Has Cordoba fixed the bridge pups yet?

[richly harmonic]

Was just wondering if Cordoba has yet to fix the 'bridge' pickup issues with the Starfire and Aristocrat models (Newark Street series that is).

Any news on that lately? Or same 'ol fluff? (I was hoping by now, 2016, that issue would have been taken care of already, but maybe not?)

--RH

 

[fronobulax]

Good question. I don't think we know yet and I have a vague recollection that the last official communication was along the lines of "Working as intended. Won't fix." Maybe someone else has a better memory than mine.

 

[Default]

Not to my knowledge.

 

[Los Angeles]

The "fix" is to buy a neck pickup and flip it over. Yes, I think the geometry might be a little off, but the sound is right.

 

[B Arbogast]

I have a 2014 Capri.
Same pickups.
Same DC measurements as the much-maligned ones.
They sound great, balanced just right.
Something must account for the different experience.
Who knows?

 

[SFIV1967]

Was just wondering if Cordoba has yet to fix the 'bridge' pickup issues with the Starfire and Aristocrat models (Newark Street series that is).

The NS Aristocrat has single coil Franz pickups, nothing to "fix" there. And as you can see in the picture Guild thinks the different little humbucker values between bridge and neck pup are just right and actually a lot of people seem to like it that way...

http://guildguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/closer-look-sfiv-st-nat-1500x630.jpg

Ralf

 

[Guildadelphia]

Ditto for the Franz style pu's on my X175B. Both pu's measure out the same, but the bridge pu is tall enough that with a little polepiece tweaking, volume balance can be attained. Love those Franz pu's.
Maybe Cordoba has "quietly" dealt with the bridge mini-bucker output issue, however if you want to purchase the mini-buckers on the Guild website, the bridge pu resistance spec's are still listed as significantly lower than the neck.

 

[parker_knoll]

not just the Newark series as they used exactly the same pickups on the much more expensive USA-made models. Personally I thought that was cheap as pickup quality is a very important factor and a superior guitar will usually have superior pickups (handwound, alnico magnets etc.)

Rewinds probably won't cost you much more than buying a new PU and you'll have the correct geometry. My last rewind cost me GBP£50 which is $72 and stuff is generally more expensive here.

 

[Walter Broes]

Ditto for the Franz style pu's on my X175B. Both pu's measure out the same, but the bridge pu is tall enough that with a little polepiece tweaking, volume balance can be attained. Love those Franz pu's.

"the same" is usually not a problem. Tweaking pickup height will get you balance. A slightly weaker neck pickup is handy, but not a must. Weaker bridge pickup can really suck, and can be hard to balance.

With the Franz "copies" in the NS175, it helps to put a little foam under the mounting tabs for the bridge pickup and raise the whole thing up a tiny little bit that way. Raising the whole pickup usually sounds better than just raising polepiece height.
I have a set of old Franz pickups on the NS175 I have now, and I had my guitar guy rout the neck pickup cavity just a hair deeper, took about a millimeter off the bracing, and that works great to bet better balance.

I think the minibucker issue on the Newark street guitars really sucks, and it's a damn shame, because otherwise the guitars are really pretty nice for the price. Not "original Hoboken guitar-nice", not by a long shot even, but still a really good deal, nice case, good fretwork, etc.....

 

[griehund]

LB-1 neck pickups have been out of stock for some time on the guild site. They must still own a sizeable amount of bridge pups. Curious to see what future bridge pups will be.

 

[Guildadelphia]

Has anyone tried just switching the pu's (putting the bridge pu in the neck position and the neck pu in the bridge position)? Should be pretty easy as I think the NS pu's use quick connect plugs.

 

[Quantum Strummer]

I'd also still like to know if anyone has actually spec'd the "mini-buckers" aside from taking DC resistance measurements. For instance, are both pickups wound with the same gauge wire? If not you can basically forget the DC resistance numbers since you're no longer comparing like with like.

I had some hands-on time last month with a 2013 SF-IV. My impression, through Kendrick 2112 (tweed Deluxe repro, with 3-knob reverb) and Hi-Tone (near atomic-level Hiwatt DR504 clone) amps, was that the bridge pickup was clearer than the neck p'up but not exactly weaker. Less midrange, though, much like the original anti-hums in my Bluesbird. With the Kendrick cranked into overdrive the bridge p'up cut through really well, whereas more mid-rich guitars/pickups tend to get congested and overcompressed. Into the Hi-Tone the SF sounded great both clean and crunchy. Very detailed in a Pete Townshend live c. 1982 kinda way. This amp has a power scaling-like voltage reducer in the power section so I can turn up the channel volumes without razing the neighborhood. So I liked the guitar. Felt good, played good, sounded fine & dandy.

-Dave-

 

[B Arbogast]

I'd also still like to know if anyone has actually spec'd the "mini-buckers" aside from taking DC resistance measurements. For instance, are both pickups wound with the same gauge wire? If not you can basically forget the DC resistance numbers since you're no longer comparing like with like.

According to Guild, the neck pickup is 42 ga. wire, while the bridge pickup is 41 ga. (http://guildguitars.com/a-deeper-look-at-the-starfire-pickup/)

 

[Zelja]

I'd also still like to know if anyone has actually spec'd the "mini-buckers" aside from taking DC resistance measurements. For instance, are both pickups wound with the same gauge wire? If not you can basically forget the DC resistance numbers since you're no longer comparing like with like.

Yep, what is a far better indicator is the inductance of a pickup, which is a function of a number of things but mostly the number of turns of wire around the coils, magnet strength & also other materials (base plate, type of screws/slugs etc.)

According to Guild, the neck pickup is 42 ga. wire, while the bridge pickup is 41 ga.

So, from the the resistivity found on this site: http://amasci.com/tesla/wire1.html

Neck pickup = 7.2 k, 42 guage wire which is 1659 Ohms per 1000 feet, therefore length of cable = 4340 feet (7200/1659 x 1000)

Bridge pickup = 5.06 k, 41 guage wire which is 1323 Ohms per 1000 feet, therefore length of cable = 3825 feet (5060/1323 x 1000)

So the wire on the neck pickup is still about 13% longer than the wire on the bridge pickup. If bobbin size is equal (which we would assume it is, or pretty close to it) you would still get a fair anount more turns on the neck pickup. Assuming all other construction & magnets are the same on bridge & neck, that still means the neck is a higher output pickup than the bridge, when ideally the opposite would be true.

 

[richly harmonic]

Interesting notes about this so far. This is seriously making me consider possible pickup rewind down the line, that's if and when I finally obtain a NS Starfire III, and if I'm not content enough with it's stock sound. Otherwise I might be pleasantly surprised at the NS SF III's stock sounds.

On the other hand, I've yet also to try some other 'G' brands...hmmm... them Gretsch G6112 TCB and G6115 Red Betty's look pretty enticing to try out (of course the center-block and junior size, but still)...and maple bodies, and HS Filtertron/P90 combos, and and... :ambivalence:

Anyway, the count-down is on. I've got just under three weeks before flying to Japan. I'm really excited about this!:triumphant: