Do pickups have to be straight?

[boltzthrower]

Obviously you can angle them, but can they be built curved? Like, say, in sort of a Nike swoosh shape, or sort of an “S” shape? Non linear pickups, is it possible?

 

[scottosan]

Obviously you can angle them, but can they be built curved? Like, say, in sort of a Nike swoosh shape, or sort of an “S” shape? Non linear pickups, is it possible?

The problem with curved is getting the wire to conform to the concaved part. You are winding 7000 turns at 1000rpm under tension, so the wire is going to want to lay straight.

 

[VonBonfire]

Do pickups have to be straight?

 

[Dan Gleesak]

Do pickups have to be straight?

Tele neck pickups are the gayest of all the pickups

 

[VonBonfire]

Tele neck pickups are the gayest of all the pickups

tele hate seems to be a part of rig talk so I no longer like teles either. I might as well just hate all Fender guitars. I actually like them, they just hate me.

 

[rsm]

why not angle a straight pickup like the bridge pickup on a strat; or similar to multiscale angled pickups?

 

[Dan Gleesak]

tele hate seems to be a part of rig talk so I no longer like teles either. I might as well just hate all Fender guitars. I actually like them, they just hate me.

I love me a nice tele, but their stock neck pickups are pretty gay. I prefer either an esquire or put a p90 in the neck

 

[boltzthrower]

why not angle a straight pickup like the bridge pickup on a strat; or similar to multiscale angled pickups?

So you can have a non linear, exponential difference between strings. For example, imagine a 6 string pickup, already on an angle, but the pole pieces for the high and low string deviate from that angle and are on a more extreme angle than the rest. You could have an exponential response. I could see this being especially useful for extended range guitars.

 

[boltzthrower]

The problem with curved is getting the wire to conform to the concaved part. You are winding 7000 turns at 1000rpm under tension, so the wire is going to want to lay straight.

Maybe heat the whole pickup after its wound and bend it into a curved shape? Using stand in dummy pole pieces so you don’t destroy the magnets. Or wind it by hand and insert brace pieces connected to a backing that hold the concave side in place.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I would think that if you would have anything other than a straight pickup (left to right axis) The coils wouldn't create much of a field because of any parts that were concave and not good proximity to the magnets. Or if you wound then bent it as you suggested one half of the the coils would go slack and the other tight possibly breaking.

If you're talking angled on an up down axis, wouldn't it be much easier to achieve that with adjustable pole pieces than creating a curvature of the entire pickup.

If you're wanting some sort of "extreme angle" you'd likely be better doing something like this (or a p bass) and orienting the pieces how you wish..

There are these weird shaped pickups, but as above I believe they are 2 separate bobbins; not a single piece. Same is true of the Gibson Boomerang pickups.

 

[Thetorch777]

Obviously you can angle them, but can they be built curved? Like, say, in sort of a Nike swoosh shape, or sort of an “S” shape? Non linear pickups, is it possible?

Those flying V's from the 80's had Angled like heart shaped and oh ya that one guy had angled strat pick up reverse I think his name was Hendrix

 

[Thetorch777]

Oh ya and sum guy named Eddie