Noiseless pickups

Capricorn

I've been getting quite interested in noiseless pickup designs lately
and I just would like to know all the different manufacturers of noiseless pickups.
So far I've seen Dimarzio, Kinman, Fender and GFS... Are there any others?

andrewjbryson

doesnt Seymour Duncan have a noiseless pickup range?

hmmmm interesting

AlanRatcliffe

I'm guessing you're talking about the stacked designs that sound more like single-coils, rather than the side-by-side designs that sound more like humbuckers?

One of my current areas of interest - there's some major innovation in the field in the last ten years. I'm not going to go into detail now, but suffice to say some of the technology is very advanced, particularly on the magnetic front.

Leaders in the field are Kinman and DiMarzio currently (specifically the Area range). I lean towards Kinmans, although the DiMarzio Areas are a bit cheaper. I have been told the Areas actually infringe on the Kinman patents, but due to some legal issues or loopholes Kinman has not been able to stop them yet.

The Vintage and Hot Noiseless Fender's are older designs, comparable the the Duncan Stacks or the DiMarzio HS range, but with a much worse build quality. The Samarium Cobalt Noiseless (SCNs) are a newer design, but I haven't had one apart to comment on the build.

Bill Lawrence has his own Wilde pickups, which are very cheap for what they are. Bill also designed the SCNs for Fender. Very good designs, but Bill rejects the idea that the magnets have an effect on tone and uses ceramics for efficiency in his own designs.

Don't forget the Seymour Duncan stacks too. Older style, but some like 'em. Typically of older designs, they lack some sparkle. Not much of a range though - basically hot or not. Seymour has gone more for the side-by-side designs, both rails type and those with poles like the Duckbuckers.

Lace Sensors are very near noiseless, but are a single coil design with magnetic shielding and a pretty unique magnet structure. You either like 'em or you don't. I find them a bit bland.

From Jay's descriptions, his GFS Neovins seem to be something along the lines of the Lace sensors with fake polepieces. It can be difficult to guess what to expect from Jay's pickups because of marketing hyperbole, so I'm reserving judgement until I see/hear a set.

Oh, yeah - EMG singles could be counted as noiseless too. Once again, you either like 'em or you don't.

Malkav

Well I'm a Dimarzio fan all the way but I'm not really too interested in single coils at all ?

However here's another pickup brand that offers pure noiseless signal, they're called Q-tuners, they look really cool in see-through on black and dark blue or purple guitars, they're made using Neodymium magnets which normally only feature in high quality speakers and the questionable part is that apparently they are so F***ing high output that your guitar will never stay in tune again ? though that's just what I've heard and have never seen proven ?

http://www.q-tuner.com/index.shtml

AlanRatcliffe

I hadn't run across Q-tuners before - thanks.

Neodymium isn't as new in pickups as they claim, some of the GFS Neovin models mentioned above use neo, and it is usually the magnet of choice for charging the AlNiCo slugs used for polepieces (it is the most powerful permanent magnet).

It isn't often used for polepieces itself because it simply isn't practical. It's an expensive earth magnet, causes allergic reactions, has to be plated or coated to prevent oxidation (a polepiece will rust away in months if scratched). Most importantly, it causes major fire and explosion hazards - many of the pickup builders on the pickup maker's forum have had experiences of two charging magnets pulling together so hard that they explode!

The Q-tuners are interesting. I see Erno Zwaan is involved with them somehow - he is the author of an interesting book on bass pickups called Animal Magnetism. They use a number of small polepieces (the power of a magnet isn't a problem with a smaller magnet) to get a magnetic field similar to the Lace Sensors, surrounding each string with two smaller fields rather than one large one. I think the "full frequency" approach will be suited more to the guys that like EMGs - higher gain stuff, where less idiosyncrasy and more treble is needed from the pickups. I'm not sure if they will have enough character for cleaner stuff (unless the player is after something more sterile).

Anyway... interesting. ?

Gearhead

All this talk of magnets, does any of you know the difference in magnetic field intensity between the pickups mentioned? Since this is the part that influences the motion of the string itself, it affects Tone and sustain.

AlanRatcliffe

No-one is publishing details. On some conventional single-coil pickups it's easy to work out, as it's usually the maximum gauss a magnetic compound can be charged with. But magnet strength is only a small part of the equation. It can also be affected by other factors in the construction such as polepieces, the baseplate on a Tele bridge pickup, the magnetic guides on A Fender Jaguar pickups, Lace's "comb" guides or DiMarzio's "Air" technology. Add to that that certain manufacturers such as Jason Lollar, Lindy Fralin and Don Mare have figured out how to undercharge their polepieces and there are too many factors to weigh in without testing them.

However, the noiseless designs above are all low gauss anyway, so the field strength is not an issue.