Oll city: a new kind of pickup ... in an eye popping guitar

OilCityPickups

Ladies and metalmen ... The new Stone Wolf Ikara ... 
I'm proud to say, powered by the most ground breaking pickups I've ever made :-)



Some months ago I put up a post about developing a new neodymium pickup, one that overcame the problems other manufacturers had had with this 'super magnetic' material. Well here's the result. 
The advantage with neodymium is super clarity and the ultimate in fast bass end tracking. To put it simplistically: most magnets have a recovery time after the field has been disturbed by string vibration ... ceramic magnets have far less recovery time than alnico, hence they are said to have 'fast bass tracking' by some. Neodymium has virtually no recovery time at all, so gives you the tightest bass response possible. 


The disadvantages of neodymium are pretty well known too: huge string pull, and very bright top end response. This usually comes from slapping a neodymium bar magnet the same size as a regular humbucker magnet in a conventional humbucker design ... and expecting it to work. It won't ... at least not very well. The string pull will dampen sustain or even pull the guitar out of tune, and the top end will be as brittle as broken glass.

Enter my Oil City BlackWolf Neo with 'Graduated Field Technology'.
Since humbuckers began they have usually been powered by a big magnet sat between the poles ... with the same magnetic field for all six (or for that matter 7 or 8) strings. The 'Neo GFT' has a 'tuned' magnetic field for each string, maximising output, while minimising string pull. It harnesses the blistering power of neodymium while maintaining clarity and taming a the usual harsh treble.


With the 'wick turned down' this doesn't sound like a high output pickup ... it has an almost acoustic level of clarity ... but turned up it a achieves the tight bass and huge sonic range I was looking for. An added benefit is that there are virtually no air gaps inside this pickup, so it's incredibly resistant to feedback. 



Because of it's very unique and unusual design ... at the moment, if you want one, you will have to buy a Stone Wolf. Because of the rampant 'copy cat syndrome' amongst the pickup winding industry, I have had to take the decision not to universally release these at the moment. Patents are ridiculously expensive ... however the technology will surface in other parts of our range if I can find a way to safeguard it.
If you are going to the London Guitar show  ... you can try them however. hunt down Mike at the Stone Wolf stand ... who knows, I may be there too :-)
Both Stone Wolf and Oil City will be at the Birmingham show in February with our own stands.. 
Ash   

DiscoStu

If this really is ground-breaking,  surely it's worth getting the patent?

OilCityPickups

DiscoStu said:

If this really is ground-breaking,  surely it's worth getting the patent?

Got a spare £5000+ spare? And it'll take upwards of five years to get it implemented ... small companies like mine simply can't afford that. Believe me, we've looked into it ... 

Roland

Even if you’ve got a patent many competitors will simple copy on the basis that you can’t afford the legal costs of defending the patent. Also, the patent registration puts details in the public domain, which makes copying easier.

OilCityPickups

Roland said:

Even if you’ve got a patent many competitors will simple copy on the basis that you can’t afford the legal costs of defending the patent. Also, the patent registration puts details in the public domain, which makes copying easier.

Exactly ... screwed an all counts. Perhaps I should rely on the 'pitchfork and torches' brigade on here to go after any buggers who copy it :-)
The best we can do restrict who can buy them ... and I'm happy that Mike at Stone Wolf is getting an exclusive design ... we both think they are rather special.

digitalscream

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Enter my Oil City BlackWolf Neo with 'Graduated Field Technology'.
Since humbuckers began they have usually been powered by a big magnet sat between the poles ... with the same magnetic field for all six (or for that matter 7 or 8) strings. The 'Neo GFT' has a 'tuned' magnetic field for each string, maximising output, while minimising string pull. It harnesses the blistering power of neodymium while maintaining clarity and taming a the usual harsh treble.

Is this a similar principle to the one that Lace Sensors use? Not suggesting it's a copy at all, by the way - just wondering if it uses similar physics (other than the obvious vibrating-core-in-a-magnetic-field base).

Sporky

TheGuitarWeasel said:

the 'pitchfork and torches' brigade on here

You called?

