I absolutely dug this mod! The standout for me was the remarkable shift in the pickup's tone, making it feel way more "Comfortable" for a better word (when playing in the room). There's this beefed-up low-end presence and a smoother top-end vibe that really appeals to me. Pairing it with the capacitance mod from my other video opens up a whole new world of tweaking your pickups to suit your taste, and the best part? It's budget-friendly and a breeze to pull off! 🎸
Hi I once sent one of my pickups to a famous UK pickup winder for modding. he glued a ceramic pickup to the base of the pickup and Ive been using it like that for 30 yrs.I enjoyed you video thanks.
@@TheCultofshivacopper few mm thick sheet. Like whats on the bridge pickup of a tele. Montys do some iirc steel plates for strat bridge pickups to stop them being so shrill
Listened with headphones on and eyes closed so I didn’t know which pickup was being played. I didn’t notice a difference. Everybody heard things differently, but many times things sound different based on expectation.
I think it's a psychoacoustic "I did a thing I expected to make my guitar sound better, so now it sounds better" type situation. It's the same sort of reasoning that leads to audiophiles paying thousands of dollars for speaker cable that's basically just copper and plastic that you can buy for a few cents per foot at most any hardware store 😂
Based on induction measurement there must be a difference, but I don't think you can hear that. Maybe only some guys with really good ears. I don't hear any difference
There's a difference but in the splitting hairs range. Nothing that couldn't be achieved with EQ. However, it's non-destructive so give it a go and hear for yourself or compare with a frequency spectrum analyser.
The whole point is that Strat's bridge pickups are notoriously shrills and often bass lacking. Having the tone control wired to it and backed off doesn't give the same amount of beefiness in the low end.
In my experience, after almost 4 decades playing, this pickup craziness lead somewhere only in a context when we play something between clean or mild - overdriven style of music. I played with guitarists who talked too much about such topics, spent hundreds dollars in boutique pickups blah blah blah, and then they plugged their guitars to a chinese multieffect pedalboard and from there to a high gain Marshall, together with a drummer with a 35 piece set and a 5 string bassist. In the context, you can't ever say the difference between a '57 Gibson Les Paul and a Harley Benton 200 dollars worth.
Well said, if someone is a guitar geek then they will hear their mods maybe in a studio or recording situ ? but will anyone in a two thousand seater venue or a twenty thousand crowd at a festival notice, probably not. I do love watching these mod videos for the education but surely a tweak to the tone pot or an EQ pedal could achieve similar improvements. Ultimately just write some decent tunes and you will stand out ! ( not the pickup )
@@lushbeard YES! I have a Harley Benton SG and it´s one of my easiest playing guitar! Amazing low action, comfortable and a pretty creamy sound. The original tuning machines were crap. I replaced them with Wilkinsons and said goodbye to intonation problems!
I am listening through a good set of Senheiser headphones and I detect about zero difference between the stock and modded pickup. Much simpler to just use the tone nobs on the guitar and amp to alter the sound. Using a EQ pedal or online digital one is great also.
Clean boost pedal would be my suggestion as it'll fatten up every guitar, especially around the mids. Catalinbread SCP uses a good known circuit, MOSFET based.
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar I initially used 6 rods on the neck but the tone was too dark for me. Then used 3 rods for each pickup. The stock bridge pickup was thin, shrill and a bit weak. It affected the middle position so much that I mainly used the neck. After the mod everything improved so much that I can now enjoy the middle setting as well. The bridge pickup still has the T style twang but sounds so much better. I am quite surprised how much the tone has improved, and they definitely have increased in output - a welcome improvement especially for the bridge. I am going to try this on my other guitars. Love the mod - appreciate your work. Cheers.
I just love practical experiments on important subjects. Listening on my Neumann monitors, which bottoms out at around 35 Hz, I really couldn’t hear the bass-lift you were talking about. So I analysed the audio in Fabfilter Pro Q 3. You were right, there was a slight lift, about 1 dB @ 180 Hz, maybe what you heard in the room didn’t translate to YT. The big difference, though, was in the upper register, responsible for the added clarity I experienced. A peak @ 1,1 kHz was shifted up to 2.2 kHz, one @ 3,1 to 4.8 and one @ 7,8 to 11 kHz! So it’s like the upper frequency response has been shifted upward in an slightly exponential curve. Whether you could achieve the same result with a proper EQ remains to be tested. But it’s always better to fix “problems” at the source. Isn’t it? Besides, I love DIY. Will definitely try this on my battered Strat. Please do more fun stuff 🎶
Misunderstanding. Such a mod does NOT lift the bass frequencies, but attenuates the high frequencies. This indirectly shifts the tonal balance more to the low frequencies, but the absolute level of the low frequencies does NOT change.
@@Andreas_Straub Misunderstanding? What’s interesting to me in this experiment is the shift in tonal balance. That is what we as listeners perceive. Absolute level values has no real world impact as long as they don’t affect the signal to noise ratio or causes distortion. I have a volume knob and I know how to use it. ✌✌
Fender basically did this. When the American Standard Strat was first introduced, all three pickups were identical (midd was RW/RP) but by the mid-90's, they introduced the Delta Tone system which included a no-load tone control (vs. TBX) and a slightly hotter bridge pickup that featured two large screws on the bottom for increased inductance.
Thanks! Just one very small detail - removing the scratch plate on some Strats involves removing the neck which is the most a*rsehole thing that ever had to be done just to mess around with it. So I stick to my Les Paul and my es335 and my Strat is basically mothballed.
Bro, so insane that you posted this. Literally like 3 days ago I was working on my strat and a tool went rogue and gouged my bridge pickup and broke the very thin coil wire 😧. On a 20 year old set of my favorite pickups! I was mortified, but after a few moments of thought decided that I could unwind the wire one wrap in either direction, twist it and solder it back together. So I did that, and by the grace of god it worked. BUT I couldn't avoid leaving a glob of solder stuck to the coil in the process. See where I'm going with this? That glob of solder seems to be doing the same thing you're talking about because I now have the SINGLE BEST SOUNDING STRAT BRIDGE PICKUP OF ALL TIME haha. The difference is subtle (and very lucky) but I noticed right away. And I already thought it was a great sounding bridge pickup, but somehow it sounds distinctly and unmistakably better. It took just a bit of edge off the highs, and gave it an overall warmer more balanced tone. So needless to say I've been trying to sort this out in my mind all week. Then here you come to tie a bow on it! Folks, whether you mean to do it or even if you're just an idiot like me who stumbles upon this by accident, it is real and does work and has huge potential for improving and shaping your tone. Even from your favorite pickups that you already thought were perfect. Next level stuff dude. Keep exploring and sharing. Thanks!
I moved my pickups up on a couple of guitars and it totally changed the voicing and VOLUME. Loving them now. Had aVintera 2 70's and the pickups soumded good but just weak compared to my other guitars.
Now THAT'S the way you do a comparison; play something simple and repititious, and toggle back and forth. It's difficult enough sometimes to hear the difference between two things, especially when it's a subtle difference, without adding another variable by playing different things when demonstrating them. I wish the pickup manufacturers would post the inductance in their specs. It's a more useful measure to get an idea of how it's going to sound than the DCR, which is just the wind. I can swap a magnet out of a humbucker and change the tone considerably, but the DCR is going to remain the same. I've been doing this with steel plates for twenty years, definitely ground them. Different plates and steel types will have slightly different voices.
i am honest. i can hear a sublte increase of bass and little hrsness tamed, but attach a tone pot to bridge pickup on a strat makes wonders to me. i was an humbucker guy, but i hated always clean sounds. now i'm using single coils also for metal.
I thought you were bluffing. That's actually insane. I'm calling bullshit on the 'in the room' sound though, there's plenty of youtube videos done to disprove that. I did this mod to my headless guitar with common steel nails and conductive copper tape. It made a massive difference and basically saved a neck pickup that is now in a bridge position. And that bridge pickup? Well you saved that too by inspiring me to put a cap in parallel with it and now it's the neck pickup. You my sir, are fucking awesome!
Guitar players are so nuts. Me too btw. I showed this to other family members who don’t play and none of them could hear the difference. I could. I think this is one of those things you feel when playing more than “hear”.
The difference is very slight and in the mid frequency band rather than bass. Once there is more gain added the difference will probably become even less discernable. But if guitarists weren't able to obsess and argue about pickups for hours in the comments they might have to practice instead and that would never do!
Listening on my Neumann KH310's in my studio: Heard a minor bump in the lower rhythm chunk, but a LOT more low mids when chords are ringing out & the middle/higher strings are being plucked. It's certainly not as much as I was expecting, but it really shows how a minor tweak in the pickup construction can have very audible shifts.
sounds good both ways in my opinion. what you gain in meatiness with this mod seems like is taking away from the articulation on mid-highs. I want to try this out on my pbass. very neat. thanks
Increasing the inductance by any means reduces the resonance peak frequency - meaning the higher frequencies are reduced, indirectly meaning that the lower frequencies become more dominant. You can reach the same effect by adding capacitance parallel to the pickup. Sometimes this happens unintendedly by using a high length and capacity cable, but there are also switches available to select several capacitors to the signal output (like a Neutrik "timbre" plug or any home built solution.
I have a Squier Jaguar where the neck pickup is 3x louder than the bridge PU, even lowered all the way. Both pickups have the claw and are stock (to my knowledge) so I'm hoping this hack will help even out the output between the two...
Bad "information". It was an attempt to increase noise shielding after complaints from players about the wide flat bobbin Jazzmaster pickups which can be noisy due to the larger surface area - Leo listened and tried to remedy it when designing the Jag. The tonal difference in Jags with or without the claws is minimal, I've tried it with the same set of pickups before. If anything, it can make microphonic pickups more likely to feed back therefore they can encourage/add noise. However, almost every Jag I've played with vintage spec pickups sounds weedy so I'd recommend swapping for hotter pickups and/or using a clean boost, plus swapping the 1M tone pots in the lead circuit for 500K or 250K. Any of these upgrades will make more tonal difference than sticking nails on the bottom of a pickup. Take it from someone who's been playing Jags for about two decades now.
The physics of a pickup are really complicated and intertwined. Resistance , inductance and capacitance are all in playing the coil itself alone Extra iron increases the inductance but also the eddy currents, which both influence the higher frequencies. You can partly calculate what a mod will do, but listening is the best check. Nice mod, I like the sound!
Man, I can't thank you enough for sharing this. I just built an epoxy resin guitar with single coil setup and found the bridge a bit thin. This will be great when I do the mod!
@@MainPrismwell, I've been waiting for the guy who does the polishing and finishing of the epoxy resin for the last two months, when his majesty has time to finish it, both you and I will know :) but I promise you, it's gonna be great
I have plates on a 89 Squire Korean model. It's so unique. Also, try this, collect tape inside the pickup covers. Only open spot will be the bottom of the pickups. Just inside the cover. It sounds so twangy like a Telecaster. This only has been done on a Squire mini. Around 2k I loves it
The pickup you made is excellent , it does'nt need a plate. I have a les paul special and it has a metal plate screwed into the bodywood under each pickup, I think it's to give the height adjust screws an anchor point, I noticed the dogear versions don't use a plate cos the pickup is fixed. The Les paul soapbars on that special sound warm and bitey but not brittle. Your vid has inspired me to cut 2 plates out of Zinc and stick them under the dogear p90s on a semihollow before I stick mini humbuckers in. Thanks. I have tried very very low value capacitors to warm and round off a brittle pick, it takes a lot of experimenting but it works too.
One of the things that gives classic "gold foil" pickups their sound is the use of a mild steel baseplate. If you look at pics of some of them, they can *seem* like they have two coils, with adjustable screws in one of those coils. But look a little more intently, and you'll realize there is clearly NOT enough space to accommodate a second coil. Those screws go into the raised end of that "L-shaped" mild steel baseplate. It not only redirects the magnetic field, but increases the inductance of the coil/magnet structure sitting right on top of it. I will also note that a great many older Japanese single coil pickups in the budget import guitars from the '60s are also sitting atop a mild steel baseplate.
@@MrNamePerson You've almost certainly seen many items made from mild steel Mild steel is the term for a very common steel alloy made from iron and small amounts of carbon. If one compares mild steel to stainless steel, the main difference is stainless steel is an alloy of iron and chromium, which makes stainless steel much harder. Mild steel is not as resistant to corrosion, so it rusts more readily than stainless steel.
On top? I think you need it on the bottom, so redirects the magnetic field into the core. It's the core that changes the inductance. The fixed magnetic field simply magnetizes the string, and as long as there is a sufficient field to magnetize the string then that's it.
Nice demo. One thing that's overlooked by many commenters: If the changes feel better to the player, then they'll be more relaxed about sound. This relates to the whole signal chain. If I'm happy with an instrument's response and feel, I'll play differently.
Sounds a tad more beefier. Back in high school, we used to chuck magnets of all types on the back of pos pickups in the cheap electric guitars they had in the Music room..lol. They made a huge difference in volume.😁👍
I actually had done this experiment using a cheap metal base plate from online store (China). There were slight increase in the pickup reading when I put the plate. But after I ground it (not via the pickup black wire but with its own ground cable) the reading suddenly increase from 11k to 19k. And during sound test, the strat doesn't sound like a strat, but with a thick sound you would thought that it is a humbucker pickup. I don't know maybe I wired it wrong or maybe just a fluke. But all I can say, it does make a huge different adding a base plate on your single coil pickup
Thanks for that, another interesting video. Also answers a bit of a mystery. I have this POS old Japanese strat (EKS) with a set of pickups that sound way better than they have a right to. All the pups have galv metal plates underneath them. So, there you go.
