Quantum Strummer
Senior Member
The slugs are likely just steel. One of my favorite Teisco pickups uses square slugs too…probably has little if any tonal impact but does look cool. 
irate:
-Dave-
irate:-Dave-
I'm... I'm a Monster!
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adorshki
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adorshki
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matsickma
Senior Member
Do I understand your picture to be showing the wide bar magnet is only under the bobbin that holds the square metallic slugs?
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It's under both. It's built just like a regular old humbucker. The difference on the slug side is that the slugs go all the way down to the baseplate while the screws screw into a metal spacer in addition to the baseplate.
If you look at these pics I stole from StewMac, the Guild slugs go all the way down - there is no plastic shim. Material composition may be different, but otherwise they're pretty much the same except for the already mentioned slugs.
Zelja
Senior Member
Fascinating stuff GAD, hope you can put it back together!
I wonder if the slugs have a bit more mass than standard cylindrical ones? Going all the way to the baseplate may be a factor & perhaps both things impact on the inductance? Dunno, just wildly hypothesising.
Everything part of construction contributes to the character of a pickup - the number of turns, magnets size, type & strength, coils size & shape, size of slugs & screws, cover & baseplate materials etc. Maybe they just stumbled on a formula which a lot of us really appreciate. I imagine the primary thing for the HB-1s though is the relatively low coil wind and, I assume, alnico magnets.
I wonder if the slugs have a bit more mass than standard cylindrical ones? Going all the way to the baseplate may be a factor & perhaps both things impact on the inductance? Dunno, just wildly hypothesising.
Everything part of construction contributes to the character of a pickup - the number of turns, magnets size, type & strength, coils size & shape, size of slugs & screws, cover & baseplate materials etc. Maybe they just stumbled on a formula which a lot of us really appreciate. I imagine the primary thing for the HB-1s though is the relatively low coil wind and, I assume, alnico magnets.
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Quantum Strummer
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Yep, it continues to fascinate me how similar all these HB designs look to each other "under the hood" and yet how different they sound. No wonder "vintage pickup" repro makers end up going down rabbit holes in pursuit of tiny nuances.
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Re: the coil winds, unless I can figure out a way to do it efficiently, it's going to remain a mystery. I've read that the average humbucker will have probably 5000 winds. I'm not sitting here and counting to 5000 while I unwind fragile wire. I need a machine to do it for me and that's going to me building a bad robot and I've got other stuff to do.
Los Angeles
Senior Member
haha - I was about to ask how many winds were on each bobbin. and here's a crazy mystery: at first glance, it seems to me the bobbin with the adjustable poles has more winds than the bobbin with the square slugs.
This is one of the most fascinating posts of your LTG career, GAD. Thank you so much for posting!
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Thanks! That's why I feel like I really should figure out a way to count the winds, and now you've got me thinking I need to do it twice! Oy.
Zelja
Senior Member
Quite a few boutique pickuo winders mismatch the winding on the coils with the express purpose of getting more clarity out of a pickup. Hmmmmm.
GAD, can you measure the DC resistance of the 2 coils separately? Assuming the coil wire is the same, different readings will give you an answer.
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I knew about the different coil-winding thing.
Yes, I can measure the coils independently. I'll do that when I get a chance.
Quantum Strummer
Senior Member
Here's something interesting (to me anyway) about the '70s & early '80s Maxon AlNiCo-based HB pickups I've been trying out lately: documented examples of these p'ups reveal coils wound tightly, evenly and to near identical DC resistance specs (per-pickup, that is…pickup to pickup readings do vary), yet these things are as alive & 3D sounding as any HBs I've ever used. If scatterwinding with a degree of looseness in the winds and coil-to-coil asymmetry are so important sonically, how did the folks at Maxon get such fab results without using either of those techniques?
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Pickups are magic. The end.
The more I read about electronics and the science behind them, the more I'm convinced it's all just magic.
Zelja
Senior Member
It's alchemy!! Get a chance to measure the DC resistances of the 2 coils?
matsickma
Senior Member
Yes...even among Electrical Engineers their is a hierarchy of "magic" that is proportional to the highest frequency of design. In reality ever area can be incredibly complicated when you drill down into it.
However as a general rule DC is seen as "less magic" and millimeter wave frequencies (i.e. 18 to 300 GHz) "most magic".
In the industry electrical engineering who do antenna and RF (radio frequency) design are often known to use "FM" in design.
What is "FM"?
In civil language it is known as "Fornication Magic". Usually the first word is abbreviated!
However as a general rule DC is seen as "less magic" and millimeter wave frequencies (i.e. 18 to 300 GHz) "most magic".
In the industry electrical engineering who do antenna and RF (radio frequency) design are often known to use "FM" in design.
What is "FM"?
In civil language it is known as "Fornication Magic". Usually the first word is abbreviated!
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I used to work with telephony engineers and they used to mess with newbs by telling them it worked via HPFM. And that if HPFM wasn't running it wouldn't work.
Hocus Pocus F-ing Magic.