Kinman Strat Pickups Weight

jaymenon

 Does anyone know what is the actual weight of one (or a set of three) Kinman Stratocaster pick ups as compared to a set of three non-noise cancelling conventional Strat pickups please...?

dbphoto

Have I hugely overslept and it’s April 1st!?!

p90fool

I was wondering the same...

jaymenon

Actually - no, I have a rather unusual guitar (non-fine tuner floyd and a conventional Strat neck with a bone nut) that's a bit heavy at 3.6kg (heavy for me, I have rather unpleasant neck and shoulder problems).

So I'm desperately searching for ways to weight relieve it. I'm thinking perhaps routing out the area covered by the pickguard. Also if conventional single coils are significantly lighter that's an obvious option...

Come on guys help me out here - we're all guitar geeks  

Fifty9

I don’t think searching for lighter pickups is the answer

richardhomer

Without wishing to sound unhelpful my guess is that the weight of ‘any’ Strat pick-up will be close enough to identical, as to be of no consequence.

sweepy

There was a 3 point guitar strap on the market iirc, it was for guitarists with back issues 

http://www.mundomusicgear.co.uk/pain-free-guitar-strap/

The lightest guitar you’ll find is either a pre facelift Parker Fly or SG 

octatonic

There is a reason why pickup manufacturers don't list weight but do variously list resistance, resonance and inductance.

Weight would only start being significant if someone started making their pickups out of extraordinarily heavy or especially light materials- you know, black holes, or fairy jizz and such.

If you want a light guitar then look at Steinberger, Canton, Forshage, Strandberg headless designs.

jaymenon

 Thanks guys for all the suggestions. This instrument is very close to my heart, and this picture will tell you why. There is only one in the world (because no one else would buy one anyway) 

https://i.imgur.com/95kAjQ2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fBHYarB.jpg

  It was inspired by the Guthrie Govan guitar but I wanted three single coil pickups.  It actually goes one step beyond the GG in that the headstock is backangled - meaning no string trees which makes it even more tuning stable.

22 frets -  so the neck pick up is that the second octave (if that actually makes a difference I don’t know, but I like how it sounds).

It has everything, including a contoured heel and rear chamfering of the lower horn to  facilitate access to the dusty end of the fingerboard.

Is there anything practically do-able to reduce the weight? Given the unusual nature of the bridge, I can’t very well buy a light / chambered body off-the-shelf...even Warmoth will only do a routing for recessed full-size Floyd  and that will leave an unsightly gap behind the locking screws  tuners.

Alnico

jaymenon said:

......Is there anything practically do-able to reduce the weight? Given the unusual nature of the bridge, I can’t very well buy a light / chambered body off-the-shelf...even Warmoth will only do a routing for recessed full-size Floyd  and that will leave an unsightly gap behind the locking screws  tuners.

Have you spoken to @FelineGuitars about that?
If not, my advice is "Do" !

axisus

If your guitar is heavy, the weight of the pickups is the least of your problems! I have Kinmans and I don't recollect thinking anything of the weight

octatonic

jaymenon said:

 Thanks guys for all the suggestions. This instrument is very close to my heart, and this picture will tell you why. There is only one in the world (because no one else would buy one anyway) 

https://i.imgur.com/95kAjQ2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fBHYarB.jpg

  It was inspired by the Guthrie Govan guitar but I wanted three single coil pickups.  It actually goes one step beyond the GG in that the headstock is backangled - meaning no string trees which makes it even more tuning stable.

22 frets -  so the neck pick up is that the second octave (if that actually makes a difference I don’t know, but I like how it sounds).

It has everything, including a contoured heel and rear chamfering of the lower horn to  facilitate access to the dusty end of the fingerboard.

Is there anything practically do-able to reduce the weight? Given the unusual nature of the bridge, I can’t very well buy a light / chambered body off-the-shelf...even Warmoth will only do a routing for recessed full-size Floyd  and that will leave an unsightly gap behind the locking screws  tuners.

Get a new chambered body and put a Gotoh 510 on it.

ICBM

Kinmans *are* heavier than single coils, but probably not enough to make any practical difference.

Completely routing out the area under the pickguard will make a bigger difference, but it will very likely also change the sound of the guitar quite significantly, so I would be careful.

A chap I used to know once bought a 1979 25th Anniversary Strat - which usually weigh about as much as a car - and it was a quite reasonable weight and sounded somehow ‘airy’ and almost semi-acoustic. When we took the pickguard off, it was! It had been chiselled out for three humbuckers and a pedal circuit .

It can be surprising how little difference in weight is noticeable, although whether it will make enough of a difference to help, I don’t know. The balance of the guitar also changes the perceived weight quite a lot - lightening the body will make the weight shift more towards the neck, which may not be a good thing. If so then lighter machineheads may help - those are cast-body ones, which aren’t that light.

mistercharlie

If you want to make a real difference to the weight, you’ll need to look at a new body. My Strat comes in at 3.0kg, and that’s all down to the super-light basswood body. 

UnclePsychosis

What strap are you using?

A good strap makes a huge difference to perceived weight. 

NeilMcG

richardhomer said:

Without wishing to sound unhelpful my guess is that the weight of ‘any’ Strat pick-up will be close enough to identical, as to be of no consequence.

I recently got a set of fender gen4 noiseless and I was surprised by how much heavier they are compared to standard pickups. I haven't measured the difference, but it is very noticeable.

thermionic

Neodymium magnets?

richardhomer

thermionic said:

Neodymium magnets?

And if they were the usual size, your guitar would probably slam into the nearest fridge, if you let go of it....

guitarfishbay

octatonic said:

There is a reason why pickup manufacturers don't list weight but do variously list resistance, resonance and inductance.

Weight would only start being significant if someone started making their pickups out of extraordinarily heavy or especially light materials- you know, black holes, or fairy jizz and such.

Agreed. The difference between pickups won’t be significant.

Which reminded me I’ve been meaning to weigh the Fluence Classic bridge I have as I’m sure it’s lighter than my other humbuckers.

I was correct but it’s not by much.

EMG 81 = 130g
Fluence Classic = 105g

I’d guess that it’s going to be even less difference between typical single coils.

thermionic

richardhomer said:

thermionic said:

Neodymium magnets?

And if they were the usual size, your guitar would probably slam into the nearest fridge, if you let go of it....

Exactly. So you can make the magnets very small and light.

normula1

I don't think rhe Kinman Strat pickups are that much heavier than standard. Their P90 ones on the other hand are much heavier than the stanard P90.