Hi, this video Is so interesting! I am italian and unfortunately can't understand everithing. The Most hard party Is measuring. I have a simple multimeter and I don't know if I should upgrade. Witch budget One value for the Money would You kindly suggest me? Thanks a lot in advance!!
I remember the first "strat" styled guitar I had that was a cheap knockoff called a "Ranger". It wasn't too bad for a learning on, but never really sound good on most amps. The pickups that were in there had ceramic magnets and also had these plates underneath. And yes, the pickups did have a better low end response, almost like a humbucker to some extent. In terms of learning to play guitar and learning about guitars, this Ranger was invaluable. I played around with trying different switch combinations, modifying the pickups, guitar setups. All great fun at the time.
I remember doing this to a p bass pickup when I was young & skint. just banged some extra bar magnets on the underside. later I bought a quarter-pounder & it was remarkably similar.
amazing. I bought a baseplate for strat bridge pickup of Montys Guitars...imported it from UK. Output and mid frequencies changed definitely and it sounds a little more T-style now. Maybe I'll try the nails too.
The fatter bridge pickup sound some Strat players are looking for is found in the middle pickup, which has a tone control. By employing the tone control and experimenting with where to pick a player can coax a lot of tones out of this pickup. The bridge pickup is great as is. It's a great country sound and, due to it's lack of tone pot, always has the quack in position 2.
Loving these! I really prefer to make the best of what I've got, and these mod options are a great way to squeeze more out of the pickups that are already installed!
Couldn't agree more! I've used his mods on $70 pickups and $200 pickups and both benefitted. Everyone really does owe it to themselves to try these tips before wasting money on new stuff they might not need.
Interesting. I'd like to see the same experiment conducted with a full sized ceramic pickup magnet replacing the iron bar or nail(s). Magnetic polarity of the flat ceramic strap would have to jive with all the separate cylindrical pole magnets or there would be trouble. Stick not repell. Pickup to string spacing, aka pickup height would become another 'floating point'. The finish on your guitar's body is sweet.
The original Stratocaster design un the 50s shows a plate for every pickup, it was part of the design but I suppose they went missing or Leo forgot to get them stuck on?
A while ago, I bought a bunch of capacitors due to your video about changing the sound of my pickups changing the actual pickup. I was incredibly disappointed with the results. It sounded like I had put a blanket over the pick up. I went back to the drawing board and ended up picking up some different value potentiometers that did the trick! I didn’t lose too much high, what I gained was a fatter mid sound. On the upside of anybody wants some cheap capacitors…🤔
I didn't listen with headphones on purpose: If the difference is so little as not to be heard on mid-range equipment, it's probably not worth it (and it wasn't). But still a big thumbs-up for your endeavours!
While I was browsing comments I noticed that it has a slight increase in resonance, I'll probably experiment with it myself to know how it sounds by ear. Although, I think that tossing in a 500k potentiometer might improve the sound a little better. I put a 1-meg pot in my Squier Strat and it's voiced a completely different way, all three pickups brightened up and the bridge pickup has more bite to it.
How about extra dummy iron pole pieces between the actual magnetic ones? I bet that the inductance will change more if you insert the iron inside the coil. This probably only works when building a pickup though. Drilling holes on a pickup that's already wound will probably just kill it because you only need one cut to the coil for it to die.
Yes, induction plates do nothing spectacular. I use steel screws between alnico magnets. You can lower eg. 4.5kHz@470pF f res (underwound strat sound) to 3.9kHz (slightly overwound) this method. Useful in diy ceramic to alnico convert like old mex standard wound to 7kohm with 43 AWG.
The very first variations I could tell the difference between the two. And I preferred the modified pickup. However after that there was not much change warranting all that work.
I prefer the tone without the nails. What those nails add is something you’d shelf in a mix. If baseplate was universally an improvement all modern pickups would have one and most old guitars would be modded to have one also. Maybe there are cases where this would fix a problem, but there are maybe more scenarios where dimarzio fs-1 would be better option.
I am putting a SD 1/4 pounder in the bridge of the strat....so that should help....I am not convinced that this would help your guitar standout in a mix...maybe in the bedroom
Someone recently gave me a brace of Strataliker planks.... 3 were plywood composite bodies, one was solid - poplar/ash/alder (?). Necks were screw-on - two with truss-rod cappings (skunk stripes) average intrinsic value each, around £60.... The pickups on these guitars more or less reflected that value, one guitar even had a classic 'faux' humbucker in the bridge... Two guitars had an HSS configuration (one with the faux-bucker...). One had a DiMarzion X2N clone in the bridge (double fat rail) - these pickups sounded pretty damn good to my experienced ears... For cheapy pickups, exceptionally good... On removing the scratch plate - to determine the state of the wiring - I was surprised to find that the single coil pickups had steel back-plates... This extra ferrous layer effectively gave these single coils voicing that would normally be expected from a branded pickup. People fail to realise how important the relationship between inductance, capacitance, gauss and DC resistance and how that shapes the voicing of a pickup.
Nice, simple mod. Easy enough to test to see if it improves the tone on your own guitar. Long ago, I did some tests like this on my Strat. It's nice to have an explanation of what's going on when adding the nails/metal to the bottom. Do you have any videos about how to make a "Dummy Coil" and what the resistance should be in relation to the Single Coil Pickup it would be connected to? I have a bunch of old Single Coil Pickups that have a good tone, but they are too noisy due to 60 Cycle hum and interference. My idea is to include Dummy Pickups along with the Bridge and Neck Pickup in a loaded Pickguard I can easily swap in and out of my Strat using a Quick Connect at the Jack. Thanks
@@chrispile3878 All the most valuable electric guitars are from the 20th century 😂 is it a parody of Zoomer type comments you were aiming for or were you being straight with that?
Recently install this idea for single coil pickup. I'm using laser cut of 1mm iron plate, the result is out standing mid frequency is totally sweet and cut high frequency until microphonic feedback issue come unnaturally. Saddly I don't know what to do and uninstall the plate.
But lower impedance leads to a lower output too. I had a Van Zandt pickup on a Tele (bridge position) which sounded good, but the impedance is so low that the difference between pickups was ENORMOUS so I decided to change it.
Key is to find a magnetic steel plate min 1/8th inch thick, thinner and it just doesn't work. I have cut steel from a $1 home electrical octagon box (hacksaw and files to clean up). If it's slightly larger than the pickup bobbin footprint that is ok. The steel acts like a mirror to reflect flux lines that normally go out the back of the guitar at the strings, giving higher voltage output.
