Alright, little update.
First off, let me describe a little bit of my research and development process. At this point, I’ve wound a good number of coils and assembled a good number of prototypes. On my desk, I have about 20 different coils of varying size, shapes and materials. I’ll plop one pickup into the tester bass, rock out on it for a few days, make a few adjustments and if I like what I’m hearing, I’ll keep going with it. Sometimes, I’ll spend a few weeks with one idea, and decide for whatever reason it’s not what I’m looking for. But then, after trying a few other ideas, I may (or may not) come back to the previous idea.
In any case, for a number of reasons, I’m back on the neodymium sidewinder. Initially, and in closing a lot of it has to do with the form as well as the tone. Because the neodymium are so small and insanely strong, I can build a smaller pickup with lots of output. I found a shape I liked, and ultimately discovered that the geometry of the coil is one of the largest contributors to both overall output and tonal characteristics. From there, I was able to make variation after variation using different wire gauges and turn counts. At this point, I’m down to maybe 3-4 different versions of the same pickup that I like and eventually I will select the “final” pickup from this pool – or perhaps I’ll even make a slight variation based on one of these pickup. Overall, I like the sound – I have enough bass, mids and high end. The neos render an aggressive sound without being too stiff like the ceramic-based coils. I’d say that they have a lot more warmth than ceramic, but more attack than say, A5.
After attempting a few different styles of cast shells, I started kicking this idea around:
Basically, the coils will be cast individually and then sandwiched between the steel blade poles. The neos are so strong that it takes a considerable amount of effort to pry the pieces apart, so structurally, I think this will be pretty solid despite being held together primarily by sheer magnetism. The dog ears will then be epoxied on to the sides to really hold them together. The base plate (not pictured) will be also epoxied to the bottom, also adding extra security. I’ll wind and cast the coils without the magnets. I can then drill out the core and insert the magnets afterward.
This form also provides for and solves many esthetic quandaries I’ve been having throughout this project; first and foremost, there’s lots of cool-looking exposed metal. I also changed the spacing of the poles – previously, I had them two to a string like a Jazz Bass pickup. I moved them closer together because A) I’ll save about 1/4″ of width, and B) once the magnets are in touch with those steel poles, I don’t think that the magnet spacing will make much difference in the final outcome.
I made some originals for this over the weekend and hope to make molds later this week.
Lastly, on another bit of news, I started a little blog about my pickup making about week or two ago. I’ll be posting my big forum posts there as well as some additional stuff, like Instagram images, etc. It started as a convenient way for me to keep track of my notes, and it went from there. The look for now is completely stripped to just pictures and words – no layout. Part of my day job is in fact, building WordPress sites. I just wanted something to post pictures and a few words and focus on that and nothing else. I may build the theme out later. BTW, the site automatically ads my Instagram shots as individual posts, so those get updates a couple times a week.
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