Well their wiring idea there was out of the box thinking. and I like the idea. I also like how the took the Leo Fender G&L legacy coil idea And put it into a single housing.👍🏻 But I have a question. Looking at your wiring pictures in the bottom corner of the video as you ran through the switch positions. Does this mean that each pickup hosing has the two coils inside wound up in opposite polarity?
At this level a small touch screen with the 6 coils represented as bars on the touch screen can then be pressed in any on or off configuration desired would be the best way to control them rather than a selector switch. Of course lit up bar is on and non lit off for fast reference. With that said the next level is 6 coils per pickup array making a three pickup system represented in dots on a touch screen green for on red for off. 18 dots what amazing configurations possible, more so quick to pick out using a touch screen. As a feature add auto cycle through a preset at desired speed as yet another option in the programming.. yep on board brain to store presets and allow wave pulse values to include coil strength controlling such as leveling. Would need to incorporate a rechargeable / replaceable battery. Finger swipes can quickly arm the whole pick up array or turn it off for simple for more traditional configs.
Darrell, as a teacher of English from Turkey, I really take pleasure in listening to you speaking English. You're one of the best and clearest speakers of English I've ever heard. Also thanks for this amazing channel. Learning soooo much about the world of guitar thanks to you. Merry Christmas, my friend.
I've been saying for years that I want each pickup split into 3, then have 3 different selector switches so I can pick what I want, which would probably be bridge on E and A, middle on D and G, and neck for B and A...and all humbuckers
Kyle AND 3 different selectors, with high, both, low, or two 3-way selectors with neck, middle, bridge for each half? The former might be interesting if you wanted to mix two bass sets?
It's nice to see that some companies are still innovating... this really is a rather different setup. That said, I'd want to be able to switch between conventional Strat sounds and these combinations rather than giving up the usual.
I agree. I think it would be nice to have two switches, one for the combination positions, one for typical strat stuff. Press a button to swap the circuit to the next circuit.
@@CC-ks3tj I'm sure if you really wanted you could wire that up, just have to be good with the old soldering iron and cutting extra holes in the pickguard.
These kinds of split pickups have been around for decades. The reason they aren't so popular is the dead zone in the middle of the two coils. If you bend too far, the audio will drop right off.
Might as well eh! All snowed in today but the beer oughta last until Friday at least. Gotta wait for that long friggin' legged moose to clear a trail. Scrolling though Darrell's old videos for entertainment and the pursuit of higher knowledge.
I love it. The only thing I'd do different is wire it through two normal 5-way switches, one for each half. That way I think it would be more intuitive.
You would get one issue with this: one pickup that has both sides on will have terrible volume drop when bending g up towards the low e. It'll be cancelled like hum, unless you have it wired to be a normal non-humbucker single coil - which sort of defeats the point.
@@cydonia9342 i wouldn't brag how intuitive that is but the volume drop is sometimes intentional for cleaner tones and this was accidentally discovered when i had two different pickups installed for me recently though they said it was wired twice because the first way sounded horrible
There are a ton of options considering there are six pickups. Hats off to the guys who made these, creativity does not come around too often. After Leo and Lester, not much has changed for more than 60 years.
@@JohnDoe-pq8yw There is plenty of creativity but it doesnt sell...anything that is..."vintage" sells.....companies know this and play with the buyers heartstrings and milk it as far as they can.
Don't think I have ever seen anything like that before on guitars! Really amplifies the tone and creates a noticeable sense of depth to the present sound. I love it!
Lol... I had to actually stop the video to laugh at the "Zed Zed Top" comment! All I could think of was the first episode of Stargate Atlantis. If you've seen it, you know what I mean! the Z vs Zed thing is in the first 5 min of the show! lol. Great product review as always. Really liked the different tones. Came across better in my headphones. The reverse winding for noise canceling is also very nice without changing that strat sound more than the pickup locations. Might actually look into a set for my Strat. Thanks for the review!
Cool pickup idea! Personally, I would like to see position 1 use the wound strings on the bridge and the high strings on the neck. That way you could get some good warmth and beef from the thinner, unwound strings while getting more snap and bite from the thicker wound strings. Sort of like an extreme version of the Jimi Hendrix reverse bridge pickup slant because he played left handed. I would love to see how that sounds. Must be some way to wire it for that.
Jeff Mansfield Exactly. Like I mentioned, I’m sure it could be wired like that. I was skeptical about these pickups at first. But that wiring scheme would be killer!
Imagine going back in time, and handing Jimi Hendrix one of his strats with these pickups installed just before he goes out on stage! Halfway through the first song and Jimi would be, WTF!? Ha ha, To see the look on his face!!
For that hole left by the knob, I suggest putting a series/parallel wiring switch there, for ultimate tone control. Major tone differences between series and parallel.