I'll have to try that on my FSR Std Ash Tele (MIM) and wonder about my Strats - one has Fralin Split Blades - the other has EMG SV (active). So my question is would the "plate" work on the EMGs? Now I'm thinking what about my Filter Trons and P bass pickup? Very cool.
I doubt if it would benefit active pickups. It might change them, but it will probably do more harm than good. An active pickup should not be lacking in output. That is the main reason for adding the power. If it is lacking, try a fresh battery or adjust the pickup height. I would try those things first anyway if I were you.
@@TheRealcdawg22 I didn't think it would work on active pickups, but didn't realize it could "do harm". Thanks Fresh batteries are normal routine for me. I've had these EMG pups since '95 and appreciate the lack of hum.
@@michaelparson-mcnamara782 I'm not trying to pretend that I am mister know-it-all or anything. Of course, you have the freedom to do whatever you want or seek out the opinion of someone wiser than I. I would not mess with it in that manner if it were mine. Cheers.
@@TheRealcdawg22 I know about that! I've been playing and modding guitars since '63, but you can't learn it all! I do seem to have a penchant for both learning and experimenting, but all my experience with pickups has been replacing them with "let's try this one". BUT there are so many available these days, that you can't even know about all of them!
I would say baseplates have to be steel or magnetic material. The more magnetic, the more the field is brought into the core, increasing inductance. I think non-magnetic materials increase capacitance through eddy currents. This is why you don't want copper covers on your humbuckers but neutral nickel-silver.
I don't know about "night & day difference", but there is some change there. I do prefer the chunkier tone with the mod, though it does apply some scoop to the EQ, so I would decide if I want a tad less mids before I mod it. Personally, I'd do it.
Simple mod, but if you play at any kind of volume with gain make sure whatever you put on there is very firmly affixed (sticking it to the magnets will not do) and not able to vibrate or there's a very good chance it'll squeal like crazy.
I could only hear a decipherable difference during the clean sustainable chords section, it seemed to have a more overall warmer sound but not muddy. I am listening only on my phone so thats my .02 cents. Cool experiments like this are not meant to be a definitive conclusion but more about personal tonal exploration and expression. ❤
Having experimented w magnetic fields, it seems to me we're hearing a magnetic field change more so than the L change. As was mentioned the base plate on a Tele does that too. Did you try w non ferro magnetic metals like Copper, Silver, Brass, Bronze or Aluminum ? I put Mercury dimes under the magnets of a Strat p up, and to my surprise it added a slight quality like you'd hear from a Silver bell.
Imagine using some (common, don't worry about ruining history) copper coins from the Roman empire, and saying the secret to your sound is over 1500 years old. 🤣
I wonder how a strip of copper shield foil, or even aluminum tape would alter the pickup vs the nails? Perhaps even painting the back of the pickup with conductive paint. Another interesting video would be to measure the effects of pickup cavity shielding (paint, foil, brass, etc) on the inductance of a pickup.
I think magnetic materials on the bottom is better. This will draw the magnetic force through he core, increasing the inductance. I think non-magnetic metals will weaken the magnetic fields. Copper repels magnetic fields.
What happens if you put a bar magnet on the bottom of the Strat pickup? The modification in the video gives the pickup a "chicken pickin" sound from Nashville to my ears. Sounds brighter and clearer than stock.
A P90 has a bar magnet and steel pole pieces. It sounds like a humbucker which also uses a bar magnet. Many people are experimenting with small neodymium button magnets and putting them underneath their pickups.
I have tried that and was surprised. Placing a ceramic bar magnet underneath alnico poles significantly rises resonance frequency of a pickup. BTW to lower f res effectively, steel should be placed between magnets not underneath.
Amazing that a 70 year old instrument design has so many little secrets. I'll share one of my own: The dampening from the pickup's magnetic field (basically how much the magnet is pulling the string toward it) will influence the other pickups. And sometimes it can do some very, very surprising things.
@@vorpalblades That's kinda how pickups work. The strings sit in a magnetic field and produce signal when they disturb it. But I'm saying that you can cause resonance changes to the strings themselves, especially in strat.
Do you have any evidence of this? The magnetic field around a pickup is very weak compared to the amount of tension the string is under. If you play a piece of metal near a pickup it moves with the slightest of pressure. I might add that if you place the string too close to the magnet it will start 'chourus-ing'. But that effect goes away after a millimeter or two. That is not the same thing as saying that the magnetic field will pull on the string and cause it to lose sustain.
You should use a looper, as it's impossible to play exactly the same way 100% of the time. Additionally, using a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) can help you visualize the tone. Relying solely on detecting it through RUclips is difficult.
I absolutely dug this mod! The standout for me was the remarkable shift in the pickup's tone, making it feel way more "Comfortable" for a better word (when playing in the room). There's this beefed-up low-end presence and a smoother top-end vibe that really appeals to me. Pairing it with the capacitance mod from my other video opens up a whole new world of tweaking your pickups to suit your taste, and the best part? It's budget-friendly and a breeze to pull off! 🎸
Hi I once sent one of my pickups to a famous UK pickup winder for modding. he glued a ceramic pickup to the base of the pickup and Ive been using it like that for 30 yrs.I enjoyed you video thanks.
This is so interesting, I got a lot of aluminium and sheet metal at work. I think thin metal plates could work well for this.
@@TheCultofshivacopper few mm thick sheet. Like whats on the bridge pickup of a tele. Montys do some iirc steel plates for strat bridge pickups to stop them being so shrill
Listened with headphones on and eyes closed so I didn’t know which pickup was being played. I didn’t notice a difference. Everybody heard things differently, but many times things sound different based on expectation.
I think it's a psychoacoustic "I did a thing I expected to make my guitar sound better, so now it sounds better" type situation. It's the same sort of reasoning that leads to audiophiles paying thousands of dollars for speaker cable that's basically just copper and plastic that you can buy for a few cents per foot at most any hardware store 😂
Snake oil is real.
Based on induction measurement there must be a difference, but I don't think you can hear that. Maybe only some guys with really good ears. I don't hear any difference
May be You wont notice a differences because You tube audio comprenssion...and the type of headphones. I noticed differences
I could hear it change on my iPhone speakers. Def there. Sounds more alive. Almost like the stock pickup had a hangover.
The difference is so slight that I think your playing is making the most difference.
There's a difference but in the splitting hairs range. Nothing that couldn't be achieved with EQ. However, it's non-destructive so give it a go and hear for yourself or compare with a frequency spectrum analyser.
The whole point is that Strat's bridge pickups are notoriously shrills and often bass lacking. Having the tone control wired to it and backed off doesn't give the same amount of beefiness in the low end.
