Oil City pickups in US Vintage Guitar Magazine

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  • xchrisvxchrisv Frets: 573
    edited July 2015
    @TheGuitarWeasel I don't think having preference for vintage aesthetics and being a 'player' have to be mutually exclusive but yes, there is a great deal of cobblers and myth around. I wrote something for the mag last month along similar lines; the idea that all vintage PAFs have 'the sound' is the same as the notion that all 1950s Fenders were lightweight tone machines. There are bad-sounding PAFs and I've played a '55 Strat that was like a ship's anchor. Similarly, I once owned an amazing '73 Tele Custom that was barely 7lbs and sounded amazing. Received wisdom is usually a little more black and white than the reality :-)
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  • EvilmagsEvilmags Frets: 5158
    Just for the sake of clarity what are the factors that do change sound. Magnet type and size, wire type, bobbin size and baseplate material/thickness seem obvious as does wind pattern. I can´t imagine their being much difference between modern plastics and old plastics/cellulose ect in bobbin material but I may be wrong. There are so many bullshit merchants out there. 
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9987
    tFB Trader
    Natural selection and Larry Dimarzio have worked wonders for the PAF: In the mid to late seventies so many of the bad sounding PAFs were ripped out and binned (sadly some good sounding ones too) to be replaced with the Super Distortion ... that the breed has had it's gene pool neatened up.
    I've played some absolute stinkers of 50s PAFs ... but they seem to be rarer these days (perhaps all sat in a Japanese vault and treated like blue chip investments rather than instruments ... probably the best place for em to be honest). 

    I had a 1975 Tele that was one of the best Fenders I've played bar none ... and a little while ago worked on a 58 Strat that couldn't hold a candle to a top end Squier ... the world is many shades of gray ... but definately not 50 lol
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9987
    tFB Trader
    Evilmags said:
    Just for the sake of clarity what are the factors that do change sound. Magnet type and size, wire type, bobbin size and baseplate material/thickness seem obvious as does wind pattern. I can´t imagine their being much difference between modern plastics and old plastics/cellulose ect in bobbin material but I may be wrong. There are so many bullshit merchants out there. 
    After a lot of testing ... the main factors are turns, tension, and absolute wire diameter. This is closely followed by bobbin profile and winding pattern. Next would be potting level or un potted. There is a great deal of hornswaggle talked about keeper bar material and 'drilled oversize' v tapped base plates ... bobbin material makes no difference at all. 
    What people should realise, is that essentially the PAF was a machine wound, mass produced pickup ... simply hitting a great formula (sometimes) by chance. 

    It is no magical thing that the average PAF has 5000 turns on each bobbin ... it was meant to be the quiet but similar sounding replacement for the P90 ... which has 10,000 on one bobbin. They simply split the total wire load in two and hoped it would sound the same. It didn't, but that was a happy accident.

    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • The picture used from my site depicts a Gibson cover and 3 of my formerly used standard covers. I no longer offer the "standard cover" choice.  I only put my PAF replica covers on my pickups these days. If you click the picture of the covers on the link below, it will enlarge for you: http://www.skatterbranepickups.com/accessories/ 


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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9987
    tFB Trader
    Welcome @SCATTERBRANE hope you stick around to add your input to this extremely lively and fun forum. 
    As a winder myself I find the customer feedback and goodwill created by being a regular contributor is great.
    Ash 
    Oil City Pickups/ASL Pickups UK
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • Thank you
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