Electronicly, the pickups work just like the G&L Z coils and p-bass pickups, but the switching is mad. Maybe it would be better with an addditonal toggle switch that swapped it from that scheme to a more traditional strat scheme?
I would love to see a custom pickguard for this that has two pickup selector switches, so you can manually pick which "two" pickup halves you want at a time
The Fender Precision Bass has a single split pickup and several 1940's Japanese guitars had split pickups inside single coil cases but the switching system and pickup selection is, as far as I know, unique and a REALLY clever idea.
I always remove all the "tone" controls on my Strats; the pickups always sound fuller and clearer after getting rid of that crap. I move the volume control down to the bottom spot, out of the way, and I cover the holes from the inside with bits of white plastic. EVH said your tone control is the pickup selector, and if it's good enough for him...
Very cool. There has to be a way to take advantage of a lot more sounds. A lot of potential combinations of sounds. Really interesting concept. Thanks Darrell. Happy Holidays
Love that the 60's cycle hum is gone. Just wonder if the wiring is exactly the same as strat, will it still be 60's cycle hum free? If so, it will be perfect
Unless there is a placebo effect in place, I can hear a definite difference in your posted recordings with the new hardware. The new rig seems to make a BIG difference even with YT compression. Merry Christmas to all!
One of the great questions I've been pondering is why this style of pickup where each coil only picks up half the strings is almost completely non existent on electric guitars, but is exceedingly common for bass guitar in the form of a precision pickup.
need to hear more bends , of the "G" up wards and the "D" donward direction in all pickup positions , any tracking / drop out ??????? Strength waver when crossing over magnetic fields ?
I am Canadian and I don't know if you are, but if you are it explains why you are my number one source for guitar information. I am 60, played a Yamaha accoustic guitar for 30 years, never was good at it and improved slowly. The Yamaha guitar was great, I wasn't. Another problem is I played to impress other people. About 2 weeks ago I bought an Ibanez 70fd. I am in love with making noise and play it about 1 hour daily, am improving, and fell like I should be playing 4 hours, or more, every day. I will soon. My wife says I sound great. Now I play with headphones on, play for my enjoyment, let loose and make as much noise as I want, and let other people I know listen once in awhile. What a great feeling. I never had people say they liked what I played until I selectively released what I wanted. There are few reviews on the Ibanez 70fd, hint, hint, hint. Thank you for making my life better.
It's all good sounds,but they should have a switch somewhere so that you can have your normal type strat.sound.That would be cool,having your set up as usual,then Blamo you got a totally different axe.Nice.👍🎸
Sounds nice but those variations can be accomplished easier. Just add a micro switch to switch on the bridge pickup any time. You will get the bridge chimes blended with the neck sounds on position 1 (with the bridge pickup on). And on position two you can have the three of them on. I did that 40 years ago and still love it. G&L started to feature that lately.
Curtis Novak had pickups like these about 10 years ago as well they were just not on seperate bobins but had the pole pieces wrapped opposite and they were wound around three of the pole pieces.
G&L had a brief run of a Comanche Studio VI (?) that used toggle switches instead of a selector switch to achieve the same results. BTW, I read that the reason Leo Fender came up with the z-coil design is that bending the "g" string up or the "d" string down on a "straight" pickup cancelled out when it crossed the magnet assemblies (because they're reverse-wound). Perhaps that's why *all* the possible pickup combinations for these pickups involve different pickups? IOW, they don't offer the choice of isolating to a single pickup because bending the strings would cancel out the sound and make people unhappy.
Thank you Darrell for mentioning the G&L Z pickups. Not a well known/discussed topic. I have a G&L Comanche, so it was great to hear the Z coils get some recognition.
Evans Pickups were made the same way In Canada. Not in production any more. Total find if you can get them. They even had a hum bucker with 4 coils at the bridge, but it chose the diagonal coils to simulate the slanted bridge pickup on a strat. I love them.
Hey Darrell. Love your ability to find New, Interesting & Innovative products. I'm currently in love with my Suhr with Lollar Vintage Blonde's, but this was very interesting. No Noise is huge for me.
This would be awesome IF they just made it a separate selector switch so that you don't have to sacrifice having the regular pickup combinations we all know and love in your guitar (like using your full bridge pickup in position one). It would be a lot better as an add-on-to-what-you-already-have type of thing.
Yes, agreed. If it's either/or..I'm afraid I'd sooner stick with the full neck or full bridge options I currently enjoy. Terrific ingenuity & innovation, though. We need sharp minds thinking laterally like this! Well done boys! ( Or girls - whatever the case may be)
@@error8418 It wouldn;t ruin the YOU look though would it? Maybe it would be better not to be the billionth clone of every other guitar(ist) ever built in both sound and looks. I also recommend valuing sound over looks when it comes to an instrument.