In my experience, after almost 4 decades playing, this pickup craziness lead somewhere only in a context when we play something between clean or mild - overdriven style of music. I played with guitarists who talked too much about such topics, spent hundreds dollars in boutique pickups blah blah blah, and then they plugged their guitars to a chinese multieffect pedalboard and from there to a high gain Marshall, together with a drummer with a 35 piece set and a 5 string bassist. In the context, you can't ever say the difference between a '57 Gibson Les Paul and a Harley Benton 200 dollars worth.
i agree. but plug into a two rock and the difference is awesome.
Well said, if someone is a guitar geek then they will hear their mods maybe in a studio or recording situ ? but will anyone in a two thousand seater venue or a twenty thousand crowd at a festival notice, probably not. I do love watching these mod videos for the education but surely a tweak to the tone pot or an EQ pedal could achieve similar improvements. Ultimately just write some decent tunes and you will stand out ! ( not the pickup )
Harley Bentons are good tho
@@lushbeard YES! I have a Harley Benton SG and it´s one of my easiest playing guitar! Amazing low action, comfortable and a pretty creamy sound. The original tuning machines were crap. I replaced them with Wilkinsons and said goodbye to intonation problems!
I'm very much a humbucker guy, but sometimes you just want to beef up the single coil bridge of a strat. This is a good video.
I am listening through a good set of Senheiser headphones and I detect about zero difference between the stock and modded pickup. Much simpler to just use the tone nobs on the guitar and amp to alter the sound. Using a EQ pedal or online digital one is great also.
Clean boost pedal would be my suggestion as it'll fatten up every guitar, especially around the mids. Catalinbread SCP uses a good known circuit, MOSFET based.
All this work you can just use an eq pedal
Tried it on both pickups on a Harley Benton TE 70. Made a big difference. Better, sweeter, fuller tone. Decided to keep pickups for now. Great mod.
Thanks, I'm glad you could hear the difference, I'm surprised how many watching this video cannot tell, cheers!
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar I initially used 6 rods on the neck but the tone was too dark for me. Then used 3 rods for each pickup. The stock bridge pickup was thin, shrill and a bit weak. It affected the middle position so much that I mainly used the neck. After the mod everything improved so much that I can now enjoy the middle setting as well. The bridge pickup still has the T style twang but sounds so much better. I am quite surprised how much the tone has improved, and they definitely have increased in output - a welcome improvement especially for the bridge. I am going to try this on my other guitars. Love the mod - appreciate your work. Cheers.
I just love practical experiments on important subjects.
Listening on my Neumann monitors, which bottoms out at around 35 Hz,
I really couldn’t hear the bass-lift you were talking about.
So I analysed the audio in Fabfilter Pro Q 3.
You were right, there was a slight lift, about 1 dB @ 180 Hz,
maybe what you heard in the room didn’t translate to YT.
The big difference, though, was in the upper register,
responsible for the added clarity I experienced.
A peak @ 1,1 kHz was shifted up to 2.2 kHz, one @ 3,1 to 4.8
and one @ 7,8 to 11 kHz!
So it’s like the upper frequency response has been shifted upward
in an slightly exponential curve.
Whether you could achieve the same result with a proper EQ remains to be tested.
But it’s always better to fix “problems” at the source. Isn’t it?
Besides, I love DIY.
Will definitely try this on my battered Strat.
Please do more fun stuff 🎶
Misunderstanding. Such a mod does NOT lift the bass frequencies, but attenuates the high frequencies. This indirectly shifts the tonal balance more to the low frequencies, but the absolute level of the low frequencies does NOT change.
@@Andreas_Straub Misunderstanding?
What’s interesting to me in this experiment is the shift in tonal balance.
That is what we as listeners perceive.
Absolute level values has no real world impact as long as
they don’t affect the signal to noise ratio or causes distortion.
I have a volume knob and I know how to use it.
✌✌
I actually have bits of steel plate that I could make custom ones out of. Thank you for the great idea.🎉
Fender basically did this. When the American Standard Strat was first introduced, all three pickups were identical (midd was RW/RP) but by the mid-90's, they introduced the Delta Tone system which included a no-load tone control (vs. TBX) and a slightly hotter bridge pickup that featured two large screws on the bottom for increased inductance.
Thanks! Just one very small detail - removing the scratch plate on some Strats involves removing the neck which is the most a*rsehole thing that ever had to be done just to mess around with it. So I stick to my Les Paul and my es335 and my Strat is basically mothballed.
What the Hey? I obtained the Green Gizmo and now yer using nails? So much innovation you come up with! Can't wait for the Nail Gizmo!!!!!!!
Bro, so insane that you posted this. Literally like 3 days ago I was working on my strat and a tool went rogue and gouged my bridge pickup and broke the very thin coil wire 😧. On a 20 year old set of my favorite pickups! I was mortified, but after a few moments of thought decided that I could unwind the wire one wrap in either direction, twist it and solder it back together. So I did that, and by the grace of god it worked. BUT I couldn't avoid leaving a glob of solder stuck to the coil in the process. See where I'm going with this? That glob of solder seems to be doing the same thing you're talking about because I now have the SINGLE BEST SOUNDING STRAT BRIDGE PICKUP OF ALL TIME haha. The difference is subtle (and very lucky) but I noticed right away. And I already thought it was a great sounding bridge pickup, but somehow it sounds distinctly and unmistakably better. It took just a bit of edge off the highs, and gave it an overall warmer more balanced tone. So needless to say I've been trying to sort this out in my mind all week. Then here you come to tie a bow on it! Folks, whether you mean to do it or even if you're just an idiot like me who stumbles upon this by accident, it is real and does work and has huge potential for improving and shaping your tone. Even from your favorite pickups that you already thought were perfect. Next level stuff dude. Keep exploring and sharing. Thanks!
I moved my pickups up on a couple of guitars and it totally changed the voicing and VOLUME. Loving them now. Had aVintera 2 70's and the pickups soumded good but just weak compared to my other guitars.
Now THAT'S the way you do a comparison; play something simple and repititious, and toggle back and forth. It's difficult enough sometimes to hear the difference between two things, especially when it's a subtle difference, without adding another variable by playing different things when demonstrating them.
I wish the pickup manufacturers would post the inductance in their specs. It's a more useful measure to get an idea of how it's going to sound than the DCR, which is just the wind. I can swap a magnet out of a humbucker and change the tone considerably, but the DCR is going to remain the same.
I've been doing this with steel plates for twenty years, definitely ground them. Different plates and steel types will have slightly different voices.
Those are tone nails
i am honest. i can hear a sublte increase of bass and little hrsness tamed, but attach a tone pot to bridge pickup on a strat makes wonders to me. i was an humbucker guy, but i hated always clean sounds. now i'm using single coils also for metal.
I thought you were bluffing. That's actually insane. I'm calling bullshit on the 'in the room' sound though, there's plenty of youtube videos done to disprove that.
