Offset pickups

[Carl Mayer]

Anyone ever try 6 string pickups offset like they do for a p-bass to span a 10 or 12 string pedal steel? Given the relative scarcity and cost for actual pedal steel pickups compared to regular electrics it seems like it might be worth a shot. Picture below if you’re not familiar with the setup.

[John Hyland]

If you have the pickups it seems like an ok idea with each string always getting two poles ( for a 10 string). You might get some tonal change moving from the 5th string to the 6th string though with wider humbuckers fairing worse.

If you don’t have the 6 pole pickup why complicate the installation.

[Chris Lucker]

John, in his post above, identified the problem of overlapping fields.

That is why the Emmons STEREO pickups were not successful. Some say it was because the pickups required two amps, but the STEREO feature could be eliminated by flipping the switch made for that purpose.

The problem with the STEREO pickups is that strings 5 and 6 were so out of balance with the rest of the set.

The flat head screws you see going through the top of the soapbar are not within the coils.

[Tim Toberer]

Anyone ever try 6 string pickups offset like they do for a p-bass to span a 10 or 12 string pedal steel? Given the relative scarcity and cost for actual pedal steel pickups compared to regular electrics it seems like it might be worth a shot.

It is pretty easy to wind pickups. I have made the bobbins out of laminate superglued together and pickguard materiel and glued together on a steel blade after milling an appropriate slot. My winder is made as an attachment for lathe, must have a very slow speed to start and be variable speed. An easier way is an old sewing machine.
This is very time consuming so I found a few cheap options I think will work. J Bass blade pickups seem promising and come in 4 and 5 string versions. Lipstick pickups have been used for 8 string lap steel, but I think they are a bit unpopular.

[Chris Lucker]

Tim, i made my winder from a lathe as well, but it is from spare parts I had for one of those Taig/Micro lathes:

[Carl Mayer]

I played with doing my own winding too (I used a cheap record player for mine so I’d have a halfway accurate rpm and just calculated the turns based on the time) but you can get regular 6 string pickups for like 10 bucks on Amazon so it’s hardly seems worth the time.

I could see unevenness on the overlapped section (strings 5/6) could be a problem but I haven’t heard of anyone complaining about unevenness on p style basses. I might do some bench tests or something to see how bad it is.

[Chris Lucker]

Carl, perhaps the imbalance stands out more when playing triads, such as 6-8-10, or 5-6-8 or whatever and not when playing a running bass line. Or perhaps Buddy Emmons' ears (Buddie at the time) would notice the imbalance.

I agree with you about pickup winding. I only wind a few, such as fixing Wright or Bigsby pickups, DALAND Butts pickups or making stacked coils for early Fender 400/1000s.

[Jeff Highland]

When doing a split coil pickup you have to consider magnet polarity and coil wind direction. The classic P Bass pickup, uses RWRP for one of the pair and hence achieves noise cancellation (Humbucking).

When you have split coil pickups with only one pole per string, you can do it with only Reverse wound coils and keeping the polarity constant. An example of these is the Supro string through pickup.

[Chris Lucker]

Jeff, the Emmons pickup I show was not a split coil pickup. It was TWO pickups. One going to one amp and the other going to another amp for a stereo sound. But the strings 5 and 6 would get "picked up" by both amps.

The pickups were made here in California, but only appeared on four of the first six of the Emmons STEREO guitars. Even the "STEREO" Emmons is shown playing in the 1964 brochure -- the first Emmons to leave the Factory -- is referred to as a STEREO, but it clearly is not. That is the January 1964 ES 130 002 serial number guitar with the taller single coil pickups that are mounted to the cabinet-- not suspended from the neck casting. The guitar had controls mounted in the side of the guitar neck, but they were not STEREO controls.

The bobbins for the STEREO pickups I have had are made from Manila file folder stiff paper with a live wire connecting the two coils.
Microphonic Heaven!
If Wright had made the pickups they would have been entombed in epoxy.

[Jeff Highland]

That seems rather pointless, the stereo output, probably why it never became popular. I have several instruments with split coil pickups, The Supro, the 1949 National new yorker, the neck pickup on the Duesenberg, and the Lollar string through I fitted to the bridge position. All have the advantage of hum cancelling without the typical Gibson humbucker treble loss.

[Colin Boutilier]

That seems rather pointless, the stereo output, probably why it never became popular. I have several instruments with split coil pickups, The Supro, the 1949 National new yorker, the neck pickup on the Duesenberg, and the Lollar string through I fitted to the bridge position. All have the advantage of hum cancelling without the typical Gibson humbucker treble loss.

Stereo outs were never real popular on guitars either. Certainly one of those "solutions looking for a problem" things.