New Zealand-based Guitar Tech + Amp + Effects Pedal Builder & Guitarist, working on guitars + amps has been my full-time day job since 2008, I love it!!
I've had the privilege of working with some incredible musicians including Toto, John Fogerty, UB40, Kool & The Gang and LAB.
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Very cool! This is the first time I have ever see a pickups magnetic field visually represented. Well done.
Appreciate the work. It's not really 3d because the iron filings get pulled to the bottom wall of the tank immediately. Also, the Gauss at the pole tops of the Ceramic-powered pickups is probably lower than the A5 poles, but the much higher permeability of the Steel poles attracts flux lines from the magnetized filings much more. Those pickups actually have less treble than an equal inductance AlNiCo pole pickup due to eddy currents caused by the highly conductive Steel poles, but the output is much higher due to the much higher permeability.
Another fascinatingly unique video.
Glad you enjoyed it
Excellent video, that was fascinating. Also really liked the music being played, I'm guessing you recorded that yourself? That was really nice & matched the video perfectly. Incredibly informative stuff, keep up the good work
Thank you, yes the tunes are something I whipped up for the video :)
Brilliant content!! THANK YOU for posting! It would be nice to see this with more detail. Is it a crazy idea for you to repeat this test with a more accurate alignment of the pickups to a transparent "overlay grid" so we can measure the field lines? And... MOST importantly... what are the INDUCTANCE values of each pickup? What are the total "DC Resistances" for each pickup (and individuals DCRs for each coil of the humbuckers)... only because folks look at the resistance to compare pickups instead of the inductance. Also, what are the environmental ambient temperature at the time of test... and possibly repeating the tests at varying room temps? And if you wanna get really crazy... place your Magnetic Field Viewer on top of your guitar... pluck a string... watch the field... and look at the guitar pickup on and oscilloscope! I wonder what the multi-test average peak-to-peak voltage is? This is academic paper type of experimentation. Thanks again!
Try a magnetic viewer.
If the tone knob is on 10 the caps are doing virtually nothing. Even when they are doing something.. theyre doing the same exact thing. Even Eric Johnson thinks cap types for guitar tone is snake oil lolol
What has to be happening here is that the pickup in the back of the guitar is acting microphonically, so it is picking up the sound of the guitar in the same way as if you held up a weak microphone to an unplugged guitar. The way you’re describing things, it kind of sounds like you’re suggesting that the back pickup is somehow creating an electronic signal just by being physically shaken by the vibrations of the guitar body. If you were to attach the pickup to some kind of silent machine that could just vibrate the pickup without creating any noise for it to microphonically “hear”, it wouldn’t send any signal to the amp. Maybe this is what you are actually saying in the video,so I apologize if I misunderstood how you were explaining it.
It would be interesting to see Jaguar pickups with the metal casing.
True, that would be a great one to check out!
That's neat!
This also makes me wonder if pickups could be completely hidden under a thin top and still do the job.
There used to be very thin plastic covers that you could cover your humbuckers with for those that don't like the screws or pole pieces showing. Anything that you put between the pickup and the strings will dampen the signal at least a little bit. You can counter that effect by slightly raising the pickup height or using a hot pickup that has power to spare. I don't know if they are available anymore. I do have at least one that came on a Charvel Super Strat I bought in '87 or '89. I don't remember. Try Stewmac, Mojotone, or Amplified Parts. I read your post again and I think that you may have been talking about hiding a pickup under the pickguard. Yes, it can be done, has been done, is currently being done, and could be done in the future. There is a Tele/Esquire model Brad Paisley signature Seymour Duncan called the Secret Agent. You could do it yourself also. Just get the thinnest pickguard that you can find. You may even be able to sand the inside down some, but I would wait until after you try it unsanded first. The same physics apply. You will need a pickup with extra power or it might sound weak. It also depends on what kind of music that you like to play. For instance, if you are playing Jazz you might like the way the sound of your hidden pickup is more mellow and round. If you are playing Hard Rock, you might miss the power, the umph, and the immediacy. If you're into Death Metal, you might just want to scrap the idea altogether.
