MWaldorf wrote:Wow! Congrats to Dennis and to Matt and M3 for seeing these through.
So, how does the construction of these differ from the single coils? I know those have two magnets, running parallel to the screws one on each side. Does the humbucker use one magnet between the coils? Three magnets?
Also, it looks like there are five wires coming out of the pickup - two per coil plus a ground? Can you run the coils with a series/parallel switch?
Again, congrats to all involved!
The main difference is in the amount of turns. The Mosrite humbuckers seemed to be wound really hot in order to compensate for the low output that wiring them in parallel would give. Of course, if you wired a vintage Mosrite humbucker in series it's output will be out of this world, and probably not very expressive. It'll overdrive an amp but it'll sound like mud if you try to clean it up. So Dennis wanted a pickup that he could split for a more single-coil type tone so we wound the each coil to a little over 8Kohms on the bridge, and between 5.5-6Kohms on the neck. Connecting them in series will yield between 11-12Kohms on the neck (I don't remember what the exact reading was) and the bridge will clock in over 16Kohms, (I think was 16.1 last time I checked on Dennis' particular set.) The construction method is almost exactly the same as the vintage Mosrite humbuckers Artie sent me, only we installed the nuts underneath our mounting plate instead of on top (where the coils sit.) We also employed bobbinless coils like Mosrite did. Originally, we made ultra-thin bobbins out of maple, but we could line them up perpendicular on the neck pickup, so we had to devise a way to wind them without a bobbin like the vintage versions. Thankfully, we succeeded. But with the multiple lead wires, yes, they can be wired up in series, parallel, out-of-phase, in-series/out-of-phase, coil-split...etc...the black wire is for the shield on the back of the pickup in which the poles and magnets are also grounded to.
As for the magnets, Semie's pickups used two magnets in the center of the pickup, stacked on top of each other. Dennis opted for ceramic magnets since they tend to be less muddy on a hot pickup like this and for their higher output. We used one ceramic bar magnet in each pickup. I haven't tested them out as we've been running a little behind on orders and I'm trying to get these to Dennis ASAP. I'm curious to know what they sound like myself.
But I believe they're going to be very powerful with a meaty midrange and an even picking response. That's just a wild guess.
But these suckers should scream with some pretty decent sustain, save for the speed frets.
