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Thread: Rails pickups on a solid Chinese 8 string?

  1. #1
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    Default Rails pickups on a solid Chinese 8 string?

    I'm awaiting delivery of a cheap new Chinese 2 pickup solid electric mando (the usual shape etc), which will almost certainly need some messing with.

    The pickups may be fairly pitiful (it's £93 full price!). I had a think about upgrading, with helpful advice from the Forum. I'm hoping for a clear solid sound that's recognisable as a mandolin (albeit electric), maybe after adding some delay. If that sound is quiet and hum free, so much the better. I don't much care what the distorted sound is like.

    I've ordered a cheap pair of rail style humbucker pickups (2 narrow coils side by side) for Stratocasters, probably developed after Bill Lawrence etc. designs. If those work I may upgrade, we'll see. Most rails are 4 wire designs which can be wired to tap one of the coils in each pickup, for a thinner sound. Strat players fitting these usually say the 2 coil humbucking sound is fatter than a standard single coil Strat pickup, and in sound character somewhere between that and a typical low power humbucker. Most appear to be about 9-11 Ohms with both coils, but Strat replacement single coil sized blades seem to run from about 7 to 16 Ohms.

    If I fit these with two mini switches giving single coil/off/humbucking on each pickup, I should have some sounds to choose from. What I can't remember is whether a humbucker consists of two coils which are reverse wound AND reverse polarity (RWRP) to each other. If so, will the 4 wire design enable me to wire one coil from the neck pickup and one from the bridge in RWRP format? That would give me three humbucking sounds and two single coil sounds, so I'd hope to find an acceptable one.

    Q: Does the Ohm resistance of this design of pickup largely determine the sound? if so, what kind of resistance have you found to work on a solid mandolin?

    Thanks, Max

  2. #2
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rails pickups on a solid Chinese 8 string?

    I doubt it.
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    is like dancing,
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  4. #3
    Registered User Tom Wright's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rails pickups on a solid Chinese 8 string?

    The resistance is related to output signal, but tone is more related to whether single coil or side-by-side humbucker. A magnetic pickup will miss any harmonic whose node is at that location, so double coils lose more harmonics than a single coil, while being stronger in the midrange. A skinny humbucker will sound more like a single coil.

    I much prefer single coils for mandolin, and the skinny rails will probably be good. I like separate pole pieces but some string balancing can be achieved with choosing gauges and tilting the pickup. You might check into Steve Ryder's stacked-single-coil humbuckers, my favorite. Not cheap, though.
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