Cool sound and great idea. One thing needs to be pointed out. They work they in this configuration only. Every position is hum cacelling which means each half is reverse wound and reverse magnetic polarity. That will prevent you from using each pickup as a normal single coil if you wanted to. In that configuration there is a dead spot inbetween the halves and string bends on D & G string are compromised.
genius! and they look as if they would fit right into a Squire. i have never seen anybody dial in all 3 strat pick-ups simultaneously, has any one reading this ever done that? and you are right about the tele pick-up; it totally kicks ass over the strat pick-up.
Personally I'd mount 2 standard 5-way switches on the pickguard in parallel and have them controlling the top and bottom portions separately. With a bit of practice you could throw the two gangs as one for standard strat controls, or individually to pull out the unique options. Very cool.
@@RetroOnSpeedDial Wow! Had to look that one up. Now that I know what that is, if that makes me out of touch, then I'm thankful for Sequester in Place, and will remain touchless! :-)
Fralin split blades are the same type of design, but with the blades crossing over in the center to avoid a dead spot. Kent Armstrong or another boutique winder was also doing this a few years ago, but I never tried the pickups.
@@kgr6438 yeah it's really bizzare. It's like every guitar player hates their wife and has really unhealthy relationships with them. Why would you be married to someone you hate? Because you're terrified of being alone, I'm guessing. Which is pretty sad that you'd rather be unhappy than alone
Unique. The position I thought I would like the most, with bass from neck, treble from bridge, I liked the least. Did like the other positions. Darrell - My friend, the rooster, called. Wants to know why you stole his hairdo... Just a little "foul" humor, Canadian axe slinger extraordinaire! Another excellent demo.
Spot on with the Tele reference, Darrel. All the goodness without the 'buzz' (spelled b-u-zed-zed...hehehehe.) For people who love Strat contours and aren't into dancing with a butcher block, it's a great alternative! Definitely a cool product..you can do the Comanche thing without screwing up your pickguard like we used to. Hahahaha. Greetings from destitute Alberta!!
Fender briefly made pickups like this, called Super 55 Split Coil pickups. I have a set that I got for cheap-ish off of craigslist and put them in a partscaster. Wired them up with an S-1 switch like the last generation of American Deluxe Strat (so it has a bridge/neck and bridge/middle/neck position, among other things). They sound pretty good; better than the N3 Noiseless that are in that era of Deluxe Strats, IMHO (I have one of those, too, and so I was able to compare back to back). They had a reputation for being unreliable and easily broken, though...I haven't had that problem, and I like them a lot.
That fifth position on the switch you'd think you'd want the opposite. Bridge for the low strings and neck for highs. Bridge would be tighter and more compressed for barre chords, and the high strings would be more open sounding for solos. Edit: G&L made a Comanche VI for a time that had six switches for individual bi coil selection. The top three were for on/off for the pickups, and the bottom three were left/both/right coil per pickup so you could mix whatever combination you wanted.
I would have enjoyed hearing some full chords (all six strings ringing out simultaneously) to hear how they sound with those unique pickup/string combinations. Can you do this, and compare to a typical Strat?
very cool to see one of those idle "hey, what if / wouldn't it be cool if...?" thoughts I had after messing with wiring come out as an actual product! given that the magnetic polarity (and possibly the reverse wind?) is what makes the various positions hum cancelling, I don't see any reason why positions 2 and 4 couldn't combine both halves of "full" middle and neck / bridge if desired, although I guess that would just make it a "standard" Strat pickup configuration and maybe take away from the unique selling point of these. pretty sure it'd still be hum cancelling as it'd be combining say, the positive coil half of one pickup with the negative half of other (and vice versa), on both halves. not sure if the inductance is tuned for each combination, such that it might not be to taste as a "full" pickup of both halves, but there's only one way to find out! perhaps the folks at S and S wouldn't mind wiring the positional options differently in a pinch if asked. I would've thought it'd be the bridge bass coil and neck treble coil in the bridge position, but the inductance of each coil may be in a specific ballpark for the wiring as showcased in this video. a toggle switch to flip the combinations around for each coil combination would've been really neat, even as a nonstandard option. tone chasing is fun, and it's always cool to have options and tinker, though what I really need to do is practice more and tinker less? cool concept, thanks for sharing. :)
This is such an obvious idea for noiseless Strat performance, I’m amazed it’s NOT more common. If you want it to just function like a traditional Strat, but without noise, you could still do that. But you can also start to do those other mad scientist experiments.
The Fender bass guitars have split pickups from the beginning. the goal was hum bucken. And that worked in the 60's and still works. So these are humbucking singlecoils without the loss of tone as with noiseless pups.
