Dumbass pickup question

[phaeton]

On the guitar, the "humbucker" is two pickup coils right next to each other, wound with opposing polarities, right? The whole point of this is to throw 60hz hum back at itself with 180 degrees phase change, thus canceling it out. It's like matter and antimatter. Pasta and Antipasta. Men and women.

 

Humbuckers have a distinctively darker sound because they do the same with the string signal as well- usually the upper mid frequencies are canceled out. It doesn't cancel ALL the signal because the rows of pole pieces in each coil are on a different part of the string. Hence, the pallet of frequencies isn't precisely the same, and the subtractive difference is what you have left over. Moving the rows of pole pieces farther apart (such as the case with single coil strat pickups) just changes the set of frequencies, adding more 'twang' or 'boing' to the note. (Hum has no relationship to string position, so it is identical in all places, and thus 99.9% canceled).

 

IIRC, the split coil pickup on a P bass is really two separate coils that are also out of phase for noise cancelation. You don't get this humbucker darkness or mid-strat-pickup twang because you *usually* only play one note at a time on the bass (that and the frequencies are different, etc).

 

So why can't a split coil (two coils side by side, each under 3 strings) or multiple coil (a small coil under each string) pickup with appropriate phase reversals work for guitar? Would it twang and boing?

 

Would a concentric pickup where two coils of the same length are wound around the same pole pieces at the same plane completely cancel itself out? Does the circumference of the coil have any bearing on what set of frequencies it is most sensitive to? Would it twang and boing?

 

Does boneless chicken cook faster than if you leave the bones in?

[Rowka]

You mean like a G&L Comanche?

 

[psychobilly451]

Rowka beat me to it!

[thelurker]

I believe that they make "stacked" humbuckers, which are a single coil sized coil with one directly below the other. they fit in the hole for a single coil, like on a strat or a tele, but have a second coil behind them to cancel hum. (IIRC the second coil doesn't pick up anything BUT hum) They affect the sound much less than a humbucker, but don't sound exactly like a single coil.

 

Also, some jazz p'ups come with two separate coils side-by-side around two different pole pieces, like a P pickup but in a straight line. Since each of the coils works on different strings (two low, two high), there is little cancellation at all. They may also make some guitar p'ups this way.

 

For what it's worth, it doesn't sound like too much is lost from the sound of a Les Paul, for what it's worth.

[thelurker]

 

Would a concentric pickup where two coils of the same length are wound around the same pole pieces at the same plane completely cancel itself out? Does the circumference of the coil have any bearing on what set of frequencies it is most sensitive to? Would it twang and boing?

 

 

This is an interesting question. I would suspect that the second (outer) coil would need to be wound significantly more times to achieve the same "pickup" as the 1st (inner) coil, as the distance from the pole piece would be greater, plus the "insulating" nature of the inner coil. I figure it's been tried, but failed to function. Although, I am unfamiliar with the "soapbar" pickup layout. Maybe they're bigger to accomodate something like this. I also wonder if the "outer" coil could be used like a transformer. I figure it would sound weak, but I'd be interested to know if it's been tried.

 

You could also try wrapping two wires at the same time, then wiring them out of phase, but if it worked, I figure this would cancel everything out, leaving you to look confused at your Marshall stack.

[guitargod0dmw]

You mean like a G&L Comanche?

 

I LOVE those guitars!!!

[lug]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbucker#How_humbuckers_work