A set of Oil City Pickups, designed by you - named after you?

Bridgehouse

I had to put this in another thread cos it's just too cool not to.

@TheGuitarWeasel has most generously offered to donate a prize to our raffle pot. 

Now this is no ordinary prize. He's offering an 'endorsement' set of pups. Designed to your spec. With your name on them. On the website and all that. 

Yeah. Your own designed set of Oil City Pickups. Flippin' nora!


I so want to see this happen cos it would be the coolest thing since the ice age. 


Head on over to my 2017 Race for life raffle and donate! £1500 total and I will drop this in as a prize..



The question is, if you won, what would you have designed and why?? Me personally, I'd get a split-coil P-Bass pup done, same spec as my '64, but just slightly hotter... ooof. 

OilCityPickups

My prize ... if you can get there ... is the ultimate dream factory ... 

Bridgehouse

TheGuitarWeasel said:

My prize ... if you can get there ... is the ultimate dream factory ... 

*drool*


You are Willy Wonka and I claim my golden ticket.

OilCityPickups

It could be a jaguar pickup set, PAFs ... whatever you want ... get to £1000 from Fretboard ... you get the dream ticket.

Bridgehouse

TheGuitarWeasel said:

It could be a jaguar pickup set, PAFs ... whatever you want ... get to £1000 from Fretboard ... you get the dream ticket.

I'm not letting this lot off that lightly!! £1500 for something this special. 

When Mrs T is running round doing her £5k I want her to know there's £1500 at least in the fund. That's a bigger total than last year then. And, to be fair - the prizes this year are SO much better - and much more. And just awesome.

OilCityPickups

Us little guys are helping ... where are the UK/EU market leaders ... Tim at Bare Knuckle ... gonna help?

olafgarten

I would ask something like a P90 that splits down to sound like a Tele Pickup if that's even possible. 

WezV

Is this how I convince a U.K. Pickup maker to make a stapletop P-90 style pickup?  

Jeremiah

Maybe an overwound Firebird set with A4 magnets... don't know how that would sound but would be nice to try.

OilCityPickups

WezV said:

Is this how I convince a U.K. Pickup maker to make a stapletop P-90 style pickup?  

You win mate and I'll build you a 'Staple'

OilCityPickups

olafgarten said:

I would ask something like a P90 that splits down to sound like a Tele Pickup if that's even possible. 

Well a tapped P90 can be quite cutting ... but there's a basic physics problem in magnet location that won't let you put a steel base-plate under twin opposed magnets. Now the Steel baseplate is a major element in giving the Tele it's sound, and the twin magnets are the main reason for the P90s sound ... the two don't mix, so as well as coil height we have a few too many technical issues to make a really close sound alike pickup to both. 

Teetonetal

Wow, some prize, way to go @TheGuitarWeasel !

earwighoney

The pickup I would most like to see an artisan like Ash make is one I had in a guitar I used to own. 

I had a Epiphone SG in the mid 90's which had an incredible bridge humbucker.  Like a lot of humbucker it's tonal spectrum it was scooped in the midrange, but in addition to that it had absolutely no bass as well.  The sound it produced was incredible, one of the thinnest sounds imaginable and unlike any other humbucker it produced a huge amount of hum and noise.  

If a set of 12-52 strings were put on, amplified it'd make the strings sound like a set of 8-38's.  When played through a 1968 Marshall JMP 50/ 4x12 Cab, the pickup would make the amp sound like Peavey Rage 8" combo. 

Now that I have finished writing the description and knowing the kind of detail Ash has gone to recreate his 63 PAF's with attention to asymmetric wind, maple spacers, enamel wire and so on I'm not sure he'd be able to meet such a challenge.

OilCityPickups

earwighoney said:

The pickup I would most like to see an artisan like Ash make is one I had in a guitar I used to own. 

I had a Epiphone SG in the mid 90's which had an incredible bridge humbucker.  Like a lot of humbucker it's tonal spectrum it was scooped in the midrange, but in addition to that it had absolutely no bass as well.  The sound it produced was incredible, one of the thinnest sounds imaginable and unlike any other humbucker it produced a huge amount of hum and noise.  

If a set of 12-52 strings were put on, amplified it'd make the strings sound like a set of 8-38's.  When played through a 1968 Marshall JMP 50/ 4x12 Cab, the pickup would make the amp sound like Peavey Rage 8" combo. 

Now that I have finished writing the description and knowing the kind of detail Ash has gone to recreate his 63 PAF's with attention to asymmetric wind, maple spacers, enamel wire and so on I'm not sure he'd be able to meet such a challenge.

Sounds like it had an internal wiring issue ... the 'not acting as a humbucker' bit is the give away there.  

Sporky

The coils wired series out of phase maybe? That'd do the no bass, not much middle, loads of hum thing...

earwighoney

TheGuitarWeasel said:

earwighoney said:

The pickup I would most like to see an artisan like Ash make is one I had in a guitar I used to own. 

I had a Epiphone SG in the mid 90's which had an incredible bridge humbucker.  Like a lot of humbucker it's tonal spectrum it was scooped in the midrange, but in addition to that it had absolutely no bass as well.  The sound it produced was incredible, one of the thinnest sounds imaginable and unlike any other humbucker it produced a huge amount of hum and noise.  

If a set of 12-52 strings were put on, amplified it'd make the strings sound like a set of 8-38's.  When played through a 1968 Marshall JMP 50/ 4x12 Cab, the pickup would make the amp sound like Peavey Rage 8" combo. 

Now that I have finished writing the description and knowing the kind of detail Ash has gone to recreate his 63 PAF's with attention to asymmetric wind, maple spacers, enamel wire and so on I'm not sure he'd be able to meet such a challenge.

Sounds like it had an internal wiring issue ... the 'not acting as a humbucker' bit is the give away there.  

I took it to the repair guy who said it was the loudest broken pickup he'd ever come across.

Not sure how it got past QC but I didn't know any better when I bought it!  

rossi

i would like Ash to make a replacement humbucker for my Vintage Zip .It plays  very well ,I love the neck ,cheap as it is ,and sounds OK but a coil split proper humbugger would sound better than the two strat ceramics roped tother though it does have a sound all of its own .It would make a great blues  guitar with some A5's.it knows its limitations .

Ravenous

Low impedance with a balanced line. (possibly bifilar but that probably needs special wire). Why would I want to stay in the fifties?

Winny_Pooh

@olafgarten said:

I would ask something like a P90 that splits down to sound like a Tele Pickup if that's even possible. 

I have a 500K pot wired to my bridge p90 that selectively rolls off the neck pickup to ground, it sounds outstanding.

OilCityPickups

rossi said:

i would like Ash to make a replacement humbucker for my Vintage Zip .It plays  very well ,I love the neck ,cheap as it is ,and sounds OK but a coil split proper humbugger would sound better than the two strat ceramics roped tother though it does have a sound all of its own .It would make a great blues  guitar with some A5's.it knows its limitations .

I always fancied one of those Zips when they came out ... I would suggest a hybrid design featuring quad opposed alnico 5 narrow magnets to get you a sort of humbucking P90 array. 

ThePrettyDamned

Surely the pickup should somehow mirror the winner? 

I'm warm and quite fat. So I'd have a tpd warm n fat.