With the Free-Way 5-way/10-position switch, you could conceivably get all those tones, PLUS traditional Strat tones as well. Or even other tones depending on wiring.
I think they should add a selector switch to the system kind of like a Jazzmaster. Where you can toggle between the "S" switch behaving like a normal strat switch and the bipolar functionality.
This is definitely not something you see everyday!
😮😮
Well their wiring idea there was out of the box thinking. and I like the idea.
I also like how the took the Leo Fender G&L legacy coil idea And put it into a single housing.👍🏻
But I have a question. Looking at your wiring pictures in the bottom corner of the video as you ran through the switch positions. Does this mean that each pickup hosing has the two coils inside wound up in opposite polarity?
How was it to play a strat and not have the volume knob in the way?
At this level a small touch screen with the 6 coils represented as bars on the touch screen can then be pressed in any on or off configuration desired would be the best way to control them rather than a selector switch. Of course lit up bar is on and non lit off for fast reference. With that said the next level is 6 coils per pickup array making a three pickup system represented in dots on a touch screen green for on red for off. 18 dots what amazing configurations possible, more so quick to pick out using a touch screen. As a feature add auto cycle through a preset at desired speed as yet another option in the programming.. yep on board brain to store presets and allow wave pulse values to include coil strength controlling such as leveling. Would need to incorporate a rechargeable / replaceable battery. Finger swipes can quickly arm the whole pick up array or turn it off for simple
for more traditional configs.
Zed! It’s okay to be Canadian AF on some things. 🙌🏼
Merry Christmas 🎄 Darrell!
Darrell, as a teacher of English from Turkey, I really take pleasure in listening to you speaking English. You're one of the best and clearest speakers of English I've ever heard. Also thanks for this amazing channel. Learning soooo much about the world of guitar thanks to you. Merry Christmas, my friend.
Very true! His pronunciation is clear, makes it easy to listen to.
@@Viralityoflife 👍🙋🏻♂️
Finally, pickups I can mentally relate too.
Anthony Garcia-Scholtz split personality? 😝
@@Bigbuddyandblue pretty sure he means he is bipolar
Lmao
Perfect avatar.
Kyle Woolery bipolar is basically split personality
Up next: a 216 position switch controlling each pole piece.
I've been saying for years that I want each pickup split into 3, then have 3 different selector switches so I can pick what I want, which would probably be bridge on E and A, middle on D and G, and neck for B and A...and all humbuckers
Kyle AND 3 different selectors, with high, both, low, or two 3-way selectors with neck, middle, bridge for each half? The former might be interesting if you wanted to mix two bass sets?
...and a push-pull to change tone caps.
LOL-LOL-LOL Perfect
A roller knob... wait that's not a bad idea
I caught myself literally saying "oooohhh" and "aaaaahhh". Very cool.
Same here 😂
Looks like basically the same general idea as Leo fender’s split single coil for the p bass, but with their own twist
It's nice to see that some companies are still innovating... this really is a rather different setup. That said, I'd want to be able to switch between conventional Strat sounds and these combinations rather than giving up the usual.
I agree. I think it would be nice to have two switches, one for the combination positions, one for typical strat stuff. Press a button to swap the circuit to the next circuit.
I would buy these today just to try them in a Squier CV if this set could do that!
@CC something like converting the switch they have to something more akin to the Free-Way.
@@CC-ks3tj I'm sure if you really wanted you could wire that up, just have to be good with the old soldering iron and cutting extra holes in the pickguard.
These kinds of split pickups have been around for decades. The reason they aren't so popular is the dead zone in the middle of the two coils. If you bend too far, the audio will drop right off.
Zed Zed Top "She's got legs, eh"
I say zzz not zed and I know how to pull a sweater over someone's head and feed them shots. Yes I'm a hockey playing Canuck!!
@@Riverdeepnwide Go and stack some zeds!
Might as well eh! All snowed in today but the beer oughta last until Friday at least.
Gotta wait for that long friggin' legged moose to clear a trail.
Scrolling though Darrell's old videos for entertainment and the pursuit of higher knowledge.
@@kevdean9967 Like, take off to the great white north you hoser!
@@kevdean9967 Go Leafs!
I love it. The only thing I'd do different is wire it through two normal 5-way switches, one for each half. That way I think it would be more intuitive.
@Silent Rider PERFECT !
thats a gerat idea buddy!
The same thought when through my mind when I first saw what they were
You would get one issue with this: one pickup that has both sides on will have terrible volume drop when bending g up towards the low e. It'll be cancelled like hum, unless you have it wired to be a normal non-humbucker single coil - which sort of defeats the point.
@@cydonia9342 i wouldn't brag how intuitive that is but the volume drop is sometimes intentional for cleaner tones and this was accidentally discovered when i had two different pickups installed for me recently though they said it was wired twice because the first way sounded horrible
Needs an S-1 switch, then you can get crazy with the wiring.
