video blog suggestion - Guitar pickup's (e.g. Humbuckers)-theory

[Doug_in_Minnesota]

I have a suggestion for a video blog episode. A tutorial of the basic level theory of how an electric guitar pickup works. Included would be a visual of the pickup's themselves as individual items held in the hand (or laying on the bench), and also as mounted on a guitar.

Of course, the REAL BASIC theory is that it is just a coil and a magnetic field that get's affected by the vibrating string. But a tutorial with more definition and detail would be great.

A real "one off" from the world of most of the blog video's.

Also, a schematic diagram would be worth half a thousand words.

A REAL major bonus would be having scopes hooked up to the raw pickup's, and also to the post amplifier signals coming out of the guitar. Maybe even also having a scope hooked to a sensitive microphone that could pick up the raw string vibrating (not using pickup's, just a good mic set an inch or two away).

Personally, I like Bass guitars, but the principles are the same on both 6 strings and bass.

Thanks.

[Blanketduck]

I know probably more than is required to explain, as I do full service/setup/repair on guitars, and I can point you at particular things without being responsible for your failure. Schematics can be had quite easily:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/
http://www.emgpickups.com/top-10-wiring-diagrams
http://www.dimarzio.com/support/wiring-diagrams

NOTE: Take caution with audiophile products here. Don't buy anything you don't need. I made fun of the oil filled paper caps on their FB:
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Books,_DVD/The_New_Book_of_Standard_Wiring_Diagrams.html

In solidbody electrics there's usually just a passive or an active pickup system. I can't possibly mention everything as there are well over 100+ types, each with very special amounts of windings and different magnets. That's a discussion for the seymour duncan tone freaks forums. You'll go from the original 1950s PAF that seth lover made, to an EMG 85-X series like in my travel guitar, or the SD version which is the blackout. In essence they're just a plastic bobbin, with special magnets in the middle of each ring, and it's machine wound like a transformer. The ones that have a cover are the same as the coverless ones, except having a cover means it's been dipped in wax and sealed. Some of them are shielded too.

Passive: Requires 250K, 500K potentiometers for the tone/volume knobs. The difference between a tone and a volume knob, is you solder in a cap to form a variable RC circuit to tune it. 250k is for single coil, and a 500k is for humbucker/dual coil. The dielectric is usually solid in most of the caps they use. Your choice. 3 way toggle is neck-bridge-both, if there are 3 pickups it's neck-middle-bridge, but you can do whatever you want, as well as get a hybrid push-pull switch to split the coil ( like a rotary shaft encoder really )...

Active: Noise-cancelling pickup with a preamp. Requires 9V batteries in series. 18V is the best noise reduction, most people use this.
The problem is that some guitars don't have enough space for two batteries so one is fine. You can use 27V and 3 batteries, but as EMG warns you, there is going to be no noticeable difference with your recording equipment. The new ones are completely solderless so you don't need to solder at all...

Usually it's just a 3 way toggle switch + 3 pronged output jack ( has to have 3 prongs ). When you're wiring an older guitar, the pickups have a ground wire + two conductors. You can't wire them straight to the output jack. It'll be way too loud, and also you'll have serious issues if you try to use them with a full stack or a half stack + a large 100W head. I personally just use a vox tonelab with a 12AX7 tube. You can get nice DSP processors, but you'll avoid digitech like the plague unless you buy their rack preamp, and go for BOSS/ROLAND brand... You won't get a real tube sound. It does actually matter with guitars. It doesn't matter with sound cards, but with guitars, a lot of the best DSP processors are under patent, so you have to buy certain brands to even get a good tube sound. My vox tonelab ST is a $250 model with a tube + DSP... They're quite picky about how you wire them, since it's a matter of learning how to chain effects and effects boards... I know there are people here who actually build effects boxes for a living, but I actually play synth too ( and wind instruments )... So it's just a game of low-mid-high frequencies and using the right gear (It's surprisingly weird for guitar, usually between 100hz to 1.4Khz is low end, up to 2.5Khz is mid, and beyond that is kind of useless for guitar, but good for high end. Synths tend to be much better with frequency use as they're not very abstract, and you don't have to fuss around in a rack DSP as much)...

If you want to do a teardown. You should get one of these. This is the god of all tone machines. The reason why it's SSI/TTL, is because it doesn't matter at all. It's mostly the power tubes and RF stuff, as you're dealing with impedance/inductance and a lot of switching. People don't buy them that often so they don't really need to make a new one. They can though... You can get the same things out of a nice vox tonelab model. But It's better to build a rack. I don't use effects boxes. I just dial in the tone I want. That in itself would require an entirely separate explanation:

http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Rackmount-Preamps/TriAxis/triaxis.html

Digitech tone library: http://digitech.com/en/products/gsp1101 ( it's from 2006, it's quite old now )
BOSS tone library: http://www.bossus.com/gear/productdetails.php?ProductId=719 ( the GT-10 is newer but hard to compare )
LINESIX discontinued rack stuff, so maybe this instead: http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/guitar/guitar-rig-5-pro/
Rocktron's version: http://www.rocktron.com/prophesy-ii.html
Very expensive, but one of the best: http://www.roland.com/products/en/VG-99/

Software synths:

Here's a modular synth:
This is what I use (VST, requires a DAW): http://www.spectrasonics.net/products/omnisphere.php
Analog only software synth: http://www.lennardigital.com/modules/sylenth1/
NI's Komplete: http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-9/
Haven't tried it supposed to be good: http://www.camelaudio.com/Alchemy.php

Total junk, no VST, but a nice toy: http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/new/
Worse than reason, cheap software sequencer: http://www.image-line.com/flstudio/

Here's jordan rudess using omnisphere on a $3k wireless keyboard with monophonic sampling:

By the way you don't need this expensive thing. It's just a zen riffer, which is fancy as heck. All you need is mod + pitch + octave shift
Having 49 keys is best, but you can get by with 20ish if you have octave shift. I suggest axiom air mini 32, but korg nanokey2 works
simply because it has mod + pitch and isn't too bad. Lack of velocity and aftertouch will hurt you though if you want to buy a $600 software synth.
You only need a $100-$300 model and you're set ( programmable velocity curve)

Onto hardware workstation synths:
Moog voyager, omnisphere can emulate these also: http://www.moogmusic.com/products/Minimoog-Voyagers
( If you are from australia, there is a band called "the presets" which uses the moog )
ACCESS VIRUS synth: http://www.virus.info/virusti/overview
( the band infected mushroom uses this tone, you can tell )
Not mentioned much: http://www.waldorf-music.info/blofeld-keyboard
Out of business now: http://www.alesis.com/andromeda ( famous for the micron )
Korg's flagship: http://www.korg.com/us/products/synthesizers/kronos_x/
Nord wave: http://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-wave
( not that popular with terrible bands, a popular girl band that uses the electro is "la roux", they don't know what to do with it though )
Yamaha's line: http://ca.yamaha.com/en/products/musical-instruments/keyboards/synthesizers/sy-moxf/?mode=series#tab=feature
( If you're into PCM synth like sound of arrows, MILLE, marina and the diamonds, ladyhawke, golden filter, etc )

Summary: USB midi keyboard is the most cost effective + software synth ...There are workstations, arrangers, PCM samplers like the kronos, there's also straight analog, and modular stuff. If you don't go with a USB one, you have to buy an M-audio UNO and program the cables yourself (not fun, I've done this even for digitech GNX guitar processors)... You can dial in all these sounds yourself in a software one.

This is probably the best option: Full schematics for the A-100 here I think. Not an easy thing to try your first time: http://www.doepfer.de/home_e.htm

Random music:

You might recognize the saw tooth: https://soundcloud.com/milleponken/roadwraith

This starts out with a PAD ( which is somewhat like a square wave mixed with a triangle wave. It runs through an LFO  + two filters ), then there's PCM and some drumkits, not anything amazing: ( sound of arrows - into the clouds )

Frankmusik's old stuff is all wavetable + PCM + analog + bladerunner type 80s pop stuff you find on a yamaha synth:

Overkill with LFOs ( they use almost entirely analog, except for the drum machine, amazing tone, mostly moog type stuff which is monophonic, polyphonic means more than one note can play at a time, but monophonic is better for a SINGLE instrument as it can't play two notes at once )...


digital wind instrument ( the keywork isn't important, I rebuild clarinets also, all you need is 2-3 octaves, it's usually like sax type soprano one )... http://usa.yamaha.com/products/music-production/midi-controllers/wx5/ ...It's meant to be used with this monophonic unit ( this isn't discontinued, I've talked to them, it's just special order )... http://usa.yamaha.com/product_archive/music-production/vl70-m/?mode=model

For budget digital wind you'll want this instead, and just a software synth. It comes pretty close to the $600-$800 ones: For the EE people, if you're wondering you can pull out the wind transducer/sensor and build your own: http://www.akaipro.com/product/ewiusb

Anyways I hope that's a good introduction. Enjoy ...A lot of the stuff I own I don't even open. I just have my guitars + synth + a few wind instruments, not even the digital stuff or the nice rack things ( SPX 900 rack + vox tonelab, got rid of all my other processors, I wish I had my GNX just to open it. I gave it away years ago, they're junk compared to the RP2000s from a decade earlier. GNX 4 is not bad with an 8 track recorder, since it supports 2GB of memory. Probably a good teardown as people hate those things. It's too much knob twiddling. Good effects, but horrible modeling. They did fix it with the GNX 3000, but those models are gone now, since only the cheap pedals sell )...

[Doug_in_Minnesota]

Blanket,

I am VERY SORRY that I have not responded sooner to your very generous and thorough post.

I have only skimmed through it, I have not read it thoroughly, but I will.

There is a HUGE amount of info in your post, and I look forward to analyzing it all.

THANK You for posting such detailed information.

I will try to respond further after I have reviewed all the information.

Sincerely,

Doug