Ash at Oil City answers pickup questions:

OilCityPickups · October 2023

In theory absolutely :-) Switching would be fun mind!

Funkfingers · October 2023

That is the sort of trick-wiring-for-its-own-sake exhibited in ye olde Adrian Legg guitar customising book.

At the time, four-conductor + shield output cable was pretty new. Through DiMarzio distributor Rose-Morris, Legg got to attempt all manner of wiring scheme experiments. He documented them in a book.

One of the schematic diagrams was for two split coils pickups in a bass guitar. Using a 4P3T on/on/on switch, Legg organised things to arrive at;
Up - bridge pickup coils, in series, in phase.
Down - neck pickup coils, in series, in phase.
Centre - neck pickup EA coil, in series, in phase, with bridge pickup DG coil.

I think that the idea was to create a slap sound without recourse to onboard active EQ or passive frequency filtering.

This last example was close to the Fender Electric XII question. As Ash hints, a pig to wire up and I'm not sure that it would sound particularly good. A blend pot might yield a more musical result - à la Rickenbacker "mystery" fifth control knob.

Kalimna · October 2023

Not sure if this is within the scope of the thread, but could you explain what the Prescision bass split pickup is? My mate and I were having a discussion and i thought it was just a split single coil, whereas he thought of it as a humbucker.

Philly_Q · October 2023

Kalimna said:

Not sure if this is within the scope of the thread, but could you explain what the Prescision bass split pickup is? My mate and I were having a discussion and i thought it was just a split single coil, whereas he thought of it as a humbucker.

It's kind of both. But I'll leave that to someone who can explain better.

OilCityPickups · October 2023

As @Philly_Q said, both descriptions are accurate. For a pickup to be hum cancelling it needs to have two coils, one south magnetic polarity and one north. These coils must be either wound in opposite directions or in the same direction with both start wires or both finish wires connected together so that one coil is effectively backwards to the other.
It doesn't matter for the hum cancelling if both coils are placed next to each other as in a conventional humbucker, or one is slid across to cover other strings as in a P bass 'humbucker'. What does matter is that with the 'split' design where one coil is moved over, each pickup half is not sensing the same harmonic on the same string in two places, and therefore less of those harmonics are filtered out by the hum cancelling process.

Kalimna · October 2023

Thank you for your explanation. Much appreciated

oldfoxy · October 2023

OilCityPickups said:

If you want scooped you want alnico 5, so in my range that would be the Masterwound Dynamite, the Scrapyard Dog or for a bit more output the Airship Trooper :-)

The trooper is a pick-up I can thoroughly recommend, brilliant in a Lester

OilCityPickups · October 2023

oldfoxy said:

OilCityPickups said:

If you want scooped you want alnico 5, so in my range that would be the Masterwound Dynamite, the Scrapyard Dog or for a bit more output the Airship Trooper :-)

The trooper is a pick-up I can thoroughly recommend, brilliant in a Lester

I also find them nice in the neck position of a Tele that has a very loud bridge pickup :-)

Elwood · November 2023

Hey Ash, what's the back story on the ASL Havoc humbuckers? Feline have a couple of sale, but I can't find any info.

Also, you've crossed out the N on the sticker. Does that mean they are neck pickups?

Thanks in advance for the wisdom.

FelineGuitars · November 2023

Elwood said:

Hey Ash, what's the back story on the ASL Havoc humbuckers? Feline have a couple of sale, but I can't find any info.

Also, you've crossed out the N on the sticker. Does that mean they are neck pickups?

Thanks in advance for the wisdom.

Supplying a few bits of info till Ash get here

No - its a bridge pickup

Prior to deciding on the Oil City Masterwound Name, Ash was looking for a name for his premium line of pickups and went with his own name for the signature series, but later realised it was better for brand alignment to use a version of the Oil City name.

The Havoc was a bit of a take no prisoners kind of pickup - certainly pushing the front end of an amp hard . But being wound with AWG43 rather than AWG44 it was still less compressed sounding in spite of the high (for AWG43) DC resistance.

The combination of the Alnico 8 with flanking ceramic magnets gave it a more "organic" kind of attack rather than the all out sizzle of a fully ceramic mag beast

OilCityPickups · November 2023

FelineGuitars said:

Elwood said:

Hey Ash, what's the back story on the ASL Havoc humbuckers? Feline have a couple of sale, but I can't find any info.

