Prototypes coming thick and fast!

I put the finishing touches to our as yet unnamed vintage style humbucker. I shy away from calling it a PAF because there are so many flavours and outputs of the real thing (some of which don't sound particularly good) that to draw much comparison is pointless. It's PAF style in that it has an impedence of just over 8k, was wound with 42awg wire and has an Alnico 5 magnet.

Should have our humbucker test guitar soon: I spotted what turned out to be a Christian Olde Wolbers signature model Jackson on e-bay, with a damaged headstock, no pickup, electrics or bridge or machines ... just a hulk. I took a punt and got it silly cheap considering what they cost new. Will do a photo article about getting the beast back playing as soon as it gets here. Mahogany neck unusually for a shredding instrument ... and this probably explains why it's taken a nasty break across the head. Mahogany necks are notorious for being brittle when shaved down to less than baseball bat proportions ... I have had so many old SGs, Juniors etc come through my hands for neck or headstock surgery. You lean them against an amp for a moment ... next thing, it's crash and the head is off and lying on the floor in a tangle of strings.
Still it's fixable, and has allowed me to get a far better guitar to act as host to new products than I'd expected. It has an ebony fingerboard with absolutely no position markers ... so that'll make me work for my supper.

'Goodies ahoy!'

The development of new products goes on … this Tele™ bridge unit for example … easily distinguished as a prototype by the over-the-top looking colour coded wiring … is a bit special. It is the first Oil City ‘Diesel-Tap’ pickup. At its heart is a ‘Hardman’ style, hot 9k wind … but with the coil tapped at 6k too. Married up to a push pull pot this gives the option of a moderate vintage output; twangy, and crystal clear with great note separation … or a blistering rock powerhouse … hotter than many humbuckers, yet still with that Tele™ cut and attack.

Next we have our first humbucker … seen here in mock up assembly stage … coils yet unwound … no slugs or pole screws … just test fitted to check screw lengths, the handmade mahogany bobbin shims, and the lovely , shiny bobbins … all the way from San Dimas California. Just waiting for a delivery of some special, thinner-than-normal wire to pack those bobbins to the max!

I was determined we wouldn't jump the gun with producing a 'bucker' until we had something with very much our own flavour to offer. Firstly I was determined we would use only top quality components and put them together without any compromise. Secondly, I wanted something that was individually voiced and not a 'me-too' copy of someone else's product. It will be scatter wound hot, but with aesometric coils for maximum range and 'openness.' I'm shooting for all those screaming blues-rock tones I can still hear in my mind from the glory days of Jeff Healey.

Danno/Tele hybrid and P Bass pickups

The Danelectro Telecaster hybrid that has been taking up a fair bit of my time is waiting for its lacquer to cure before final clear nitro coats over the Daphne blue. For the uninitiated, like a Danno it has a pine frame and a Masonite top and back ... essentially being a semi acoustic without f holes. Ignore the front pickup 'rout' ... the intention was always for this to be a single pickup show-piece for my 'Hard Man' pickups.

Today I put the finishing touches to our first bass pickup prototype ... a split Precision humbucker:
A nice vintage 10.5k, it's round and growly with plenty of pop. I put it in the cheap Westfield P bass copy that hangs around and visits the odd jam with me (I'm not really a bass player, but I give it an enthusiastic shot). The pickup it replaced was a horrible ceramic magnet effort: much too thin and clangy ... you had to roll all the top off to get a nice chug, but then it turned muddy and muffled. Now the tone control works properly and it really doesn't sound like I paid seventy quid for it!

The Triple Blues Set ... or how to get your yourself in double the trouble ...

There's a lot ... er, that's an understatement ... of heated debate as to what gets you that SRV sound. Well here's my five pence worth: 60% in those great, powerful hands of his ... gotta learn his chops and phrasing. 20% in clonking great strings ... and 20% in the pickup/amp combination.
With the pickups you need clarity, lots of overtones and plenty of midrange growl. But you mustn't sacrifice the sparkle on the top end to the god of high output! The tone should be huge, but without as much overdrive as people think.

My Triple Blues set is probably not made in anything like the way No.1's pickups were ... for a start they have flush pole pieces for added mid boost and string definition. They are wound 6k, 6k, and 7k (neck to bridge ... and figures are average) so they are only a smidge hotter than standard, and they have a RWRP middle pickup so switch positions 2 and 4 are hum cancelling.
So ... do they sound like SRV? Well to my ears there's all that twang and aggression ... and with a valve amp coupled with a good overdrive - set to full level, minimum drive - there's that scream too.

My own Strat has a set of these now ... I sold my Japanese Fender pickups as soon as I heard the Triple Blues ... confidence in my product OR WHAT?

A bit of a demo!

Don't worry, I'm working on a better demo for my pickups than this ... I was concentrating on the video, not on the playing lol

'Ha ha ha I am the Count ....'

It was about time the old mechanical three-digit counter on my pickup winding machine got replaced. It had done its job (bless it) … rescued from a fifties tape recorder … it had clicked it’s way through the winding of our first dozen or so pickup prototypes. Granted I had to do the maths that went with using a two to one ratio three figure display to wind five figure numbers of turns. It got the job done accurately enough, but it was a strain to use; I needed a proper electronic counter.

Enter the wonderful e bay! I found a nice little self-powered (lithium ion) counter that would use trigger voltages from 1.5 to 18 volts, and built it into a nice box (cos I’m a bit fussy like that). I added a reed switch on a remote sensor that’s tripped by a magnet on the back-plate of my winder … and voilà … much less strain to use and all under 20 quid ... result!

Oil City pickups ...

Above: an early prototype ... now we use cloth covered hook up wire!

Just for the record, my pickup range at the moment consists of …

The Oil City ‘Thames Delta’ Telecaster bridge and neck pickups … these are 6.5k neck and 7.5k Bridge … a tiny smidge hotter than vintage, with well-balanced outputs, Alnico 5 magnets, cloth covered hook up wire etc.

The Oil City ‘Hardman’ Telecaster Bridge pickup … a real edgy high output 9k beast … again, with Alnico 5 magnets and cloth covered hook up wire.

The Oil City ‘Triple Blues’ Stratocaster set … a little hotter than standard with a massive Texas blues sound! Flush pole pieces for definition and a natural mid boost … I have them in my own Strat, and they give the closest thing I have found to ‘that’ SRV tone.

I don’t carry a stock of any of these pickups at the moment … as they are ordered, so I wind them … simple as that … though with the work load building I may have to have a little ‘building spree’ shortly!

In the development and in the pipeline soon:

Vintage ‘Stagger’ Strat pickups, a Fender wide range humbucker replacement, a vintage PAF humbucker set … and a P Bass pair. Not as if I’m giving myself plenty of work or anything!