Ash at Oil City answers pickup questions:

CasperCaster · June 2019

@JonHosker the Ed O"Brien Strat needs a hot bridge pickup to effectively drive the Fernandes Sustainer system. If you want to use the sustainer you will need a hot bridge pickup - it's an unavoidable requirement of the Fernandes Sustainer system.

Zoolooter · June 2019

Hi Ash, how do Fender get an output reading of 7.1 ohm using 42 awg wire with the Nocaster CS 51 Tele neck pickup? Sounds a bit impossible with a standard size neck pickup. Cheers

JonHosker · June 2019

Thsnjs for the info.
Keep building what you are doing.
Jon

xscaramanga · June 2019

Hi Ash,

What's the difference between your Tubesnake and Blitz Spirit sets (apart from £66)?

Tubesnake (Masterwound, £109): Alnico II PAF-style, neck 7.9k, bridge 8.5k average.

Blitz Spirit (£76): Alnico II PAF-style, neck 7.6k, bridge 8.4k.

Those DC resistances are almost within the margin of error, so how different are they?

ToneControl · June 2019

CasperCaster said:

@JonHosker the Ed O"Brien Strat needs a hot bridge pickup to effectively drive the Fernandes Sustainer system. If you want to use the sustainer you will need a hot bridge pickup - it's an unavoidable requirement of the Fernandes Sustainer system.

beat me to it: the circuit is set up for that pickup, it's inviting trouble to replace it

OilCityPickups · June 2019

jonnyscaramanga said:

Hi Ash,

What's the difference between your Tubesnake and Blitz Spirit sets (apart from £66)?

Tubesnake (Masterwound, £109): Alnico II PAF-style, neck 7.9k, bridge 8.5k average.

Blitz Spirit (£76): Alnico II PAF-style, neck 7.6k, bridge 8.4k.

Those DC resistances are almost within the margin of error, so how different are they?

The lower priced pickup set is in my 'Standard' range: that means that overall it uses less expensive components ... the most expensive component difference is in the winding wire, the Blitz Spirit uses poly coated wire sourced in the UK whereas the Tubesnake uses vintage spec wire that is imported from the US. The price difference in the wire is fairly spectacular: the poly wire being around £130 for 5 kilos ... the Vintage spec PVA plain enamel from the US is £300 for 5 pounds!
Yes the DC resistances are close ... but then so are those of a Strat neck pickup and a Filtertron ... or a Tele neck pickup and one coil of a Super Distortion ... DC resistance means absolutely nothing.

OilCityPickups · June 2019

Zoolooter said:

Hi Ash, how do Fender get an output reading of 7.1 ohm using 42 awg wire with the Nocaster CS 51 Tele neck pickup? Sounds a bit impossible with a standard size neck pickup. Cheers

Fender have always used 43awg in their neck pickups (except the super tall Twisted Tele). not sure where you saw the 42awg bit ... it's clearly a mistake as it's a struggle to get 6k of 42awg on my own Californian Tele neck pickup ... which is also way over height ... and doesn't take a cover!!!!

xscaramanga · June 2019

OilCityPickups said:

jonnyscaramanga said:

Hi Ash,

What's the difference between your Tubesnake and Blitz Spirit sets (apart from £66)?

Tubesnake (Masterwound, £109): Alnico II PAF-style, neck 7.9k, bridge 8.5k average.

Blitz Spirit (£76): Alnico II PAF-style, neck 7.6k, bridge 8.4k.

Those DC resistances are almost within the margin of error, so how different are they?

The lower priced pickup set is in my 'Standard' range: that means that overall it uses less expensive components ... the most expensive component difference is in the winding wire, the Blitz Spirit uses poly coated wire sourced in the UK whereas the Tubesnake uses vintage spec wire that is imported from the US. The price difference in the wire is fairly spectacular: the poly wire being around £130 for 5 kilos ... the Vintage spec PVA plain enamel from the US is £300 for 5 pounds!
Yes the DC resistances are close ... but then so are those of a Strat neck pickup and a Filtertron ... or a Tele neck pickup and one coil of a Super Distortion ... DC resistance means absolutely nothing.

I wasn't having a dig or suggesting the Tubesnake should cost £76; sorry if it came across that way. I'm after a description of the differences in sound. Obviously they must be distinctive or you wouldn't bother having both models in your lineup. What do they do differently?

