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Basically all pickups with equal pole pieces as the number of strings have a design flaw. If you notice Fender style pickups using 6 Alnico rod magnet pole pieces, the A-5th, D-4th, G-3rd, B-2nd poles each have a magnet on both sides of it. For example the A-5th pole has the E-6th pole and the…

I would never use steel wool around pickups. Small bits of the steel wool can cling to all areas of the pickups including the strings, pole pieces, inside the bobbin and anywhere you have magnetic field to attract the small filings. If any repairman work on any type of guitar with pickups, please remove the…

It is a popular chemical stripper that can remove the insulation on magnet wires instead of applying high heat that could anneal or fatigue the copper conductor. Chemical strippers can be messy and takes longer time to strip and clean the wire than my old fashioned mechanical stripping using 600 grit sandpaper. Sandpaper is less…

Basically a single coil pickup is a coil wound on a single bobbin with a single magnetic field using either a steel rods or bars or magnetic rods. A single coil pickup is typically noisy when played at higher volumes are in close proximity to magnetic fields or electrical devices especially in clubs or near…

A humbucking pickup is usually two coil wired in series or parallel with an opposite magnetic field through each coil. Basically the two coils and magnetic fields are mirror images of each other or 180 degrees opposite. The coils need to be wound with the same number of turns using the same gauge of wire…

It picks up the same proximity to the string as a single coil pickup, but is wired to reduce hum. It will also have a different sound due to the hookup of the coils and how the electrical and magnetic phasing work with each other.

Basically a stack pickup is two horizontal coils or bobbins, one on top of the other with poles down the center wired to produce a hum canceling pickup. They can be wired in series, parallel and in or out of phase with each other and split to produce a single coil sound even with the…

There are several factors that determine the output of a pickup, here are a few: The coil shape and number of turns of a particular wire gauge. The magnetic material and shape used to magnetize the strings. The magnetic path of the magnetic field to the strings. The type material used to conduct the magnetic…

Sustain is usually the length of a note heard through the amplifier. Sustain is usually associated with the higher output pickups that generate more current to the amplifier and often becomes more distorted than lower output pickups. I like the sustain associated with medium weight woods of an instrument, solid bridges and pickups adjusted about…

There are several types of rail or blade type humbuckers. They are usually a side-by-side humbucking pickup with two bobbins that fit into a traditional single coil pickguard slot the size of a Stratocaster or Telecaster pickup. Joe Barden makes a beautiful hand made rail style pickup using a magnetic stainless steel polished to a…