Fender ‘Wide Range’ humbucker

I had a 1975 Wide Range’ humbucker in for a rewind the other day and took the chance to take some pictures. I thought I’d explain why these are different from ‘normal’ humbuckers and show you what its innards look like.

The main difference is with the magnets. A tradition ‘Gibson ‘ style humbucker has a single bar magnet underneath the coils with the pole pieces ‘conducting’ this magnetic flux up through the coils towards the strings.

The Wide Range is much more similar to a Fender pickup (like a Strat) with the poles being individual magnets, 12 of them. This produces a more trebly, percussive, clearer tone than a traditional humbucker. To offset this high end Wide Ranges have overwound coils. The more wire you put on a coil the more bass you get so Wide Ranges are wound to around 10.6KOhms where as a traditional humbucker is closer to 8KOhms. This adds bass and balances out the tone from the magnets giving a balanced, full, clear tone. To give space for these extra windings the pickup was made physically bigger.

Interesting eh.

Oh, and the magnets have a different chemical composition, but that’s another story.

www.mrglynspickups.co

 

“Integrity” humbucker (Blue Sky)

 Last weekend I discovered that another pickup maker has a humbucker called a “Blue Sky” and they’d been using the name longer than us.

We were left with a problem – what to do.

There wasn’t really an option, the decent thing to do would be to contact the other maker and explain and change the name of our pickup.

But what to call it?

We asked that question to the NZGuitarist/Bassist Facebook group, wow, what a response! Over 300 suggestions!

In the end the name we chose was “Integrity” and the winner gets a T-shirt. Which reminds me – a merchandise page will be up in the website in the next few weeks.

MrGlyn’s Pickups “Integrity” humbucker demo

A big thanks to Nik Dobbin for this MrGlyn’s Pickups “Integrity” humbucker demo

https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/blue-sky-vintage-humbucker/

Every pickup manufacturer makes a “Vintage” humbucker based on the Gibson PAF, of course they do – old Gibsons sound so good.

So how come they all sound so different? Well, the simple answer is that PAF’s were all different. I’ve been a full time luthier since 1995, whenever I come across an old humbucker I test the ohms and the gause and have a good listen. They’re all different. My conclusion is that pickup manufacturers have taken the PAF they like and based their own version on that. Old PAF’s vary so much so modern ones do as well.

I like my own version to be clear sounding, have obvious string separation and definition and to keep clarity no matter how much gain. The mids must be strong and woody, this is not a “scooped” pickup. The clean sound needs to be chimey and clear with no mush; through a valve amp I want clarity. When I tickle it I want clean and vocal sounding when it clips. The bridge pickup needs to be well behaved with high gain and clear with enough cut through so the drummer knows you’re there. The neck smooth, clear and articulate. Warm but with none of the boom you get with a more powerful pickup.

I don’t want much do I.

My “Vintage” Humbucker has an Alnico II magnet and I’ve used plain enamel insulated magnet wire with asymmetric coils to open up the mids. The very first pickup I ever made back in 1995 was a PAF style and I’ve been tweaking the recipe ever since. Like all my pickups I’ve used a number of test pilot players in its development as well as gigging it myself. It wasn’t until around 2015 that I settled on this particular design. I did a gig with a set in a PRS SE series only last weekend – sounded great to me.

The full and honest sound of this pickup along with it’s timeless tone inspired the name “Integrity”.

https://mrglynspickups.com/

“Ep#6 MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”with Tony Pepers

 Hi all,

just published “Ep#6 MrGlyn Meets Your Maker”with Tony Pepers from Pepers Pedals in Dunedin.
Please help promote NZ made guitar gear by sharing, subscribing and telling your mates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd4qVDS__TY