There are a ton of options considering there are six pickups. Hats off to the guys who made these, creativity does not come around too often. After Leo and Lester, not much has changed for more than 60 years.
@@JohnDoe-pq8yw There is plenty of creativity but it doesnt sell...anything that is..."vintage" sells.....companies know this and play with the buyers heartstrings and milk it as far as they can.
or a 5 way Freeway switch...
Also the ability for these pickups to deliver hum cancelling performance from a "normal" single coil should not be underestimated.
It's nice to see companies coming up with things like this, it shows that innovation isn't dead when it comes to pickups
"I'm not quite used to all the positions yet."
Leaving that one alone :-)
@MorbidManMusic Ah, you got me!
You should be able to make hum-cancelling pickups like this, though, instead of stacking them like normal noiseless singlecoils
@@wilhelmtheconquerer6214 there's also hexapickups that are hum cancelling
Yeah but my wife's pretty good with a cheat sheet
In Canada we like to drive around in our Zed 28's, listening to Zee-Zee Top.
Somehow, that sounds like a country song. Quick, someone call Corb Lund!
Don't think I have ever seen anything like that before on guitars! Really amplifies the tone and creates a noticeable sense of depth to the present sound. I love it!
Need a push pull knob to switch between these unique pairings and the traditional.
Lol... I had to actually stop the video to laugh at the "Zed Zed Top" comment! All I could think of was the first episode of Stargate Atlantis. If you've seen it, you know what I mean! the Z vs Zed thing is in the first 5 min of the show! lol.
Great product review as always. Really liked the different tones. Came across better in my headphones. The reverse winding for noise canceling is also very nice without changing that strat sound more than the pickup locations. Might actually look into a set for my Strat.
Thanks for the review!
I love the sound of clean tones on a strat
Aha, the sound demo messed my brain up, you're so not used to these combinations it really throws you off
Finally a real innovation in the field of pickups. Simple idea but great effect.
Cool pickup idea! Personally, I would like to see position 1 use the wound strings on the bridge and the high strings on the neck. That way you could get some good warmth and beef from the thinner, unwound strings while getting more snap and bite from the thicker wound strings. Sort of like an extreme version of the Jimi Hendrix reverse bridge pickup slant because he played left handed. I would love to see how that sounds. Must be some way to wire it for that.
Jeff Mansfield Exactly. Like I mentioned, I’m sure it could be wired like that. I was skeptical about these pickups at first. But that wiring scheme would be killer!
As I know the company well I imagine you can ask them to wire any combo you want. These are made to order for different type of guitars
This
@@davidmunoz8215 Which
@@Ndlanding Bass strings on bridge pickup and treble string on neck pickup
Imagine going back in time, and handing Jimi Hendrix one of his strats with these pickups installed just before he goes out on stage! Halfway through the first song and Jimi would be, WTF!? Ha ha, To see the look on his face!!
It would be cool if they had a pickguard with 2 Selector Switches. One for the bass strings and another for the treble strings...
This, exactly. Two 5-way toggles and a push-button switch to choose between them.
I must admit I was sceptical, but you can't argue with those tones.
Usually, I'm like "Yeah, I can kind of hear the difference" but this sounds really cool. I just love the tones from these!
Thank you for the graphics, it is SO MUCH NICER when you can plainly see what position you are in (honestly, do this for all your videos)
"Zed Zed Top"; Love it! With the craziness going on with us neighbors to your south. I say call it whatever you want! :)
What craziness is going on down here South of Canada?
@@OspreyEye Murrka
Glad to see that we're not running out of new ideas.
Thanks for testing and sharing..
For that hole left by the knob, I suggest putting a series/parallel wiring switch there, for ultimate tone control. Major tone differences between series and parallel.
Electronicly, the pickups work just like the G&L Z coils and p-bass pickups, but the switching is mad. Maybe it would be better with an addditonal toggle switch that swapped it from that scheme to a more traditional strat scheme?
I would love to see a custom pickguard for this that has two pickup selector switches, so you can manually pick which "two" pickup halves you want at a time
This is crying out for more choices: series/parallel, all on, standard strat etc.
The Fender Precision Bass has a single split pickup and several 1940's Japanese guitars had split pickups inside single coil cases but the switching system and pickup selection is, as far as I know, unique and a REALLY clever idea.
I always remove all the "tone" controls on my Strats; the pickups always sound fuller and clearer after getting rid of that crap. I move the volume control down to the bottom spot, out of the way, and I cover the holes from the inside with bits of white plastic. EVH said your tone control is the pickup selector, and if it's good enough for him...
Man, that amp and those pups are made for each other. Wow. Super killer sound Darrel!