OilCityPickups · June 2019

I didn't see it as a dig lol ... the Blitz Spirit is a more modern sounding pickup overall. The TubeSnake is directed far more at Billy Gibbons/Slash tones.

Funkfingers · June 2019

Where do you get your rubber tubing for single coil pickup mounting? It is way better than the dirty yeller stuff that Fender provides.

OilCityPickups · July 2019

Funkfingers said:

Where do you get your rubber tubing for single coil pickup mounting? It is way better than the dirty yeller stuff that Fender provides.

It's model car fuel line :-) Easy to get on e bay

brucegill · July 2019

Hope this is an ok question....

i like the tone of my p90 neck pickup with the volume pot at say 3/4, rather than full volume.

Whys that sound different from having the pickup a little lower from the strings. What happens? Seems to be some compression added when the volume pots not fully open maybe?

cheers!

Funkfingers · February 2020

Hello, Ash @OilCityPickups ;

Concerning a thread about David White Old Glories. https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/118455/wtb-david-white-old-glories#latest

What difference does the variable winding tension make to a finished single coil?
At what point does "variable tension" decline into the realms of sloppiness?
How easy would it be to replicate variable tension?
Is the result actually desirable?

OilCityPickups · February 2020

Any hand wound pickup is variable tension as it's only the winders fingers doing the tension. Looser wound pickups produce more dynamic range ... a tiny bit more ... and tighter wound pickups accentuate the mids (that's a bit of over simplification, but that's the general effect. Sorry, but I file 'variable tension' under: 'snake' sub heading 'oil'.

Funkfingers · February 2020

Good enough answer for me.

Many thanks.

lysander · February 2020

@OilCityPickups Without revealing the secret sauce, can you tell us a bit about what makes the blackbirds so incredibly good ?
To my ears it's like they are very full sounding but have eq notches just in the right places to always keep great string separation. I'm guessing they are wound asymmetrically and some other tricks ?

OilCityPickups · February 2020

lysander said:

@OilCityPickups Without revealing the secret sauce, can you tell us a bit about what makes the blackbirds so incredibly good ?
To my ears it's like they are very full sounding but have eq notches just in the right places to always keep great string separation. I'm guessing they are wound asymmetrically and some other tricks ?

Most good humbucking pickups are to some degree or other asymmetrically wound, and blackbirds are no exception, that's easy to tell if you have a pair, by putting a multi meter on the coil start and finish wires. Where the 'secret' sauce comes in is knowing the wind levels that will mesh in well with the magnet's response curve, and knowing which wind levels between neck and bridge take advantage of what both neck and bridge magnets and winding levels bring to the party. Choice of winding wire and tension all play a part.

I always wind for clarity and note definition ... as a former metal guitarist I loved a wall of sound, but was always frustrated by the 'mush' that so often came with it. The blackbird is lower output than many 'metal' pickups because far fewer of us stand in front of steaming Marshall Stacks turned up full any more, and modern 'metal' puts a lot higher demand on pickups sonic range than in days gone by.

Glad you like Blackbirds by the way ... :-)

Funkfingers · February 2020

OilCityPickups said:
the 'secret' sauce comes in is knowing the wind levels that will mesh in well with the magnet's response curve

Case in point. The Seymour Duncan Custom, Custom 5 and Custom Custom humbucker designs are the same coils, paired with different magnet materials. (Ceramic, Alnico 5 and Alnico 2, respectively.) Their tone and dynamics are different.

Mr. Duncan designed the original Custom. Members of the Seymour Duncan User Group forum experimented with magnet swaps. Demand grew sufficiently to justify putting the most popular swap mods into production.

OilCityPickups · February 2020

Funkfingers said:

OilCityPickups said:
the 'secret' sauce comes in is knowing the wind levels that will mesh in well with the magnet's response curve

Case in point. The Seymour Duncan Custom, Custom 5 and Custom Custom humbucker designs are the same coils, paired with different magnet materials. (Ceramic, Alnico 5 and Alnico 2, respectively.) Their tone and dynamics are different.

Mr. Duncan designed the original Custom. Members of the Seymour Duncan User Group forum experimented with magnet swaps. Demand grew sufficiently to justify putting the most popular swap mods into production.

Customers come up with brilliant ideas quite regularly ... listening to them is a huge part of being a pickup maker.

