It was ever thus - new Fletcher pickups just arrived

MegiMegi Posts: 7,207Member
True to form, a while back I ordered some custom pickups from Ben Fletcher. Did I need these? no - not at all, but I seem to be an inveterate guitar pickups tinkerer - ever searching for something I suppose. Anyhow, yet another set to try in my Ibanez AS103 semiacoustic. The neck is a Provenance alnico 2, with the windings unpotted, the bridge is a hot-wound (and wax potted) Elesium alnico 4. The pickups have adjustable poles on both coils - I intend to experiment and raise the polepieces a fair bit, and probably have the body of the pickups set pretty low, which is something the great Ted Greene used to recommend to get a warm but clean/non-muddy tone. Looks like Ben has done his usual great job anyhow.

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Comments

  • LesterLester Posts: 1,730Member, Moderator
    This is what we have come to expect from you, Megi.

    Should you ever settle on a pair of pickups for your AS103 I guess it would make sense for me to offer to buy your 2nd last set off you but as yet I have never changed pickups so I tweak the amp to get the best sound I can.
  • ESBlondeESBlonde Posts: 980Member
    Nice.

    The late Seth Lover said there was no need of pole adjustment when he invented the humbucker for Gibson, but the sales people insisted on the 'feature' to give players something to tinker with.
    Of course that early development was exclusivly with PAF low wind coils and lots of variations on a theme now exist, plus how much did they think people would care. There was far more interest in making amplifiers more Hi-Fi than anything else. Amp distortion was strictly forbidden in technical terms at that time and getting a lovely clean clear sound reproduction was the goal.

    Let us know how you get on with the pole pieces, I'm interested. Also think about setting the PU height to get the 'bloom' effect on the decaying note. Thats said to be one of the attributes of the classic 50s guitars/PU combinations.

    This might wet your whistle:
    https://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?154644-Adjusting-Pickups-The-quot-Sweet-Spot-quot-with-Soundclips&highlight=pickup+height+for+Bloom

    There's plenty on that forum about this minutia of detail and some people can be totally sucked in, luckily not me ;-)
  • MegiMegi Posts: 7,207Member
    edited March 2019
    Thank you gents, I do realise this is just me being me - I post for entertainment value mainly. That said, I do read people getting insanely involved in guitar gear details on forums, and I do try to avoid getting sucked in myself. Indeed I managed to keep the previous set of pickups unchanged in that guitar for several months... Just searching for a certain something from this guitar, that instinct tells me ought to be possible.

    Ted Greene talks about the pickup/polepiece height thing in this video - see from 2 minutes in specifically.



  • Kevin PeatKevin Peat Posts: 3,232Member
    Right.

    I'm not an electric player but those pups have got me salivating.
  • nicholaspaulnicholaspaul Posts: 1,005Member
    Lovely looking pickups. I bet they sound amazing. I’ve got a few of this and they’re all great.
    Nice logo he’s got there, too ;)
  • MegiMegi Posts: 7,207Member
    Thank you for your indulgent kindness chaps - still have not found time to install the pickups, having been a bit busy, but I will make a start tomorrow. The pickups have been made to a very high standard, which can be seen just from observing them - there are no flaws visible, a very neat appearance, and the coils touch with no gap between them (from experience not always the case) and a perfectly flat surface across the coil tops. I do think Ben's work is the best I've come across in this regard. Anyhow, I really do have a good feeling about this set. :)
  • Kevin PeatKevin Peat Posts: 3,232Member
    I found time to fix an electric shower.

    Needs must.
  • nicholaspaulnicholaspaul Posts: 1,005Member
    Shower or guitar... hmm... I’d take a bath until I had time to fix the shower while enjoying the new pickups. Not at the same time...
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