Re: OFC pickups

[Warrn]

I've never noticed a difference in string brands, just the different metal mixtures of the strings. I tend to prefer the brightest round wounds on my basses, regardless of who made the strings.

[Barry]

...It would be great if all Pups came as units that are simple slotted and clicked into place as one might do with a memory chip. Plug and Play? Take your guitar to the Pup shop and try out as many as you like ! Now wouldn't that be progress !

Your whim is Bob Taylor's command: Plug n Play Loaded Pickguards!

[Barry]

...I have a bit of a soap-box when it comes to different magnets making the pups sound different. A magnet is a magnet, no matter what it's made of. The big thing is the strength of the magnetic field for a given size of magnet that varies with the different materials...

Yeah, I tend to feel to way too. For me it really does depend on context; what they're installed in to.

Good output? Sure, but does it sound 'right' for what I'm playing? No point having 11K if it sounds like marbles rolling on a tin roof. I couldn't tell you just from listening whether it's an Alnico or ceramic pup, only that it sounds "warm" or "bright" in a particular guitar. What I do notice lately, however, is the difference that potting makes! That might be more of an influence than the magnet type.

[Dragondreams]

[What I do notice lately, however, is the difference that potting makes! That might be more of an influence than the magnet type.

I'd go along with that.

I had a bit a "debate" with Keith at Axetec (the guy I buy my pups from). I mentioned to him that a particular pup was just getting better and better the more I played the guitar. He assured me that it wasn't possible. My theory is that it was "settling in". Perhaps the potting wax was softer than normal and my perception of "better and better" was the coils settling through mechanical action, altering the tonal response of the pup. I've since sold that particular guitar, so I can't draw further "aging" comparisons.

I wonder, though, whether this is why there's a rose-tinted hankering for older pups. That they sound good now because of all the "work" they've done. Which brings us back to marketing hype and the whole realm of "vintage re-issues". Making a new pup in the old ways is surely not going to make it sound like a 50 or 60 year-old veteran of serial guitar abuse... is it? I'm not aware of any pup manufacturer that artificially ages their products (beyond the cosmetic stuff like rusting the covers), but I stand to be corrected.

[Westbone]

The older a AlNiCo magnet gets the more it loses it's magnetic properties.
Alnico 2 as fitted in the prestige 250 and other models have a sweeter, mellower sound.
An older alnico 5 will sound 'sweeter' than a new one due to the reduced magnetism.
I'm no expert but this is what I beleive.

[Steve777]

Yup, I read the same.

Actually, when Barry said "re-potting" , I thought he meant changing the value of control pots. My Custom built Rob Armstrong came with Dimarzio a Dual Sound and a Super Distortion managed by 260k Ohms pots. Although powerful at the time ( 1980's), and enough to blow away my Gibson Vee ( yeh, yeh I was a Wishbone Ash die hard ), I always felt that there was more in there. So I wrote to Dimarzio a couple years ago with the wiring schematic and they recommend upgrading all the pots to 1 meg Ohm. It seemed to lift the lid off Pandoras box, more mid tone and more attack at the treble end. Well, Like it ....

[Dragondreams]

Ah. "Potting" to me meant the process of dipping the coils in hot wax.

Changing the value of the pots definitely affects the tone.

[bowenjaybee]

I'm no expert and don't understand when people say "pickups sound better with age", surely when all the classic music in the 50's, 60's & 70's was recorded the guitars that they played back then were more or less new?? My personal favourite moment ever on guitar is David Gilmour's solo on Echoes live at Pompeii his guitar sounds perfect to me and his strat was only around 2 years old at the time.. would it have sounded better if he had used a '54 strat??........I can't be doing with all the "relic" reissues around these days they really wind me up if I could go back in time to the 60's I'd want a brand new guitar not a beaten up piece of S**T

[Westbone]

Nowadays we have much better amps, various effects, pa miked up. What more could you wish for!!
A massive WEM PA system. A Marshall, a guitar and a plectrum.

[corsair]

When I started out - many many years ago now!! - the vocals went through the guitar amps, and the only effect I had, per se, was my jealously guarded WEM Copicat - it cost me a pretty sum I can tell you!! - and when I stopped playing out, my stage gear consisted of my guitar - Vantage VA900 - into my small 100W tube combo set at quite low levels but miked into the PA - and the signal sent from there to the main desk, where FOH and monitors were mixed individually. I had 2 banks of pedals - all digital - to effect the guitar signal; I tried rack gear through a fancy switching system and didn't like it so went back to my trusty old Boss stompers... with a Pitch shifter, a digital reverb, 2 x digital delays amongst others. I got a myriad of different sounds very easily and best of all, we didn't have to blow eardrums out so my take on this whole "analogue", "relic" and "antique" gear thing is ....

"privates!!"

Give me modern gear every time for live performance...

[hoax]

Through choice I never use any effects. That's what gives me "my sound" . I have no wish to faithfully replicate anyone (except perhaps the great Paul Kossoff). I like to get the notes approximately right, but when I lose interest learning a song I go in my own direction. I only play for myself, so it does not really matter. I love all of my guitars but I still sound like me regardless of the particular guitar l use.

After I had been playing about 2 years I got a Sound City 120 head and Marshall 4x12 but I had to use a fuzz box because there was none of that master volume/gain nonesense then. I then started using a tiny Vox Escort as a pre amp and hooked it up to my half stack, but because the Vox was a transistor amp, it was still really just manufactured distortion.

Now having played for over 30 years I have only recently discovered that if you turn a tube amp up to 11, find a method of taming it i.e. a power sink, and then use your tone and volume controls, you can actually get a great range of sounds and finallly now I am content with what I get. Another great recent discovery is treble bleed capacitors on your guitar volume controls (dirt cheap and brilliant!!). If you don't have them, get them.

Strings - Regardless of the guitar I have recently discovered that I actually prefer 9 gauge D'addarios or Ernies after having strung all of my guitars with 10's. 9's are zingier and pingier (A bit more vibrant to my ear and fingers). On some guitars 10's can make the tone a bit wooden. 9's are just livelier. I could not fully appreciate my Vantage Ghost until I tried 9 gauge stings and it was transformed!!

Finally, back on topic - OFC pickups WTF are they ?

Graham

[Dragondreams]

Finally, back on topic - OFC pickups WTF are they ?

Graham

Oxygen Free Copper - semi-mystical holy grail of gullible hi-fi geeks...

[Westbone]

http://www.q-tuner.com/index.shtml

Apparently these have OFC.
OFC. to stop the copper oxidising

[anaerobe]

Never heard of OFC before, good thread.

[Racing]

Hoax.
By many measures we´re on the same page.
Treble bleeds are bloody brilliant alright,and for those not familiar with them...
Solder a 1000pickoFahrad capacitor across the "in and out" legs of the volume pot.
Then hook up,and check what happens tonewise as you roll off on the volume of the guitar.
Point being that most guitars lose out on treble as you do...well not anymore..

As for effects...nope...
Axe,hose,amp.
That´s it,and that is also how i run her live and onstage.(Hence why the treble bleed is useful)
Only effect i use on occasion is the reverb built into the units i use.

True that a magnet loses its magnetism over time.
Now don´t take this to the bank but if memory serves me halftime is something like 40yrs or so-of course dependant of type of magnet.