I remember a guitar company several years ago had placed a pickup inside the neck of a guitar at the last few frets, either a piezo or a wound pickup, but I can't recall which brand it was. Ovation comes to mind, but I could have sworn it was a Gibson Les Paul or a Gretsch guitar.
There is a company that makes a neck pickup for a tele that is hidden under the pickguard. Brad Paisley uses then.
@@tiki_trash Yeah, that's the Secret Agent.
@@rexdarvog I don't think I have seen that before. There is that one that mounts at the end of the fretboard. I think it's a Kent Armstrong Jazz pickup.
Thank you so much for this, can you please also show us what the field looks like from the side at an angle if you can, to show more of the three dimensional array of filings where the strings would be, and how (if) the adjustable humbucker screws actually affect the field.
A cool comparison would be a Gibson mini humbucker and the variations of Gibson's Firebird pickups. Particularly the early "sidewinder" variant and the Bill Lawrence designed models for their '76 Bicentennial Firebird.
That would be some cool pickups to check out!!
If i'm not wrong here, BB King's Lucille had this "varitone" or "vari switch" device onboard (the big chicken head pot on the top of the guitar) doing the exact same thing
Another really cool video sir 🤘
Glad you liked it
Great Vid. I would love to see a classic Jaguar pickup in this test.
yes, same here :)
Humbuckers can be fitted with magnetic spacers instead of maple or plastic ones. I wonder what kind of magnetic field these will have? It was informative, thanks for your work!
Interesting test, but the differences “you can clearly see” weren’t obvious to me. Maybe a sheet of white paper better the pickups and the tester would’ve made it more obvious
Thanks for checking it out, I guess through experimenting, I have seen these patterns hundreds of times so the differences become very easy to see, cheers!
Great video! I have had the same idea, but I want to try to see the magnetic field in action with the strings. Your idea with this bottle is great, instead of using an acyl plate with iron powder what I was thinking about. What liquid have you used? For my experiment it has to be very "light" with no resistance to see the movements of the iron powder when a string is moving. Maybe this could be a method of comparing the resonance of materials (sustain), especially after a modification on one guitar. Maybe a bit too crazy...but I have to try this sometime.
Cool vid. I reckon the next logical test would be to show the effect of different magnet types on the electrical characteristics.of.the pickups (inductance) which will also have an impact on tone.
Placebo is a strange thing.
Appreciate the diagram - thanks.
Hi Waylon, great channel thankyou !. I feel it would be useful to take a look at the field with strings fitted as per normal guitar usage. Low frequency bass string visualisation might be very interesting, FFT. ☮️
Thanks, yes that would be cool!
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar I look forward to that 👍.
Were those two bar magnets at the end the same config as the two earlier ones in the HB's ?? Great video either way, thanks.
Those Bar magnets were ones I stock for building pickups, that would have been a cool comparison though!
I wish you had shown the last two bar magnets in their pickups to show the field relationship to the screws... or maybe those were the earlier HB pickups ?? Still a good demo, thanks.
I saw an old video when we touch (check pickups wiring) the pole with metal screwdriver..it messed up the magnetic field . can you check with your new tool?
Cool Idea, will have to try that!
I played years with metal picks, only because i found them messing the magnetic field and producing a bit bytier sound. It is not huge difference, but enough.
@@2wheelhopelessgarage258 I have used metal picks for 15 years now for that reason ... just recently I started to wonder if they were to "bright" so I did various AB tests with other pick material and they turned out to be less bright than Tortex and nylon, which really surprised me
@@sytharnia1717 I'm also using only my self made metal picks. I like bronze because of its more "round" sound and I use titanium, but titanium has no influence on the magnetic field, but I like the sounds. I also like copper, but this is very heavy. I'm using picks with 2 - 5 mm thickness. I have to try steel. What materials are you using? What are your favorites?
Had loads of fun making this, here's those links for my Fourthwall Members How To Build The 3D Magnetic Field Viewer waylonmcpherson-shop.fourthwall.com/supporters/videos/58523 Extra Visualiser Footage waylonmcpherson-shop.fourthwall.com/supporters/videos/58520
You should use a looper, as it's impossible to play exactly the same way 100% of the time. Additionally, using a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) can help you visualize the tone. Relying solely on detecting it through KZread is difficult.
