Frankentar: The Hoverbucker

Below are some pictures of a guitar I'm working on currently I've dubbed the "Hoverbucker". It started out as a pawn shop Bullet (Cost to me: $25), which I've made a new pick guard for, Mounted the middle pickup over the neck pickup, made a new aluminum bridge for, and moved the base plate for the stop piece to the bottom of the body. I'm planning on mounting the bridge pickup between the bridge and tail piece to be able to pick up on whatever sounds can be had over that small stretch of strings.

I'm hoping to be able to wire the whole thing to be able to reverse polarity on the two neck pickups relative to one another as well as be able to switch them from series to parallel if I wish. Any ideas (or anger over messing up a respectable little strat :poke:) anyone has I'd appreciate.

If the more experienced among the forum think that the aluminum bridge would be insufficient I'll probably make something similar to the bridge peice that archiemax made on his beautiful lap steel

I can see intonation being a possible problem...

I really like that concept though and if I were you I'd find a way to make it work. Is it welded or bent? Why not cut your current bridge in between each string saddle and maybe slot each piece? Or maybe find a way to stagger the saddles ala les paul jr or prs stoptail?

I'm somewhat worried about intonation as well, but I'm just using the aluminum as a roughing in tool for the moment. if it presents a problem I'll go for something else. It's just bent (vice + large hammer). I'm not sure how I'd modify the stock bridge piece to allow the strings to freely go over it, but if I need a better bridge I'll probably look into getting a Gibson style one.

I actually really like that idea, i would have never thought of something like that in a million years, bravo good sir.

Tune-o-matic style bridges require the neck to be angled, so to get one to play properly on a fender style body you'll have to shim the neck some. Not hard, I just want you to know what you're getting into.

he could countersink it into the body, like Warmoth does.

I would probably go with the shim. thanks for the idea. I'll probably wind up with a shim if/when the need arises.

Very interesting. What are you looking to achieve with the pickup-on-top-of-pickup setup?

With a little more engineering, you could make the part of the strings between the bridge and tailpiece tunable, like some pianos. You could create a bit of a reverberant effect if you tuned the strings to notes in the key you're using, ala sitars, and you could even give them a little flick like sitar players do to their sympathetic strings for effect.

I'm not sure what you mean in the second part, but as far as what I want to achieve from this guitar I'm not entirely sure. I think there might be some worth-while ways it could be wired, but any thoughts on what it might sound like or suggestions for wiring layout would be appreciated. As it stands I plan to wire the each pickup to a DPDT switch to allow me to flip each pickup's polarity independently, maybe an on/off for each pickup, then have those feed into a switch/switches that allow the pickup feeds to be wired in series or parallel, to a single volume pot, finally feeding through a single tone pot along with the bottom pickup's signal. (unless I come across another cap and pot for two tone pots). I'm not sure how the series/parallel switching is done, but that shouldn't be too hard to figure out once I go at it. I might diagram it up some tomorrow.

Is it possible to switch polarity with a switch? I thought the polarity had to do with the direction of windings on the pickup.

Yes, and if you swap the hot and ground wire, you've essentially reversed the direction of the windings. You'll need a DPDT on-on switch.

I happened upon some interesting wiring diagrams by Scott Humphrey at this page and his "Scott's Modified Brian May Wiring Diagram 2" looks like it's just what I need, though I'd like to be able to be able to use the extra volume pot in the Bullet to be able to individually control the "hoverbucker" and bridge pickups separately. Anyone know how I'd need to modify this design to that affect?

It's been a while since I've posted, but I finally got hold of a hand-held router and made room in the body for the new switches and for the transplanted pickup. The switches are a little crooked, but I think it looks pretty decent. I'll be wiring it later since I forgot my soldering iron when I left the house this morning, but you can see what she'll sorta look like now!

Let me know what you guys think.

I've actually tried to put a pick up under the strings on an old archtop guitar I had. I couldn't get any usable sounds from it. mostly high pitched plinky sounds that sounded pretty much like it sounds when you pluck the strings above the nut. Your hover bucker on the other hand- I think you might have something there. What I don't know what but the theory is there . I'm suprised I 've never seen it before.

Thanks for the input Victory, How long was the length of the strings your arch top's pickup was under? I tried to make sure there's the most length possible to try and get it to something of a useful sound, though I know since it's unfretable it won't likely be of much versatile use.

It ws a long time ago. The archtop was some cheap off brand. I really can't remember but it was set up like a gibson with a floating bridge. The problrm was there is just not enough string vibration behind the bridge. It was a wooden bridge though , but even if you had a metal bridge like a gibson tunomatic they are desighned to stop most of the vibration at the bridge.

The problem is the vibraton that the pickups use is either a movement up or down or side to side in relation to the pickup. The movement your going to get after the bridge is going to be vertical traveling down the string to the stop peice with no side movement at all. Is there a vibraton there yes it is small and is transfered to what ever is holding the string (ie stopbar on a gibson.) This is why LP's have sustain out the ying yang. but it is unusable because it is so small for what you are trying to do its prolly going to be non existant.

I don't know everything though and since you already have it done I would go ahead and try it. I think because of the physics involved it might not work. And if you pluck the strings you will get a sound similar to an Old band Called Nektar, Album called remember the future, song called remember the future. Here I found a clip of it on you tube . The sound at the the very begining.

Yours would be louder of course because you have a pickup right there, but it will probably be similar.

dFM3utweUMQ

Also my preference would be to put the Hoverbucker

well since I don't mind moving things around if the hoverbucker works out well I might wind up doing that. Or I might just source another pickup and make a double-lover-find-another-hover-bucker:eek: with the bridge pickup.

I'm not sure whats being achieved sound wise by mounting one pickup over the other. If anything it may be louder than a regular single pickup. It wont sound like a humbucker. The two magnetic fields since they may attract or repel may cause some freaky string vibrations. Magnetic pull at the bridge position has a much stronger effect at the neck than at the bridge as well.

Gibson makes a P100 stacked coil humbucker that has a cross sound of a P90 and a mini humbucker with hum canceling, but I doubt you'll have hum canceling unledd the two coils are mounted side to side.

As far as the pickup between the bridge and tailpiece you may get some harmonics if the strings dont press on the bridge too hard. How useful it would be to mix with the others would depend on the string length between the tailpiece and the bridge and weather the notes would be in tune.

Its fun to experiment though. I tried many of these ideas in my earley days.

One thats really cool is to mount the a pickup on a sliding rail where it can be slid from bridge to neck under the strings to get different tone vs having set pickups with switches. I think I used some bent coathanger wire and some wire clamps on the pickup. It worked great And I could get some good sounds, but looked like junk. Good for a laugh though playing out

I just finished getting it wired. Unfortunately I can't play and I don't have a tuner:freak: so I'll have to wait to get it really tuned and tested, but even as is it seems like having both pickups in the hoverbucker on mostly just adds to the volume. There are some odd ways it makes the sound fade in an out between the strings (harmonics?) and the bridge makes some fun noises too. I'll write up a more detailed explanation when I get ahold of my friend who plays. I also need to make more room in the body by the large switch since it's binding the smaller one next to it.

offset one of the pickups so you get some phase cancellation

Post clips, plz :poke:

I'll be sure to ASAP. My buddy has all my audio stuff ATM, but I'll try to at least get video of me slapping the strings as an example late tonight.

Did you wire the Hoverbucker

I'm not entirely sure I understand the question, but if you look at the diagram above (post 12) I've got a schematic I went by. It allows you to switch the polarity of the pickups if I read and wired it right. Someone correct me if I'm mistaken.:poke: