Installing Oil City pickups

Megii

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Megii said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Megii said:

I may not be very typical, but personally I do like the idea of there being lower and medium output strat size humbuckers available, that aim to give good, sweet-sounding clean tones. I once tried an SD Lil' 59, and didn't think very much of it really - it was kind of in the ballpark in terms of frequency balance, but somehow there was just a cold quality to the sound. That's how I found it anyhow. I have Lace Sensors in one of my strats, and find the Lace Blue is a lot better for my taste than the Lil' 59. But lower wind/output strat size rails, with alnico magnets, are something I may well end up going for in the future.

Guess that takes us back to us pickup makers not assuming we know what you customers want ... we go full circle in the thread
  :-)

It would seem to be the case! As I say, I'm possibly not very typical in terms of what I like re pickups, and I don't know if your dual rail, alnico magnet strat pickups are particularly big sellers, but it's great to know that you do them all the same. There is something to be said for catering to the needs of minorities, at least I hope so.

SC rails pickups re never something I'd do in volume: they are horribly difficult to make properly and thus not very economically viable (unless you mass produce them like the big brand makers). I'm happy to keep them special order for customers who know what they want. 

:-)  

Seems fair enough, and one day I could be one of those customers!

OilCityPickups

My customers tend to be repeat offenders  
  :-)

Megii

So, the pickups have arrived, there was some difficulty caused to Ash in getting hold of satisfactory gold screws for them, which caused a little delay, but I am grateful for his care and trouble over this (see here if interested http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/114589/dang-gold-a-cautionary-tale-rant#latest ). They look fab anyhow, some initial unboxing type pics to follow very shortly, and then I'm getting these babies installed in the guitar today!

Megii

Megii

Megii

We have a Blitz Spirit alnico II for the neck slot, and a Nightfighter alnico 4 for the bridge, both with gold screws and slugs to match the guitar's hardware, and zebra bobbin colours as you can see. They look exactly like humbucker pickups I know, and only so much one can say at this stage, but the standard of finish and attention to detail does make itself felt. They are shortly going to be fitted to a nice Ibanez AS103 semi-acoustic guitar.

Megii

Have got the pickups fitted and the guitar back in action and set up with new strings. Sadly got pulled away from the job for a couple of hours or would have been done sooner - a bit late now for trying her out through an amp, and the light has gone for taking any decent photos. I will rectify that tomorrow with some better pics of the guitar, plus a few I took last week when I was doing the wiring for the controls.

 The guitar looks fab though - did just take a few shots as I was doing the job today, so I'll put those up below. I had already made and installed a wiring harness last week, and used the "cheat" approach of attaching the pickup wires to wires already fed through from the controls to the pickup cavities. Rewiring a semi-acoustic can be a tricky job, and I struggled somewhat the first time. But this is the second time I've done a semi-acoustic, and knowing what to do, and how helped a lot - I made a much nicer job of the wiring harness, and was a lot quicker getting it installed. More pics to come anyhow, as I say, and just a few below for now.

Blitz Spirit neck pickup fitted to the surround, and ready to be connected up:

Megii

A lot quicker/easier to fit pickups to a semi-acoustic if one just has to make two solder connections - I'd already done the hard work of making and fitting the wiring harness last week though:


Solder connections made, trimmed and covered with heat-shrink:

Megii

And just a shot taken immediately after both pickups had been soldered in, to give an idea of the finished look - the light was going somewhat, so not a huge amount of contrast. The guitar is now restrung through, and looks really great, so better pics tomorrow I promise.

normula1

I do like a zebra pickup.

Megii

normula1 said:

I do like a zebra pickup.

Cheers @normula1, me too, and I'm not really keen on metal covers, and find they do impact on the tone a bit. So zebra with gold poles seemed a good idea for this guitar, and gives it a bit of distinctiveness imho.

Megii

Pickups now properly installed, and some better pics of the guitar can be found here if anyone is interested, also just added a mini first impression review of the pickups : http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/114677/a-few-pics-of-ibanez-as103-nt-semi-acoustic-with-new-oil-city-pickups#latest

DannyP

Forces sweethearts installed on Sunday on this newly completed Kit Built Guitars LP.

I have to say, the Forces Sweethearts are exactly what Ash and I discussed on the phone: "airy" and "open" rather than "claustrophobic " and "compressed". Perfect output level for me. Very sweet sound, very defined and dynamic. Just what I asked for, basically.

Megii

Have a wow for that one @DannyP, looks great. I have to say that open/airy thing seems to be there with the Blitz Spirit/Nightfighter combination as well -  it's like the guitar can suddenly breath properly - maybe that's a daft analogy, but I hope you know what I mean. I've had similar spec alnico 2 neck pickups that covered the warm/sweet aspect, but the Blitz Spirit seems able to get this, but with more of the open/responsive character as well. And what's really impressed also is how the Nightfighter, despite being quite a hot wound pickup, still doesn't sound at all compressed - I say that having tried other hotter-wound pickups too. So, it looks like I'm an Oil City convert, and glad your Forces Sweethearts have worked out so well.