Awesome video!! I have an NC-2 in my guitar and it's terrific. Thanks for posting!!
Learn all you can from Bill Lawrence he was the master of all things guitar pickup related. Study his notes and wiring mods. There would be no pickup winders with there own products like DiMarzio and Kent Armstrong, if it were not for Bill
so how does the different CAP and resistors effect things? Does the CAP help with the volume roll off while the resistor the amount to treble it lets thru?
So hang on hang on hang on........ The dual gang.... Is it another pot in series with the main volume? Because it looks as though it's not a stand in for the resistor in series
This is AWESOME... The Series is exactly what I'm looking for. I picked up the Boffin Treble Bleed Circuit and it boosts the volume so it makes the volume knob useless..
Thanks! Just one very small detail - removing the scratch plate on some Strats involves removing the neck which is the most a*rsehole thing that ever had to be done just to mess around with it. So I stick to my Les Paul and my es335 and my Strat is basically mothballed.
Wow. Awesome test and methodology! Liked and subscribed! Which type of treble bleed would you recommend for a master volume on a guitar with 3 volumes, master volume and 1 individual volume for each humbucker (neck and bridge)? So when using the master volume it wouldn't cut treble. As a second related question, I guess if the guitar was 50s wiring the master volume would not need a treble bleed? Thanks.
It's just a Varitone, with a fancy box...
I really liked that sound in the box. Like you turned it from a Squier Strat to a tele. But if you listen to 3:53 compared to 5:35 it doesn't have quite the same tone. It sounds somewhere in the middle of the Squier bridge sound and the sound you created in the box. A lot um warmer or butterier, if that's a word, than the Strat bright, twangy sound but not quite that tele sound.
The PIO myth is one of the funniest things I know in guitardom. Knowing some dentist or weekender spent 100 dollars plus on their tone caps, instead of 50c, is F hilarious.
So i guess ill just keep bugging you till you post that song #nevergonnastopbugginyou
Do you have an overdrive example of before and after?
Recently install this idea for single coil pickup. I'm using laser cut of 1mm iron plate, the result is out standing mid frequency is totally sweet and cut high frequency until microphonic feedback issue come unnaturally. Saddly I don't know what to do and uninstall the plate.
You say the 47 ohm resistor goes across lugs 1 and 2 of the drive pot. But your schematic indicates those lugs are shorted, with the 47 ohm resistor before lug 1. Or am I reading it incorrectly?
yes, you are correct, the affect is exactly the same, good spot!
blown away by this vid ...you're not in melbourne by any chance ? Also a tasty player . Nice stuff
Thnaks for checking this out! NZ btw :)
I've been told so many stories about so many Guitars, that all turned-out to be Myths, and Lies...., but it is true Paul has a son called Damiel, and his X-Wive's name is Angelique......, see if you can find her again, and ask her if she has any ID in the name of Angelique, or just turn up at a Dragon gig and ask Todd if he ever saw Paul playing it.... i found a pic of Paul, he is about 15 years old, playing a guitar, but it sure aint that Hofner you've got .(he's playing a solid body electric), i would doubt very much that a teenage in the 60's would be playing a semi acoustic arch top, so uncool, ....., particularly when he already owned a solid body electric....., but then again Robert Taylor did play a double cut away Junior which i always thought was a strange limiting choice for a band like Dragon, anyway if you got an email address i can send you the Pic and a very interesting story link about Paul (if it really was Paul's guitar, personally i think there's only 2 choices , give it to his son, or keep it for yourself)
Fishman and Mojotone sound the same
I own the SD pickup but watched the vid to see the new KK. I was surprised to have liked the pickup I already own better than the others - SCORE. Great vid!
Great mod.Guitar sounds great.
I finished building the box last night and had a good session trying it out this morning. It's great and I'm now considering installing it in my guitar, especially after seeing your other video. Thanks.
Awesome, great to hear!!
Love ASAT Teles
As far as I can tell, the input of the circuit of most fuzz pedals, like a Fuzz Face for example is the same or very similar to a treble bleed on the output of your guitar. I think this is why they retain brightness when you dial back the volume to clean up into a fuzz face. If that's right then the ideal setup if you use fuzz a lot is to have no treble bleed on your guitar.