Put the bass out of phase with the treble, so any leakage between the two sides gets cancelled out.
Very cool. There has to be a way to take advantage of a lot more sounds. A lot of potential combinations of sounds. Really interesting concept. Thanks Darrell. Happy Holidays
Love that the 60's cycle hum is gone.
Just wonder if the wiring is exactly the same as strat, will it still be 60's cycle hum free? If so, it will be perfect
THIS is why I love this channel!!!
Unless there is a placebo effect in place, I can hear a definite difference in your posted recordings with the new hardware. The new rig seems to make a BIG difference even with YT compression.
Merry Christmas to all!
One of the great questions I've been pondering is why this style of pickup where each coil only picks up half the strings is almost completely non existent on electric guitars, but is exceedingly common for bass guitar in the form of a precision pickup.
Nevermind. I guess I should watch the whole video before asking questions.
I do love the concept. Thank you
Get a blank pickguard and set them up like p bass pick ups
I got the give them an A++ for creativity
need to hear more bends , of the "G" up wards and the "D" donward direction
in all pickup positions , any tracking / drop out ??????? Strength waver when crossing over
magnetic fields ?
I am Canadian and I don't know if you are, but if you are it explains why you are my number one source for guitar information.
I am 60, played a Yamaha accoustic guitar for 30 years, never was good at it and improved slowly. The Yamaha guitar was great, I wasn't. Another problem is I played to impress other people.
About 2 weeks ago I bought an Ibanez 70fd. I am in love with making noise and play it about 1 hour daily, am improving, and fell like I should be playing 4 hours, or more, every day. I will soon. My wife says I sound great. Now I play with headphones on, play for my enjoyment, let loose and make as much noise as I want, and let other people I know listen once in awhile. What a great feeling. I never had people say they liked what I played until I selectively released what I wanted.
There are few reviews on the Ibanez 70fd, hint, hint, hint.
Thank you for making my life better.
It's all good sounds,but they should have a switch somewhere so that you can have your normal type strat.sound.That would be cool,having your set up as usual,then Blamo you got a totally different axe.Nice.👍🎸
I’d like to see a humbucker sized version with 4 coils or something like that
Really cool innovation, for someone with a second strat.
why a second one
@@johncox1221 A traditional strat and another one with this pickups.
It may also be the 10th :-D
That’s trippy. There’s soooo many wiring things you could do with this.
I do assume the coils are wound in opposite directions to cancel out hum.
Two three position switches would really make this Strat super versatile.
That would be excellent and we wouldn't have to memorize what the 5 way switch's positions actually mean.
Or 6 on-off switches to really be able to fidget. 😅
@@Crispy_Music_2024 😁
Sounds nice but those variations can be accomplished easier. Just add a micro switch to switch on the bridge pickup any time. You will get the bridge chimes blended with the neck sounds on position 1 (with the bridge pickup on). And on position two you can have the three of them on. I did that 40 years ago and still love it. G&L started to feature that lately.
Wait... so they are two single coils. Does that mean Strat sized true noiseless pickups? 🤔
Burnt Gerbil wondering the same thing...👍
Probably not since there was no push pull to run in series and since they run in parallel you will still get 60 cycle hum.
Hum cancelling in all 5 positions 😁👍
Darrell Braun Guitar - sweeeeeet 😬👍
Curtis Novak had pickups like these about 10 years ago as well they were just not on seperate bobins but had the pole pieces wrapped opposite and they were wound around three of the pole pieces.
I heard if you use a Bi-Polar pickup you can use a Prozac guitar pick and really play like a professional.
😉
Prozac is for depression, no bipolar. What you need is a test against Kiesel's Lithium pickups.
Dang you beat me to the bubble bursting.
G&L had a brief run of a Comanche Studio VI (?) that used toggle switches instead of a selector switch to achieve the same results.
BTW, I read that the reason Leo Fender came up with the z-coil design is that bending the "g" string up or the "d" string down on a "straight" pickup cancelled out when it crossed the magnet assemblies (because they're reverse-wound). Perhaps that's why *all* the possible pickup combinations for these pickups involve different pickups? IOW, they don't offer the choice of isolating to a single pickup because bending the strings would cancel out the sound and make people unhappy.
If They Were Set Up To Switch Normally Like a Strat Would They Hum Cancel Like a Humbucker??
If both of the halves of the pickups are wired with opposite polarity, then yes
Thats what i figured these were all about when I saw the thumbnail.
Yes, but there would be a dead zone between the two coils, most noticeable when bending.
@@AdamBath I thought with modern pup materials the magentic field would extend enough that the drop off would be minimal...
@@kirtfulcher6288 Nope.
Thank you Darrell for mentioning the G&L Z pickups. Not a well known/discussed topic. I have a G&L Comanche, so it was great to hear the Z coils get some recognition.