I did this mod to my headless guitar with common steel nails and conductive copper tape. It made a massive difference and basically saved a neck pickup that is now in a bridge position.
And that bridge pickup? Well you saved that too by inspiring me to put a cap in parallel with it and now it's the neck pickup.
You my sir, are fucking awesome!
Guitar players are so nuts. Me too btw. I showed this to other family members who don’t play and none of them could hear the difference. I could. I think this is one of those things you feel when playing more than “hear”.
To be fair, for a lot of non musicians, it would be hard to tell a real guitar from a Midi counterpart, so there's that.
The difference is very slight and in the mid frequency band rather than bass. Once there is more gain added the difference will probably become even less discernable.
But if guitarists weren't able to obsess and argue about pickups for hours in the comments they might have to practice instead and that would never do!
@@BoojayDeeth yeah, that small difference is easily achievable with a small adjustments to the tonestack
@@joseislanio8910what is the "tonestack"?
@@DaveyMulholland the eq controls on the amp
Listening on my Neumann KH310's in my studio:
Heard a minor bump in the lower rhythm chunk, but a LOT more low mids when chords are ringing out & the middle/higher strings are being plucked. It's certainly not as much as I was expecting, but it really shows how a minor tweak in the pickup construction can have very audible shifts.
Thanks for checking it out :)
good idea! whats it like with loads of gain? i imagine better .im gonna give it a shot anyway
Love your little experiments.
Wow Ty - love your channel
You nailed it.
Could turn the bass up on the amplifier as well
sounds good both ways in my opinion. what you gain in meatiness with this mod seems like is taking away from the articulation on mid-highs. I want to try this out on my pbass. very neat. thanks
Increasing the inductance by any means reduces the resonance peak frequency - meaning the higher frequencies are reduced, indirectly meaning that the lower frequencies become more dominant.
You can reach the same effect by adding capacitance parallel to the pickup. Sometimes this happens unintendedly by using a high length and capacity cable, but there are also switches available to select several capacitors to the signal output (like a Neutrik "timbre" plug or any home built solution.
I have already done this to mine. Same result- I would describe it as more 'piano' like. I prefer the sound of it- seems more focussed.
love that guitar, looks like olive wood
This is why Jaguar pickups have the “claw” plate surrounding them. I love their sound vs most other single coils. Really cool mod tho!
lace sensors also have some type of claw with different types of "teeth" to further shape the magnetic field
I have a Squier Jaguar where the neck pickup is 3x louder than the bridge PU, even lowered all the way. Both pickups have the claw and are stock (to my knowledge) so I'm hoping this hack will help even out the output between the two...
@@AppleOnoi think defective electronics or pickup, get that guitar checked
Bad "information". It was an attempt to increase noise shielding after complaints from players about the wide flat bobbin Jazzmaster pickups which can be noisy due to the larger surface area - Leo listened and tried to remedy it when designing the Jag.
The tonal difference in Jags with or without the claws is minimal, I've tried it with the same set of pickups before. If anything, it can make microphonic pickups more likely to feed back therefore they can encourage/add noise.
However, almost every Jag I've played with vintage spec pickups sounds weedy so I'd recommend swapping for hotter pickups and/or using a clean boost, plus swapping the 1M tone pots in the lead circuit for 500K or 250K.
Any of these upgrades will make more tonal difference than sticking nails on the bottom of a pickup. Take it from someone who's been playing Jags for about two decades now.
The physics of a pickup are really complicated and intertwined. Resistance , inductance and capacitance are all in playing the coil itself alone Extra iron increases the inductance but also the eddy currents, which both influence the higher frequencies. You can partly calculate what a mod will do, but listening is the best check.
Nice mod, I like the sound!
Love your work Waylon! Allways great watching, thank you for sharing your knowledge 👍
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Man, I can't thank you enough for sharing this. I just built an epoxy resin guitar with single coil setup and found the bridge a bit thin. This will be great when I do the mod!
Glad I could help :)
I've been building guitars for a few years so I'm super curious... What's it look like?
@@MainPrismwell, I've been waiting for the guy who does the polishing and finishing of the epoxy resin for the last two months, when his majesty has time to finish it, both you and I will know :) but I promise you, it's gonna be great
@@zeknoss Ah I got ya. That's unfortunate! Hopefully he'll get it done for ya real quick like!!!
@@MainPrism I hope so too, thank you!
What Body Wood is that? It looks very nice.
It has a sort of tilt/bandaxall effect. Sounds good though.
I have plates on a 89 Squire Korean model. It's so unique. Also, try this, collect tape inside the pickup covers. Only open spot will be the bottom of the pickups. Just inside the cover. It sounds so twangy like a Telecaster. This only has been done on a Squire mini. Around 2k I loves it
The pickup you made is excellent , it does'nt need a plate. I have a les paul special and it has a metal plate screwed into the bodywood under each pickup, I think it's to give the height adjust screws an anchor point, I noticed the dogear versions don't use a plate cos the pickup is fixed. The Les paul soapbars on that special sound warm and bitey but not brittle. Your vid has inspired me to cut 2 plates out of Zinc and stick them under the dogear p90s on a semihollow before I stick mini humbuckers in. Thanks. I have tried very very low value capacitors to warm and round off a brittle pick, it takes a lot of experimenting but it works too.
One of the things that gives classic "gold foil" pickups their sound is the use of a mild steel baseplate. If you look at pics of some of them, they can *seem* like they have two coils, with adjustable screws in one of those coils. But look a little more intently, and you'll realize there is clearly NOT enough space to accommodate a second coil. Those screws go into the raised end of that "L-shaped" mild steel baseplate. It not only redirects the magnetic field, but increases the inductance of the coil/magnet structure sitting right on top of it. I will also note that a great many older Japanese single coil pickups in the budget import guitars from the '60s are also sitting atop a mild steel baseplate.
Hi. What do you mean by "mild"?
@@MrNamePerson You've almost certainly seen many items made from mild steel
Mild steel is the term for a very common steel alloy made from iron and small amounts of carbon. If one compares mild steel to stainless steel, the main difference is stainless steel is an alloy of iron and chromium, which makes stainless steel much harder. Mild steel is not as resistant to corrosion, so it rusts more readily than stainless steel.
On top? I think you need it on the bottom, so redirects the magnetic field into the core. It's the core that changes the inductance. The fixed magnetic field simply magnetizes the string, and as long as there is a sufficient field to magnetize the string then that's it.
Nice demo.
One thing that's overlooked by many commenters: If the changes feel better to the player, then they'll be more relaxed about sound. This relates to the whole signal chain. If I'm happy with an instrument's response and feel, I'll play differently.
Sounds a tad more beefier. Back in high school, we used to chuck magnets of all types on the back of pos pickups in the cheap electric guitars they had in the Music room..lol. They made a huge difference in volume.😁👍
Definite difference, I like it. Going to try it out on bridge pickup for bass!
