Saw some crazy Strat pickups on Saturday.

[IPLAYLOUD]

A guy walking around the Philly Guitar Show with a Strat loaded with 3 wild looking pickups. Regular Strat pickup shaped unit, but instead of polepieces were 6 small blades at about a 45 degree angle to the long side of the pickup. Picture dominos falling...sorta.

I heard him say that each blade was a seperate coil, so it was a true humbucker...like 3 times over for each pickup.

The name had "hex" in it or something. I should have taken a flyer.
He was walking around with the guitar, and it grabbed your attention as soon as you saw the pickups.

[ScottB]

That was me!!

My wife was walking around with me. She was noting a lot of heads turning (I guess one of them was yours), I was mostly trying not to jab my headstock in to anyone or anything...

They're called Zexcoil pickups.

Funny, with your description of dominoes falling. Someone else invoked a "wave pattern". I never really thought about it that way, but I can see it.

[walterw]

yep, and they sound good, check them out!

dead-quiet hum-canceling, pretty much no magnet-pull, and different models sound like straight-up strat pickups or (rather freakishly) like big full-size humbuckers.

[ScottB]

Walter,

If you think those were freakish (in a good way ), you've got to hear the vintage-y Stratty prototypes I'm working on.

[walterw]

oh, yeah!

if i ever own a strat, i need to give you a call!

[Bobby D]

hmmmm......those sound interesting!

always nice to see people PUSHING THE ENVELOPE instead of just trying to recreate the "magic" of the 50s and 60s pickups.


as i remember, back in the 80s, we used to THROW AWAY all those "magic" pickups from the 50s and 60s (except for PAF's), because we wanted better tone with less noise

and that's still how i like it, even in these vintage crazed days -- if i had a nice player 60s or 50s strat right now, it would probably have some nice sounding noiseless pickups in it

HERETIC!!!! get a rope.......

[IPLAYLOUD]

I should have spoken with you. My g/f was there with me. She builds guitars and every so often a guy wants something "different". Those sure looked it!
I'll show her your site. We'll be there in November again.

[ScottB]

Yeah, sorry we missed each other. I actually posted in your "who's going" thread, too.

Get in touch if you want to talk. Keep in mind that while they look different, they can get the tones you're used to hearing. The look really just goes with the design and function. I thought about going with solid covers, but I figured I might as well try to differentiate what I've got.

I think we're going to try and go to the Nashville Amp Show, too.

[ComanchePlayer]

I listend to your sound clips last night, I'm really digging those alnico 2's and 5's.

I just can't figure out which one I would want and where.

Can I ask why you don't have a clip of those 2 in the bridge position?

[ScottB]

The A2 and A5 models on the website are relatively low output, and I find them a bit weak in the bridge.

I'm working on some stuff to get those vintage tones across the board with a lot more tunability.

I just can't figure out which one I would want and where.

Exactly! One of the problems I have (it's not a bad problem to have, actually) is that I have so much tonal design flexibility, I have a hard time focusing down to just a few models. Then, you have to translate that to a frame of reference and system of selection that people will understand and be able to make use of.

That's why we have the products presented the way we do with the "calibrated set" and the bridge solo.

When we start rolling out the vintage stuff, we'll have the capability to do a range of targeted tonalities.

I'm still struggling with with how best to frame these things...

[football]

Originally Posted by ScottB

If you think those were freakish (in a good way ), you've got to hear the vintage-y Stratty prototypes I'm working on.

How are these coming along?

[ScottB]

Originally Posted by football

How are these coming along?

Great!

I brought some up to Steve Kimock a couple of weeks ago and he helped me work out the fine tuning on the string balance. I took his feedback in to account and made some more tweaks.

I just installed the protos I'm going to be bringing to the Nashville Amp Show this morning and they sound fantastic!

I've got to do some work on some tooling, but I would expect to have something available in the late September time frame or so.

I've got the tone science and engineering worked out where I can target a whole range of Strat tones. I'll probably start with just two versions, but if people like them I can fill out that whole spectrum.