MagicPigDetective · February 2020

Hi Ash, I have a question for you. I want to use a Vintage V100 for downtuning to C or C# to play stoner rock/doom. Form what I gather some use very high output pickups, others use more vintage, or modern paf types, eg SD Custom Custom. I’m looking more into the lower output type, which of your humbuckers would you recommend?

I’m thinking maybe the Nightfigher Alnico II Custom which has similar specs to an SD Custom Custom.

OilCityPickups · February 2020

MagicPigDetective said:

Hi Ash, I have a question for you. I want to use a Vintage V100 for downtuning to C or C# to play stoner rock/doom. Form what I gather some use very high output pickups, others use more vintage, or modern paf types, eg SD Custom Custom. I’m looking more into the lower output type, which of your humbuckers would you recommend?

I’m thinking maybe the Nightfigher Alnico II Custom which has similar specs to an SD Custom Custom.

My assistant Joey is in the doom/post metal band Oldblood, and uses a low output (paf level) version of my Neo-X-Breed pickups (his own endorsed version the 'Hacksaw') with stacked fuzz. If you are going the low/medium output doom path, I'd say any of our PAF style pickups with special consideration for tight bass end. My own choice would be the Scrapyard Dog (alnico 5) or perhaps the Forces Sweetheart (alnico 2). For medium output you can't go wrong with the Scrapyard Dog Plus (alnico 5), or as you have said, the NightFighter alnico II Custom.
Hope this helps :-)

earwighoney · February 2020

MagicPigDetective said:

Hi Ash, I have a question for you. I want to use a Vintage V100 for downtuning to C or C# to play stoner rock/doom. Form what I gather some use very high output pickups, others use more vintage, or modern paf types, eg SD Custom Custom. I’m looking more into the lower output type, which of your humbuckers would you recommend?

I’m thinking maybe the Nightfigher Alnico II Custom which has similar specs to an SD Custom Custom.

Sorry to chime in and in addition to what Ash said I find myself leaning towards A5 magnets as they have a bit more brightness which works with when the strings are tuned low and a little on the loose side of things (essential for doom) and with the fuzz. Also, I find a HB sized P90 to work well for doom, maybe Ash could recommend a particular model but I'd be inclined to go for a Mighty Ninety in the neck.

OilCityPickups · February 2020

earwighoney said:

MagicPigDetective said:

Hi Ash, I have a question for you. I want to use a Vintage V100 for downtuning to C or C# to play stoner rock/doom. Form what I gather some use very high output pickups, others use more vintage, or modern paf types, eg SD Custom Custom. I’m looking more into the lower output type, which of your humbuckers would you recommend?

I’m thinking maybe the Nightfigher Alnico II Custom which has similar specs to an SD Custom Custom.

Sorry to chime in and in addition to what Ash said I find myself leaning towards A5 magnets as they have a bit more brightness which works with when the strings are tuned low and a little on the loose side of things (essential for doom) and with the fuzz. Also, I find a HB sized P90 to work well for doom, maybe Ash could recommend a particular model but I'd be inclined to go for a Mighty Ninety in the neck.

I totally agree about alnico 5 for downtuning ... and a Mighty 90 alnico 5 is a serious 'doom beast' in the right hands/rig. It's a P90 however, so don't expect it to be noiseless!

lysander · February 2020

@OilCityPickups what would you recommend in your range for a PRS DGT like sound? I.e a PAF that sounds like a telecaster on steroids ?

MagicPigDetective · February 2020

Thanks @OilCityPickups and @earwighoney, very helpful

OilCityPickups · February 2020

lysander said:

@OilCityPickups what would you recommend in your range for a PRS DGT like sound? I.e a PAF that sounds like a telecaster on steroids ?

Several possible contenders here, but my Creature should get you close to that tone.

the_jaffa · February 2020

Hi Ash,

Are you familiar with the humbuckers from Hofner T4s from 79ish? Do you happen to know what wind, magnet and output they are and hence anything in your range that comes close?

OilCityPickups · February 2020

I believe this was after they stopped using Schaller HBs ... If I remember correctly they were A5 and moderately beefy PAFs ... so Scrapyard Dogs.

the_jaffa · February 2020

Cool, thank you

cheers

Zoolooter · April 2020

Ash, can you tell me what mags are in the Stone Tone pickups?

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Ash at Oil City answers pickup questions:

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