When you seperated one pickup I was like WTF
Evans Pickups were made the same way In Canada. Not in production any more. Total find if you can get them. They even had a hum bucker with 4 coils at the bridge, but it chose the diagonal coils to simulate the slanted bridge pickup on a strat. I love them.
This somehow sounds more strat-like than regular strat config.
Hey Darrell. Love your ability to find New, Interesting & Innovative products. I'm currently in love with my Suhr with Lollar Vintage Blonde's, but this was very interesting. No Noise is huge for me.
This would be awesome IF they just made it a separate selector switch so that you don't have to sacrifice having the regular pickup combinations we all know and love in your guitar (like using your full bridge pickup in position one).
It would be a lot better as an add-on-to-what-you-already-have type of thing.
Or a push-pull on the tone pot to switch from normal to separated frequencies.
Wouldn't be difficult to add one.
Yes, agreed. If it's either/or..I'm afraid I'd sooner stick with the full neck or full bridge options I currently enjoy.
Terrific ingenuity & innovation, though. We need sharp minds thinking laterally like this! Well done boys! ( Or girls - whatever the case may be)
@@TheBaconWizard Wouldn't be difficult but would ruin the classic Strat look.
@@error8418 It wouldn;t ruin the YOU look though would it? Maybe it would be better not to be the billionth clone of every other guitar(ist) ever built in both sound and looks. I also recommend valuing sound over looks when it comes to an instrument.
Push-pull pots so you have 4 more combinations. It did sound really sweet, very different than your usual strat tones.
Z''ed'' is correct though, it's weird calling it C..
Very interesting product! Thanks for the demo.
Do the double coil construction cancel hum to any extent?
Somehow it's noise canceling in all settings.
@@MikeKeller It's basically a humbucker.
Thanks for sharing Darrell! Great to see something unique...Really liked pos 1 + 5. The noise cancelling would also be very useful.
Majority of world: Zed
USA and maybe a very few amount of other countries: Zee
Murica!!😁
Goob You have a point?
@@PeterDad60 The point is why should he, a Canadian person, adjust how he speaks to satisfy an American person.
@@Goooooooooooooooober To be nice; we people from Trono are nice people.
Goober but it rhymes tho, priorities!
Thank You,really cool! Lots of gain with no noise!
Like my ex-wife
😂
Cool sound and great idea. One thing needs to be pointed out. They work they in this configuration only. Every position is hum cacelling which means each half is reverse wound and reverse magnetic polarity. That will prevent you from using each pickup as a normal single coil if you wanted to. In that configuration there is a dead spot inbetween the halves and string bends on D & G string are compromised.
This literally sounds like a Tele
I was skeptical, but you're right, especially when using neck/middle positions. As a tele fan, these seems like a dream.
genius! and they look as if they would fit right into a Squire.
i have never seen anybody dial in all 3 strat pick-ups simultaneously, has any one reading this ever done
that? and you are right about the tele pick-up; it totally kicks ass over the strat pick-up.
Someone actually harassed you about zed? That is pretty petty.
Do they? I assumed with no research or prior knowledge that the "zed" came from a heavy french influence on Canadian speech.
@@davidburke2132 As I said an assumption based on nothing. I believe you. Just thinking out loud or in text or whatever this strange technology is....
"if its different than what i use, then its wrong" = the internet in a nutshell
@@deanmlshredder Zed comes from Greek alphabet, they called this letter "Zeta".
Petty? First day on the internet, eh?
The combinations I can think of are mind boggling.
Whoever soldered that guard up should be tarred and feathered.
Lmao that big glob of solder on that pot is a cold joint too idk how that left the factory
Personally I'd mount 2 standard 5-way switches on the pickguard in parallel and have them controlling the top and bottom portions separately. With a bit of practice you could throw the two gangs as one for standard strat controls, or individually to pull out the unique options. Very cool.
I’m British. Please continue to say ‘zed’ correctly.
so do you say 'bed' for b, ' ded' for d, 'ped' for p, 'ted' for t, etc.?
@@davethompson6760 do you say fee, hee, lee, mee, nee, etc?
I’m American. Please continue to say ‘see’ correctly
Sorry, but; who is Zed?
@@RetroOnSpeedDial
Wow! Had to look that one up. Now that I know what that is, if that makes me out of touch, then I'm thankful for Sequester in Place, and will remain touchless! :-)
Fralin split blades are the same type of design, but with the blades crossing over in the center to avoid a dead spot. Kent Armstrong or another boutique winder was also doing this a few years ago, but I never tried the pickups.
If there anything like my wife watch out....