Also, you've crossed out the N on the sticker. Does that mean they are neck pickups?

Thanks in advance for the wisdom.

Supplying a few bits of info till Ash get here

No - its a bridge pickup
Prior to deciding on the Oil City Masterwound Name, Ash was looking for a name for his premium line of pickups and went with his own name for the signature series, but later realised it was better for brand alignment to use a version of the Oil City name.
The Havoc was a bit of a take no prisoners kind of pickup - certainly pushing the front end of an amp hard . But being wound with AWG43 rather than AWG44 it was still less compressed sounding in spite of the high (for AWG43) DC resistance.
The combination of the Alnico 8 with flanking ceramic magnets gave it a more "organic" kind of attack rather than the all out sizzle of a fully ceramic mag beast

Jonathon has it completely correct ... and it splits beautifully

Elwood · November 2023

Thank you, to you both!

TDubs · December 2023

Hi Ash @OilCityPickups ;

Is a tapped Gibson humbucker a reversible modification? If it is reversed, should the pickup, in theory, sound as it did previously?

Cheers

OilCityPickups · December 2023

TDubs said:

Hi Ash @OilCityPickups ;;

Is a tapped Gibson humbucker a reversible modification? If it is reversed, should the pickup, in theory, sound as it did previously?

Cheers

Okay I take it that you mean split rather than tapped ... as in general you tap a single coil and split (or coil shunt) a humbucker.
A coil split only changes the pickup's sound when it's switched in ... when one coil is not shunted to ground it sounds completely like an un split humbucker. So to reverse a coil split ... just don't turn it on :-)

TDubs · December 2023

OilCityPickups said:

TDubs said:

Hi Ash @OilCityPickups ;;

Is a tapped Gibson humbucker a reversible modification? If it is reversed, should the pickup, in theory, sound as it did previously?

Cheers

Okay I take it that you mean split rather than tapped ... as in general you tap a single coil and split (or coil shunt) a humbucker.
A coil split only changes the pickup's sound when it's switched in ... when one coil is not shunted to ground it sounds completely like an un split humbucker. So to reverse a coil split ... just don't turn it on :-)

Thanks for your help here and over message Ash

OilCityPickups · December 2023

TDubs said:

OilCityPickups said:

TDubs said:

Hi Ash @OilCityPickups ;;

Is a tapped Gibson humbucker a reversible modification? If it is reversed, should the pickup, in theory, sound as it did previously?

Cheers

Okay I take it that you mean split rather than tapped ... as in general you tap a single coil and split (or coil shunt) a humbucker.
A coil split only changes the pickup's sound when it's switched in ... when one coil is not shunted to ground it sounds completely like an un split humbucker. So to reverse a coil split ... just don't turn it on :-)

Thanks for your help here and over message Ash

My pleasure :-)

Funkfingers · December 2023

There are some people who claim to hear a difference between output cable formats. e.g. Single conductor + braid versus four conductor + foil/drain. Presumably, the extra distance that the electrons have to travel to the series link and back either delays the signal or loads it via capacitance or something?

This phenomenon may be confined to Eric Johnson, Joe Bonamassa and Nigel Tuffnel.

Funkfingers · June 13

This Spring, I have been mostly enjoying a pre-owned OCP Californian pickup in the neck position of my Fender AVRI '52 Telecaster. (Lightweight ash body, maple neck with a profile more reminiscent of a Stratocaster.)

By comparison, I find the "2012 Honky Tonk Angel" pickup currently in the bridge position ever so slightly pedestrian.

Q1) Which of your other T-type bridge position pickups do you recommend to partner the Californian?

Q2) Are your Masterbuilt models available with raised D and G rod magnet polepieces à la 1953 Fender?

OilCityPickups · June 13

The HTA bridge is designed 43awg with A2 for smoothness - if you want something more trebly and twangy see below
A1.
The Californian is essentially a Strat neck pickup, so will sound somewhat different to a Tele one and as such is wound with 42awg wire. A more twangy/trebly option would be for example my Masterwound Summer of Love 67 :-)

A.2 The Summer of love already has staggered poles but Mastewound are available with any stagger you want, or none at all - part of being masterwound :-)

WYNIR0 · June 13

Any reason why more pickup manufacturers don't make replacements for larger Fender Wide range pickups (other than the obvious smaller market), Second any reason why none of the replacements are affordably priced?

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Ash at Oil City answers pickup questions:

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