and with Norlin, Inc., makers of Gibson guitars. Nowadays he has his own shop, where he designs his own pickups. The Lawrence pickups also have the cool cream bobbins or covers, but at least two of them are most easily distinguished by the narrow metal blades that protrude from the top of the pickup. These blades function in the same way that polepieces do on other pickups, and they provide uniform response to string. The reason this is desirable should be obvious to any guitar player who likes to bend strings. As the string is pulled away from the polepiece underneath it, there is a loss of signal. The L-90 XL (dual-coil) and the L-220 (single-coil) are equipped with the blades. Lawrence makes another humbucker that is more like the older humbuckers. The L-100 has 12 individually adjustable polepieces, double tapped wiring, and increased output. This pickup was originally designed in 1965, and is, according to Lawrence, the “first hot replaceTURN TO PAGE 64 ment pickup ever made.”

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Carvin (1155 Industrial Ave., Escondido, CA 92025). This outfit offers three humbuckers, all of which boast increased output due to the use of increased magnet strength. The Carvin design seeks to solve the problem of retaining signal strength while strings are bent by incorporating not a blade, as above, but 22 individually adjustable polepieces. The pickup can be wired in a number of ways, and carries a 10-year guarantee.

Overlend EMG (P.O. Box 4394 Santa Rosa, CA 95402). The 10 models offered by this company are different from the others mentioned above in that they employ an on-board preamp. This is supposed to eliminate the problems associated with conventional designs, specifically the loss of highs and full response, as well as extreme sensitivity to string vibrations. The company also offers support electronics that compliment their pickups.

Bartolini-Hi-A (Box 934, Livermore CA, 94550). If the EMG pickups sound exotic, take a look at the line offered by Bartolini: over 40 different models, some of which are “hexaphon, ic” and “quadrophonic.” These particular models isolate the sound of each individual string on guitars,-and basses. Also in the line are five different replacements for stock humbuckers, two of which are equipped with preamps. Bartolini also departs from the strictly rock orientation of most replacement pickup manufacturers by offering a repalcement for the Gibson Johnrty Smith model, a jazz guitar pickup. Pickups with variable “Q” and selectable frequency spectrum are also offered. Rowe-DeArmond (1702 Airport Highway, Toledo, Ohio 43609. This company has been making pickups for acoustic guitars for years, and recently they have introduced two humbucking pickups for electric guitar, the 2300 and 2400. In addition to the pickups, DeArmond has pre-assembled wiring harnesses, complete with switches and controls, available. The 2400 pickup has the higher output of the two models offered.

Note: This is by no means an exhaustive list. Next month we’ll take a look at low-impedance pickups and acoustic guitar transducers. In the meantime, keep on pluckin’...