I'm so happy because today
I've found my friends, they're in my head
Michael Nightingale - I’m so ugly, but that’s ok cause so are you
why is every guitar guy also a mahhhhya wifuhh guy
@@kgr6438 yeah it's really bizzare. It's like every guitar player hates their wife and has really unhealthy relationships with them. Why would you be married to someone you hate? Because you're terrified of being alone, I'm guessing. Which is pretty sad that you'd rather be unhappy than alone
Darrell, great topic today, and great demo. Your new amp sounds great too!
These pickups are so good.
They are Terrible
.
For any1 who doesn't understand this is a bi polar joke
Jimi sang "Manic Depression" before these pups were invented.
Unique. The position I thought I would like the most, with bass from neck, treble from bridge, I liked the least. Did like the other positions.
Darrell - My friend, the rooster, called. Wants to know why you stole his hairdo...
Just a little "foul" humor, Canadian axe slinger extraordinaire! Another excellent demo.
If I were some pickups I'd be these ones
No I wouldn't
Had this same idea for a really long time, glad someone actually did it tbh
Spot on with the Tele reference, Darrel. All the goodness without the 'buzz' (spelled b-u-zed-zed...hehehehe.) For people who love Strat contours and aren't into dancing with a butcher block, it's a great alternative! Definitely a cool product..you can do the Comanche thing without screwing up your pickguard like we used to. Hahahaha. Greetings from destitute Alberta!!
I like it, that "Bridge" position really works, ideal for some country licks.
That’s amazing. Would have never thought of something like this but I love it
Fender briefly made pickups like this, called Super 55 Split Coil pickups. I have a set that I got for cheap-ish off of craigslist and put them in a partscaster. Wired them up with an S-1 switch like the last generation of American Deluxe Strat (so it has a bridge/neck and bridge/middle/neck position, among other things). They sound pretty good; better than the N3 Noiseless that are in that era of Deluxe Strats, IMHO (I have one of those, too, and so I was able to compare back to back). They had a reputation for being unreliable and easily broken, though...I haven't had that problem, and I like them a lot.
Well, those pickups remember me to the Burns TriSonic from Brian May with the in fase and out of fase sounds.
That fifth position on the switch you'd think you'd want the opposite. Bridge for the low strings and neck for highs. Bridge would be tighter and more compressed for barre chords, and the high strings would be more open sounding for solos.
Edit: G&L made a Comanche VI for a time that had six switches for individual bi coil selection. The top three were for on/off for the pickups, and the bottom three were left/both/right coil per pickup so you could mix whatever combination you wanted.
I had a similar idea YEARS ago,and im happy to see it come to fruition,even if its not mine. This is awesome. Id love to get a set.
I would have enjoyed hearing some full chords (all six strings ringing out simultaneously) to hear how they sound with those unique pickup/string combinations. Can you do this, and compare to a typical Strat?
The potential tonal options are out of this world.
Lindy Fralin makes split humbucking strat pickups like that. The way they're wiring them is definitely novel.
very cool to see one of those idle "hey, what if / wouldn't it be cool if...?" thoughts I had after messing with wiring come out as an actual product!
given that the magnetic polarity (and possibly the reverse wind?) is what makes the various positions hum cancelling, I don't see any reason why positions 2 and 4 couldn't combine both halves of "full" middle and neck / bridge if desired, although I guess that would just make it a "standard" Strat pickup configuration and maybe take away from the unique selling point of these. pretty sure it'd still be hum cancelling as it'd be combining say, the positive coil half of one pickup with the negative half of other (and vice versa), on both halves. not sure if the inductance is tuned for each combination, such that it might not be to taste as a "full" pickup of both halves, but there's only one way to find out!
perhaps the folks at S and S wouldn't mind wiring the positional options differently in a pinch if asked. I would've thought it'd be the bridge bass coil and neck treble coil in the bridge position, but the inductance of each coil may be in a specific ballpark for the wiring as showcased in this video. a toggle switch to flip the combinations around for each coil combination would've been really neat, even as a nonstandard option.
tone chasing is fun, and it's always cool to have options and tinker, though what I really need to do is practice more and tinker less? cool concept, thanks for sharing. :)
This is such an obvious idea for noiseless Strat performance, I’m amazed it’s NOT more common.
If you want it to just function like a traditional Strat, but without noise, you could still do that. But you can also start to do those other mad scientist experiments.
The Fender bass guitars have split pickups from the beginning. the goal was hum bucken. And that worked in the 60's and still works. So these are humbucking singlecoils without the loss of tone as with noiseless pups.
With the Free-Way 5-way/10-position switch, you could conceivably get all those tones, PLUS traditional Strat tones as well. Or even other tones depending on wiring.
I think they should add a selector switch to the system kind of like a Jazzmaster. Where you can toggle between the "S" switch behaving like a normal strat switch and the bipolar functionality.