Ash at Oil City answers pickup questions:

OilCityPickups

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

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

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

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

Good enough answer for me. Many thanks.

lysander

@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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@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

Thanks @OilCityPickups and @earwighoney, very helpful 

OilCityPickups

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 ?

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

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

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

Cool, thank you

cheers

Zoolooter

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