How was the Twangbanger developed?

[Curly]

Howdy!

the other day I put some new pickups in one of my strats, with a Twangbanger in the bridge.

About the same time, I was looking at info on the Musicman Albert Lee model, and read that the Twangbanger was originally designed for that guitar.

That sounds likely, but I just wondered, if true, how that happened ....
how was the Twangbanger developed?

thanks kindly

[BachToRock]

I had a set of the Albert Lee pickups and the bridge pickup was not at all like the Twangbanger...
It did have a small silver metal plate on the bottom, but not the larger copper/brass one like on the TB... also, it was wound like a traditional strat pickup just over 6k.
The Twangbanger probably was spurred by the Jerry Donahue Signature Strat that had a Bridge pickup designed to sound like a Tele pickup and also had the Brass plate...
Of course, the pickups in that guitar were designed by the one and only... Seymour Duncan!

[Empty Pockets]

I want to try a Twangbanger in the middle of my Strat to see if i can make it sound more like a twangy bridge pickup...

-X

[flank]

idk but twangbanger is kick a$$ pickup lol

[Lewguitar]

I don't know who thought of it first...Seymour or Lindy Fralin or someone before either of them. But the first Strat bridge pickup I ever saw with a bassplate as a stock item was Lindy's Vintage Hot or Blues Special with the Fralin Bassplate. Seymour may have been making them in the custom shop already, but Lindy was the first pickup winder I'm aware of who offered it as a stock item.

I've compared both, BTW, and I'd have to say that for a hot tone, I prefer the alnico 2 Twangbanger. It's a little snarlier and I like the more pronounced mids of the alnico 2.

Lindy's sounds more like a strong alnico 5 Strat bridge pickup with a little more bass. More of a vintage Strat tone.

Lew

[Evan Skopp]

Actually, Seymour was doing them for Albert Lee back in the late '80s.

[Lewguitar]

Actually, Seymour was doing them for Albert Lee back in the late '80s.

Thanks Evan!

[Curly]

Actually, Seymour was doing them for Albert Lee back in the late '80s.

thanks Evan,
I had read that Albert got his first signature model back then:

"This unusual guitar design was originally christened the "Axis". The prototype was presented to Albert Lee by Sterling Ball at a Christmas party in the mid-80s, and Albert loved the unique, trans-pink finished instrument so much that he played it religiously for more than six years prior to it ever becoming a Music Man production model. The only other person besides Mr. Lee himself to have one of these ergonomic wonders in all that time was Sir Paul McCartney, who liked Albert's so much he ordered a left-handed model for himself. Anyway, by the time EVH defected the EB/MM camp, the Albert Lee model was a reality, and the Axis name was recycled for the line based on the Van Halen/Gimpel design.

The three custom wound Seymore Duncan single coils produce a number of Strat and Tele tones. The bridge pickup features a metal plate attached to the base, typical of the Telecaster bridge pickup, which gives the guitar more bite and twang than you'd find in the average Strat."

I just kind of wondered what sparked the idea of putting the base plate on a strat pup, although I suppose it's almost logical if you're looking for a strat/ tele hybrid. I also found it interesting that it's the only EB guitar with Duncans.