'Oily Towers' ... all the latest from Oil City Pickups

OilCityPickups

A little light pickup porn for you: a Scrapyard Dog Plus 8 String  

Hertz32

Looks cracking! I've just spent last night and this morning wiring in your proto 8's. Got a couple more connections to wire up as I did a full rewire at the same time, but I'll certainly get back to you with my findings!

Hertz32

Out of interest, you couldnt do a 9 string pickup could you? Just hypothetical like, and not cos I'm buying one in a month or two... >:D<

OilCityPickups

No commercial bobbins exist for nine strings as far as I'm aware ... so any bobbons would have to be scratch built ... that is doable ... but pricey!

Hertz32

Aforementioned 9 string already comes with passives as stock. I could give you the stock pickups and you could raid them for bobbins and baseplates?

OilCityPickups

Guess so ... any pics of the pickups you could PM me?

Hertz32

Yeah sure, gimme a sec

OilCityPickups

It's been a few years in the development ... but here's a first look at what I believe is the only, UK made, hand scatter wound SC size Strat Humbucker ... 10k bridge flavour. It should be around the same price as Duncans etc ...  This has been a long time in the brewing as I really haven't liked the sound of many of these pickups ... and wanted to do my own to suit my taste ...

Richardj

Nice!  What kind of flavour?  Hopefully not as 'in your face' as some of the US rails types.  Any other colour options?

Enough questions.

OilCityPickups

At the moment the Henry Ford option applies ... black only! But hopefully I will have at least white available soon. Hand scatter winding has softened the 'in yer face' nature of the beast a lot ... though they are an unholy pig to make: small and horribly fiddly!

At the moment the plan runs for 'classic' neck and middle at around 7.5k and 10k bridge.

WezV

bit of a return to favour for the single coil sized humbucker and rail pickups recently

 

Think I would be interested in a set for a corgan style strat - the pickups has always been the weak point of that signiture for me.

 

not that I own or can currently afford a corgan style strat build - but that is beside the point

OilCityPickups

A whole raft of new models are here!!

4string

TheGuitarWeasel said:

A whole raft of new models are here!!

We must talk about a demo set of THOSE going in my P Bass :-)

OilCityPickups

4string said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

A whole raft of new models are here!!

We must talk about a demo set of THOSE going in my P Bass :-)

I think that can be arranged :-) 

We have a Jazz Bass set out in the next week or so too!

DrBob

TheGuitarWeasel;537850" said:

At the moment the Henry Ford option applies ... black only! But hopefully I will have at least white available soon. Hand scatter winding has softened the 'in yer face' nature of the beast a lot ... though they are an unholy pig to make: small and horribly fiddly!At the moment the plan runs for 'classic' neck and middle at around 7.5k and 10k bridge.

Don't suppose you have a pre production bridge unit you'd be looking to shift on would you Ash ?

Jeremiah

TheGuitarWeasel said:

At the moment the Henry Ford option applies ... black only! But hopefully I will have at least white available soon. Hand scatter winding has softened the 'in yer face' nature of the beast a lot ... though they are an unholy pig to make: small and horribly fiddly!

At the moment the plan runs for 'classic' neck and middle at around 7.5k and 10k bridge.

Are these designed to sound like a single coil but hum cancelling or are they more aimed at getting a humbucker sound in single coil format? (Or just their own sound and not aiming to emulate any other type of pickup?)

I could well be interested in a set of these for my 12-string, - I think "rail" type pickups should work well with 12 strings as I wouldn't need to worry about pole spacing and the strings going over the pole pieces (if that matters.) I'd be looking for something fairly warm and mellow, and have been considering the lower-output DiMarzio options - but these could be exactly what I'm after.

OilCityPickups

To be honest those manufacturers that say a rails design humbucker can be made to sound exactly like a single coil are talking rubbish. It's simple physics that prevents two smaller coils in series,magnetically out of phase, and with an opposite path to ground, sounding like one big coil! They also will never sound exactly like a full size humbucker the coils are a much smaller aperture so pick up a smaller 'sample' of string vibration. 

My own rails pickups are built to sound like themselves ... which I hope is a good pickup! If anything perhaps, flavored to be more like a high powered Gretsch or a mini version of the clarity found in my ASL Blackbirds.

Richardj

Now if you could do a clear version... Mmmmmmmmmm.

Jeremiah

To be fair, most manufacturers don't say their rails pickups sound exactly like a true single coil - they reserve that claim for their "stacked" humbuckers…

But it's good to know that these are available, I just need to decide which pickup replacement project I'm going to embark on first.

OilCityPickups

Another new Oil City model ... the FortyNiner!

My replica of the first ever 'Broadcaster' pickup. There is no mistaking the thicker, more aggressive tone than later models. The natural compression of the alnico 3 magnets and 43awg wire ... the bare steel base plate ... the notched flat-work and black string wrapping. This was a fun one to do :-)