OilCityPickups

digitalscream said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Enter my Oil City BlackWolf Neo with 'Graduated Field Technology'.
Since humbuckers began they have usually been powered by a big magnet sat between the poles ... with the same magnetic field for all six (or for that matter 7 or 8) strings. The 'Neo GFT' has a 'tuned' magnetic field for each string, maximising output, while minimising string pull. It harnesses the blistering power of neodymium while maintaining clarity and taming a the usual harsh treble.

Is this a similar principle to the one that Lace Sensors use? Not suggesting it's a copy at all, by the way - just wondering if it uses similar physics (other than the obvious vibrating-core-in-a-magnetic-field base).

Nooooooo the Lace uses a concept similar to the old Burns Trisonic (the early ones). 
With a lace each string till gets the same magnetic field as its neighbour ... much as all other more conventional pickups.

The Neo 'GFT' delivers only what field strength is best/needed for each string ... and that's easily customizable and can be factory changed for a player's individual tastes. Raising a pole screw will change the interaction and volume of a string ... but our Neo GFT starts with a graduated field anyway ... so we can add or subtract power where it's needed. 
I can't say too much about the mechanics of how we do this at the moment ... 

octatonic

That is very, very cool.
Can you do them in a regular humbucker casing?

OilCityPickups

octatonic said:

That is very, very cool.
Can you do them in a regular humbucker casing?

They do require hex pole slugs for the design, but no reason why that couldn't be put in a cover ...

DiscoStu

Shame about the patent, if you've solved some sort of puzzle then the big boys may want a slice and there's nothing to stop them ordering a guitar then reverse engineering the pickups.
They sound like a great idea, but not worth buying a guitar for in my case.

OilCityPickups

DiscoStu said:

Shame about the patent, if you've solved some sort of puzzle then the big boys may want a slice and there's nothing to stop them ordering a guitar then reverse engineering the pickups.
They sound like a great idea, but not worth buying a guitar for in my case.

That's the idea ... less chance of the idea being ripped off if you have to order a custom guitar in order to get the pickups. Also of course the guitars are pretty unique too ... the top on the Ikara is I believe made of layered denim impregnated with resin :-) 

DiscoStu

But also means you probably won't sell many of your new wonder-pickups! Which seems a waste...
I'm sure you'll have plenty of buyers once you do them as standalone pickups. 

OilCityPickups

DiscoStu said:

But also means you probably won't sell many of your new wonder-pickups! Which seems a waste...
I'm sure you'll have plenty of buyers once you do them as standalone pickups. 

Actually sales of other BlackWolf instruments equipped with my pickups seem to be doing very nicely ... and I sell plenty of other sorts of pickup to a wider audience ... so let's call this my nod to Mr Dumble's way of going for the time being :-)

DiscoStu

All power to you Sir!

OilCityPickups

The back's cool too 

hotpickups

Not sure I understand any of the nerdy stuff but good luck with them. That is a crazy looking guitar though

OilCityPickups

hotpickups said:

Not sure I understand any of the nerdy stuff but good luck with them. That is a crazy looking guitar though

It's actually quite ergonomic, and a lot more comfortable than it looks :-)
You don't have to understand the nerdy stuff lol ... that's for folks like me who don't get out enough (or sometimes at all).
The Neos are designed for a very specific job: to create the power and clarity needed for today's high gain metal sounds.To push the boundaries a bit further with passive pickup technology. 

hotpickups

Ah ok. High gain stuff definitely isn't for the likes of me then which is probably why most of it went over my head lol

earwighoney

TheGuitarWeasel said:

 To put it simplistically: most magnets have a recovery time after the field has been disturbed by string vibration ... ceramic magnets have far less recovery time than alnico, hence they are said to have 'fast bass tracking' by some. Neodymium has virtually no recovery time at all, so gives you the tightest bass response possible. 

Not simplistic enough!  I genuinely have no idea what that could mean. 

The pickups sound interesting though.  It'd be great to see a video of the guitar with pickups if possible. 

roberty

That sounds like a real achievement, congrats! Would love to have a go on one of these