Lipstick pickups

ICBM

I have no experience with these really - I've played many guitars with them in (almost all Danelectros) but never directly compared them or replaced any.

I have a Danelectro Convertible - single Lipstick. I like it for its cool lo-fi and slightly trashy vibe, but the pickup sounds a bit... tinny. I know they're supposed to, sort of - but I just don't love it. It also hums sometimes. I'm not that bothered about it usually, but it's nice to have the option of it not doing in some places with particularly noisy electrics. (Open mics with low lights over the stage are a bad one.)

So... are there any humbucking Lipstick pickups? Not the dual Lipsticks, a single pickup - either side-by-side or stacked (and yes I know these sound different!) - which looks the same and fits a Danelectro. I can't find one online but perhaps I'm missing something.

If not, do higher-quality replacements (eg Duncan) actually sound much better? There are clips which appear to indicate they might, but not necessarily in the way I want - I'm really looking for something a bit chunkier rather than a "better tin can", if you see what I mean...

JookyChap

The 'Blues Tubes' Axesrus sell are surprisingly decent - Alnico magnets iirc, but I think they are Strat size rather than a straight replacement for the Dano one. I've not tried the Duncan ones, but did try some Kent Armstrong ones which were good, but tbh not a major leap from the stock Dano ones in truth.

I know Marc Ransley at Mojo Pickups is doing some lippy ones (as I've ordered some) and he has gone back to the original old ones and taken it from there, but I've not tried them yet. Saying that he is so anal about such things, he has probably found the woman that was working on the Tuesday morning when they made their best pickups and copied the clothes she was wearing..

He might not thank me for that image, admittedly...

JookyChap

Another option that would look pretty cool, and has a nicer - yet still trashy - sound than the Dano pickups, is a Gold Foil. I've put them on a couple of things now (again Mojo - I am a Fanboi, I admit) and they are pretty awesome. A few people make them now, or the originals can go quite cheap on Ebay, and that should just be wide enough I would think. They are flat bottomed too, which helps with the sound hole if things don't quite drop into place.

OilCityPickups

Building a split humbucking lipstick should be fairly straightforward ... there is plenty of width of pickup to play with ... and they are by nature low output beasts anyway. A stack would sound crap

ICBM

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Building a split humbucking lipstick should be fairly straightforward ... there is plenty of width of pickup to play with ... and they are by nature low output beasts anyway.

Hmmm... I think I know someone who knows a thing or two about pickups... and might be able to build one... now what could it be called... something that indicates the essentially clangy nature of the Lipstick pickup...

An Oil Can, perhaps?

TheGuitarWeasel said:

A stack would sound crap

I know. They do!

I was just wondering if such a thing existed as it would at least cure the hum problem, and when hum wasn't a problem you could flip the lower coil and give it some serious poke... I did that with a Gibson P100 once.

Sporky

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Building a split humbucking lipstick should be fairly straightforward ... there is plenty of width of pickup to play with ... and they are by nature low output beasts anyway.

Four please.

With 4-conductor wiring so I can use the "treble" end of one with the "bass" end of another.

OilCityPickups

If I can find some tube hardware ... that'll be no problem ... have to do a bit of searching

Sporky

I have ready access to some 52mm diameter chromed steel tube, but can't help but feel it's not quite the right stuff for the job...

ICBM

Might fit in my Convertible - the body is deeper than a standard Dano.

[measure measure]

49mm from inside of back to outside of top. Existing pickup sticks out about 6mm above the top so there's still 3mm for height springs...

jaygtr

TheGuitarWeasel;41072" said:

If I can find some tube hardware ... that'll be no problem ... have to do a bit of searching

We get our tube from hub le bas. I'm not sure if that's the type of thing your looking for?

OilCityPickups

Lipstick tubes were just that ... very thin wall nickel or brass tube (okay whoever said steel stand in the corner with a dunces cap on. what transmits electromagnetic force? iron! Therefore what would be the worst form of cover material? Er ... something that would effectively block and scramble the coil's 'view' of the strings like Iron or steel.
Lipstick tubes consist of two tubular halves with domed ends ... a inner sleeve to seat the halves together ... then a couple of screws and a brass bracket.
Guitar parts USA do a 'lipstick kit' but it's Strat size ... rather than the full length you really need to make a humbucking bucking lipstick. They manage to get it totally wrong as well by supplying a Firebird bobbin and a ceramic magnet. The originals had that rarest of beasts alnico 6 magnets with the wire wound straight on ... no bobbins.

Sporky

I'd like alnico 572. 

Dodge

I LOVE lipstick pickups.  I've currently got the Duncan's as well as GFS's offerings (which I believe are the same as Axesrus, made by Artec), all of which are Strat sized as opposed to Dano sized.  I also had some Kent Armstrongs in my old Ibanez Talman.

IMO, don't bother paying a premium for the Duncan's - they're not that much better than the GFS's, and they're certainly no better in rejecting hum.  That said, mine all are in guitars with shielding paint in the cavity and I don't really notice the hum.

Sporky

I have the Kent Armstrongs (the Sky range) in my Talman too. Lovely things.

Seziertisch

Arise ancient thread and do my bidding! For long have he slept the sleep of the dead and now I summon thee forth like a bad smell from the armpit of this forum.

Anyways, I have a Jerry Jones Baby Sitar. Not mad about the lipstick sound and was wondering what other options were around, ideally something with more midrange and preferably  humbucking that doesn’t require routing.

@ICBM did you ever find a solution?

ICBM

Seziertisch said:

@ICBM did you ever find a solution?

Yes, I sold the guitar .

It's odd to see this thread again now though, since about an hour ago my screensaver which shows random pics from my photo library chose the one of my daughter playing the Convertible, which I haven't seen for ages...

Seziertisch

ICBM said:

Seziertisch said:

@ICBM did you ever find a solution?

Yes, I sold the guitar .

It's odd to see this thread again now though, since about an hour ago my screensaver which shows random pics from my photo library chose the one of my daughter playing the Convertible, which I haven't seen for ages...

I hear ya. 

The sitar was my first foray into EBay shopping about 16 years ago. I got it from the US for a couple of hundred dollars, though shipping was nearly as much. Though it was delivered Christmas Eve and I got away away without paying customs duty so that was nice.

The thing is these have gone up in value sunset they were discontinued; I have seen a couple sell on Reverb for around 800 dollars. If it wasn’t worth so much I would have no problem modding the living shit out of it. I think a mini-humbucker or something with a richer midrange would sound great in it.