That Sound and (My Own)Signature Pickups.... incl Soundfiles

[bor64]

That Sound....lots of about it is written,argued,discussed,dispute and fabled about it....how can I contribute to it and bring my opinion and feelings and how I experience/sense it, in other words just my 2P,over to you all in... a language that's not my native one...?

So here it goes IMHO:

Fact the most important ingredient will always be lacking [Hank]!
So I'm keeping people's skills on a instrument out of the story.


The Amp has to be in he same ballpark as close it can be as the original used.
The guitar - strings ditto.
The echo too...so hence the heavenly HCSE...because a original drum Meazzi if you can use one, it's not the same sounding as Hanks crippled one.
IMHO you want you can covered that because it's a case of knowing/research what you need,money... and the most important factor...
SWAMBO aka the wife has to give her permission and allowed you to fool around with your hobby/addiction GAS !!!

When all above is covered,then you can get to the point, you like to get fine-tuning the equipment.
Or in case your missing something on the gear you've all ready...and your convinced your guitar lacking the attack response or character of the old hits.
So I came to that point on my pickups.
On the early recordings with the maple neck strat you can hear dull strings, good strings with a dull D&G and on top of that different volume balance when the strings are picked....then on regular vintage staggered pu's.
That last point is because the pickups on that strat have a "special" staggering with the magnet poles.
So years ago in late 80's when I handled the famous red strat for the third time, I noticed the odd magnet stagger(the first times I didn't because I was nervous).
So from that time on, when I saw a old photo of that strat,I'm wondering why I missed it.

The last few years, although I played old pre-cbs and vintage replica's strats for decades, I wasn't 100% satisfied with the response of the pu's.
So I came to the conclusion(despite dozens say I was bonkers)the significant different string magnet on the G pole had to be the last part of the puzzle...
When I met a fellow Dutch guitar nut, who happened to be a guitar-builder and a pu's building wizard I brought my ideas to the table.
After a few minutes he said I'll make you such set!
BTW what are the specifications and readings you need....?
Then the quest started....
Long story short, after we both pulling some favours from friends all over the world, many sets of genuine '59 pu's were measured in any way possible!
Some private pu builders had data of broken ones and knew exactly what was happening inside the pu's.
Almost all pro's shut the door...or promised to help out and never replied again.
Most of the above wants to stay in the shades, so I can't reveal which guitars and pu's are taken into the mix.

So after a few prototypes and tests in compare with the recordings and my personal wishes I use now the final proto's on one of my strats.

I get lot's of compliments about these pu's sound and a handful of sets are bought, send to guitar players in Holland,Belgium and GB!
Raving reviews!!!
A few big name pu sets are now in a drawer

Here are a few samples:

Wonderful Land on the bridge pu

Wonderful Land mp3

Wonderful Land WAV

The Breeze And I on the middle pu

The Breeze And I Mp3

The Breeze And I WAV

Perfidia on neck pu.

Perfidia mp3

Perfidia WAV

This "Signature" pu set is called Rob's '59 specials and are build by hand in the old way and with the right components for '59 by ToneSpinner in Holland.
Take in mind they are build by hand, one order at the time so you get the set you want. Customized sets with options are possible at order see advert.
I'm not benefiting at all, in any way by the sales of these sets(I'm just allowed to keep the proto's ).
I know one thing, the price is very honest for a hand-build set...I've seen China generic machine made pu sets with a fancy packaging,going for much more like hot cakes...
They can be seen and purchased on Reverb dot com

ToneSpinner Rob's '59 specials


The soundfiles are made with the '59 specials build in a HM MIJ strat.

So I hope you get inspired to play by the sound!


Cheers Rob

[rogerbayliss]

Pick ups sound good Rob and well priced for a custom hand made set.

[grip]

Hi Rob,
The photo's in the Reverb advert look to have much heavier wire winding than I'm used to seeing, around 36 to 38 AWG I guess?

Kind regards,

Chris

[bor64]

Hi Roger,

Thanks for your nice word about my sound!!

Hi Chris,

The heavy Formvar is genuine 42 AWG type, as I'm not mistaken it's .0028 or .0029 ish.
Look at the single wire towards the solder point on the bottom bobbin...
If it was 36/38 AWG the number of windings would never fit as it is....they would at the least bulge or surpass the top bobbin...


Cheers Rob

[glyderslead]

Interesting post Rob and you produced some very pleasing sounds.

It has left me wondering about a couple of things though ............, no doubt you used heavy strings for your recordings. I can only use 9 - 46 these days and wondered what the pickups would sound like with this lighter string gauge. Have you tried the pickups with a lighter gauge?

Also, no doubt your amp has the EF86 valve circuit? That part of the jigsaw will be in place for many of us early next year..........we hope!!

I’m looking forward to reading the thoughts of others in this thread because you may have found a possible alternative to Fenders fat 50’s which do suit lighter string gauges.

Good wishes and cheers

Mick

[bor64]

Thanks Mick,

I really appreciate your nice words!

Those recordings where made with my MIJ HM strat with my own signature pu's(strung with D'addario full nickel wound 13-56),a H&CSE, a VoxAC15H1TV , a cheap Devine BM600 condenser studio microphone and a Boss BR1600CD.
In one take....

The pickup builder use 9 and 10 on his guitars and he plays SRV and John Mayer....with the '59 specials
They cut truth the mix really well !!!
You can order a 5% overwind on the pu if you want or/and a reverse wind mid pu etc....
But the pu's react so direct on the smallest detail while picking the strings....so I turned them more lower beneath the strings then normal.
This set transformed a mediocre sounding HM strat with it's standard vintage pu's, to a beast....it's kinda like you pull the curtains away!!!


Cheers Rob

[bor64]

I added two sound files of Perfidia.
To demo the '59 special neck pu.
Just in one take only, so my apologies for the last bar "distortion"....the pickups are really picking up every nuance!


Cheers Rob

[peterbower]

Rob, very impressive sound, the pickup controversy has been a hot subject almost since this site started. I gave up looking for the "Holy Grail" if they ever existed. Hank's original sound were stock pickups.
One bonus to your sound is the MIJ HM guitar, it has an Ash body and if yours is anything like mine its sustains for ever plus the soft 'V' neck has a lot more meat on it which must be another factor. A great guitar once you upgrade it

Regards

Pete

[bor64]

Hi Pete,

Your almost right about Hanks pu's were stock.... the bobbins, wire, etc were stock indeed!
But as I wrote, the G magnet on all three pu's had the same length as the magnet beneath the high E string, so a kind of anomaly.
I can hear the difference in volume response for each string, between my (as designed stock pu magnets) on the real pre-cbs and the replica vintage pu's and the genuine 34346 strat pu's on the recordings.
Hence my signature set.

The guitar playing shad fans who have bought a set, told me they dumped their well known expensive brand pu's in a box or on spare guitar....
The pu's builder told me some John Mayer fans bought a set too!

Cheers Rob