Cool idea!
I actually had done this experiment using a cheap metal base plate from online store (China). There were slight increase in the pickup reading when I put the plate. But after I ground it (not via the pickup black wire but with its own ground cable) the reading suddenly increase from 11k to 19k. And during sound test, the strat doesn't sound like a strat, but with a thick sound you would thought that it is a humbucker pickup. I don't know maybe I wired it wrong or maybe just a fluke. But all I can say, it does make a huge different adding a base plate on your single coil pickup
Thanks for that, another interesting video. Also answers a bit of a mystery. I have this POS old Japanese strat (EKS) with a set of pickups that sound way better than they have a right to. All the pups have galv metal plates underneath them. So, there you go.
I remember a Suzuki strat that sounded better than me American plus. Maybe this is why
Hi, this video Is so interesting!
I am italian and unfortunately can't understand everithing. The Most hard party Is measuring. I have a simple multimeter and I don't know if I should upgrade. Witch budget One value for the Money would You kindly suggest me? Thanks a lot in advance!!
Hey! Thanks for the tip. I hear it. Where did you find these plates?
Interesting and it sounds like it makes a difference. Would this work on a stacked coil PUp like a Dimarzio area or Duncan?
Thanks, yes it would, cheers!
I remember the first "strat" styled guitar I had that was a cheap knockoff called a "Ranger". It wasn't too bad for a learning on, but never really sound good on most amps. The pickups that were in there had ceramic magnets and also had these plates underneath. And yes, the pickups did have a better low end response, almost like a humbucker to some extent.
In terms of learning to play guitar and learning about guitars, this Ranger was invaluable. I played around with trying different switch combinations, modifying the pickups, guitar setups. All great fun at the time.
I heard a substantial increase in bass. But you have to use quality “closed” headphones to really hear the difference. Earbuds don’t cut it.
I remember doing this to a p bass pickup when I was young & skint. just banged some extra bar magnets on the underside. later I bought a quarter-pounder & it was remarkably similar.
amazing. I bought a baseplate for strat bridge pickup of Montys Guitars...imported it from UK. Output and mid frequencies changed definitely and it sounds a little more T-style now. Maybe I'll try the nails too.
i luv it. inductor core permeability does make a change in LCR circuits
Wonder what would happen if you added a magnet plate
The fatter bridge pickup sound some Strat players are looking for is found in the middle pickup, which has a tone control. By employing the tone control and experimenting with where to pick a player can coax a lot of tones out of this pickup.
The bridge pickup is great as is. It's a great country sound and, due to it's lack of tone pot, always has the quack in position 2.
(Me) Excellent! I’m doing this.
(My guitar) Guess I’m going back on the bench…
Loving these! I really prefer to make the best of what I've got, and these mod options are a great way to squeeze more out of the pickups that are already installed!
Couldn't agree more! I've used his mods on $70 pickups and $200 pickups and both benefitted. Everyone really does owe it to themselves to try these tips before wasting money on new stuff they might not need.
BONZER, mate!
Interesting. I'd like to see the same experiment conducted with a full sized ceramic pickup magnet replacing the iron bar or nail(s). Magnetic polarity of the flat ceramic strap would have to jive with all the separate cylindrical pole magnets or there would be trouble. Stick not repell. Pickup to string spacing, aka pickup height would become another 'floating point'. The finish on your guitar's body is sweet.
It tames the brittle top end, I'm going to try it.
Building a distortion pedal. The first goal and celebration will be when power is applied and blue smoke does not come out of the pedal. 🤣✌️🤣
My guitar is sounding great but my shelf fell down. 10/10
Have you played with adding a piece of chisel? An old one laying around the shop that sux
I think that would work great, cheers!
Great video, subcribed! What meter read the inductance? Can see its a Digitech.
Is this the reason for Teles having a plate under the bridge pickup?
I wondered about that too, but normally the Tele base plates are made of brass that is not magnetic.
@@qddk9545 neither is copper though. I'm not sure if it matters or not.
@qddk9545, you may find that they're plated steel, protection against corrosion
Tele base plates are copper coated steel.
The original Stratocaster design un the 50s shows a plate for every pickup, it was part of the design but I suppose they went missing or Leo forgot to get them stuck on?
Definitely going to mid the bridge pickup on my Jackson. Thank you for such a simple , yet incredibly effective pickup mod.
A while ago, I bought a bunch of capacitors due to your video about changing the sound of my pickups changing the actual pickup. I was incredibly disappointed with the results. It sounded like I had put a blanket over the pick up. I went back to the drawing board and ended up picking up some different value potentiometers that did the trick! I didn’t lose too much high, what I gained was a fatter mid sound. On the upside of anybody wants some cheap capacitors…🤔
I didn't listen with headphones on purpose: If the difference is so little as not to be heard on mid-range equipment, it's probably not worth it (and it wasn't). But still a big thumbs-up for your endeavours!
Lindy Fralin has had a bass plate option since the 90s. Always put them on my bridge pickups.
While I was browsing comments I noticed that it has a slight increase in resonance, I'll probably experiment with it myself to know how it sounds by ear. Although, I think that tossing in a 500k potentiometer might improve the sound a little better. I put a 1-meg pot in my Squier Strat and it's voiced a completely different way, all three pickups brightened up and the bridge pickup has more bite to it.
How about extra dummy iron pole pieces between the actual magnetic ones? I bet that the inductance will change more if you insert the iron inside the coil. This probably only works when building a pickup though. Drilling holes on a pickup that's already wound will probably just kill it because you only need one cut to the coil for it to die.
Yes, induction plates do nothing spectacular. I use steel screws between alnico magnets. You can lower eg. 4.5kHz@470pF f res (underwound strat sound) to 3.9kHz (slightly overwound) this method. Useful in diy ceramic to alnico convert like old mex standard wound to 7kohm with 43 AWG.
The very first variations I could tell the difference between the two.
And I preferred the modified pickup.
However after that there was not much change warranting all that work.
Best way to get a better sound out of a strat bridge pickup is too put a himbucker in it.
Haha! That's what I normally end up doing :)
@@WaylonMcPhersonGuitar great video by the way my friend and def going to try this at some point.
Sounds like it boosts the frequencies that are not the resonant peak?
I prefer the tone without the nails. What those nails add is something you’d shelf in a mix. If baseplate was universally an improvement all modern pickups would have one and most old guitars would be modded to have one also. Maybe there are cases where this would fix a problem, but there are maybe more scenarios where dimarzio fs-1 would be better option.
I am putting a SD 1/4 pounder in the bridge of the strat....so that should help....I am not convinced that this would help your guitar standout in a mix...maybe in the bedroom
Someone recently gave me a brace of Strataliker planks.... 3 were plywood composite bodies, one was solid - poplar/ash/alder (?). Necks were screw-on - two with truss-rod cappings (skunk stripes) average intrinsic value each, around £60.... The pickups on these guitars more or less reflected that value, one guitar even had a classic 'faux' humbucker in the bridge... Two guitars had an HSS configuration (one with the faux-bucker...). One had a DiMarzion X2N clone in the bridge (double fat rail) - these pickups sounded pretty damn good to my experienced ears... For cheapy pickups, exceptionally good... On removing the scratch plate - to determine the state of the wiring - I was surprised to find that the single coil pickups had steel back-plates... This extra ferrous layer effectively gave these single coils voicing that would normally be expected from a branded pickup.
People fail to realise how important the relationship between inductance, capacitance, gauss and DC resistance and how that shapes the voicing of a pickup.
Nice, simple mod. Easy enough to test to see if it improves the tone on your own guitar. Long ago, I did some tests like this on my Strat. It's nice to have an explanation of what's going on when adding the nails/metal to the bottom.
Do you have any videos about how to make a "Dummy Coil" and what the resistance should be in relation to the Single Coil Pickup it would be connected to? I have a bunch of old Single Coil Pickups that have a good tone, but they are too noisy due to 60 Cycle hum and interference. My idea is to include Dummy Pickups along with the Bridge and Neck Pickup in a loaded Pickguard I can easily swap in and out of my Strat using a Quick Connect at the Jack. Thanks
Single coil hum is so 20th century.
@@chrispile3878 All the most valuable electric guitars are from the 20th century 😂 is it a parody of Zoomer type comments you were aiming for or were you being straight with that?
@@garydiamondguitarist Value has nothing to do with it.
Crazy indeed...
Recently install this idea for single coil pickup. I'm using laser cut of 1mm iron plate, the result is out standing mid frequency is totally sweet and cut high frequency until microphonic feedback issue come unnaturally. Saddly I don't know what to do and uninstall the plate.
But lower impedance leads to a lower output too. I had a Van Zandt pickup on a Tele (bridge position) which sounded good, but the impedance is so low that the difference between pickups was ENORMOUS so I decided to change it.
that is INSANE maybe different metals get more out of this
Key is to find a magnetic steel plate min 1/8th inch thick, thinner and it just doesn't work. I have cut steel from a $1 home electrical octagon box (hacksaw and files to clean up). If it's slightly larger than the pickup bobbin footprint that is ok. The steel acts like a mirror to reflect flux lines that normally go out the back of the guitar at the strings, giving higher voltage output.
like Lindy Fralin bridge pups
Maybe when listening directly, but sound via RUclips? Not to hear, no diference. Willing to try it next time putting a plate under thé bridge pickup
I'll have to try that on my FSR Std Ash Tele (MIM) and wonder about my Strats - one has Fralin Split Blades - the other has EMG SV (active). So my question is would the "plate" work on the EMGs? Now I'm thinking what about my Filter Trons and P bass pickup? Very cool.
I doubt if it would benefit active pickups. It might change them, but it will probably do more harm than good. An active pickup should not be lacking in output. That is the main reason for adding the power. If it is lacking, try a fresh battery or adjust the pickup height. I would try those things first anyway if I were you.
@@TheRealcdawg22 I didn't think it would work on active pickups, but didn't realize it could "do harm". Thanks Fresh batteries are normal routine for me. I've had these EMG pups since '95 and appreciate the lack of hum.
@@michaelparson-mcnamara782 I'm not trying to pretend that I am mister know-it-all or anything. Of course, you have the freedom to do whatever you want or seek out the opinion of someone wiser than I. I would not mess with it in that manner if it were mine. Cheers.
@@TheRealcdawg22 I know about that! I've been playing and modding guitars since '63, but you can't learn it all! I do seem to have a penchant for both learning and experimenting, but all my experience with pickups has been replacing them with "let's try this one". BUT there are so many available these days, that you can't even know about all of them!
Does the TYPE of metal half an effect? Does grounding it affect the tone?
Different types of metals have different inductance. Most baseplate are brass or nickel silver.
I would say baseplates have to be steel or magnetic material. The more magnetic, the more the field is brought into the core, increasing inductance. I think non-magnetic materials increase capacitance through eddy currents. This is why you don't want copper covers on your humbuckers but neutral nickel-silver.
I think I prefer the stock pickup sound.
Very interesting! Is this why some humbucker players remove the covers?
No. Totally different deal.
I don't know about "night & day difference", but there is some change there. I do prefer the chunkier tone with the mod, though it does apply some scoop to the EQ, so I would decide if I want a tad less mids before I mod it. Personally, I'd do it.
Interesting...thank you, Sir! Much fuller with brightness modified with more sustain.
Stoked you like it, cheers!
Simple mod, but if you play at any kind of volume with gain make sure whatever you put on there is very firmly affixed (sticking it to the magnets will not do) and not able to vibrate or there's a very good chance it'll squeal like crazy.
If the plate cover all the poles it might even out the signal, what if the only connect the 3 high or low poles? Split metal plates
I could only hear a decipherable difference during the clean sustainable chords section, it seemed to have a more overall warmer sound but not muddy. I am listening only on my phone so thats my .02 cents.
Cool experiments like this are not meant to be a definitive conclusion but more about personal tonal exploration and expression. ❤
Having experimented w magnetic fields, it seems to me we're hearing a magnetic field change more so than the L change. As was mentioned the base plate on a Tele does that too. Did you try w non ferro magnetic metals like Copper, Silver, Brass, Bronze or Aluminum ? I put Mercury dimes under the magnets of a Strat p up, and to my surprise it added a slight quality like you'd hear from a Silver bell.
Imagine using some (common, don't worry about ruining history) copper coins from the Roman empire, and saying the secret to your sound is over 1500 years old. 🤣
I wonder how a strip of copper shield foil, or even aluminum tape would alter the pickup vs the nails? Perhaps even painting the back of the pickup with conductive paint. Another interesting video would be to measure the effects of pickup cavity shielding (paint, foil, brass, etc) on the inductance of a pickup.
I think magnetic materials on the bottom is better. This will draw the magnetic force through he core, increasing the inductance. I think non-magnetic metals will weaken the magnetic fields. Copper repels magnetic fields.
What happens if you put a bar magnet on the bottom of the Strat pickup? The modification in the video gives the pickup a "chicken pickin" sound from Nashville to my ears. Sounds brighter and clearer than stock.
The cheap Strat pickups use the bar magnet.
Be careful with that, it is possible that you demagnetize the original magnets, and ruin the PU´s. You can get them magnetized though.
@@qddk9545 Thanks, just wondering.
A P90 has a bar magnet and steel pole pieces. It sounds like a humbucker which also uses a bar magnet. Many people are experimenting with small neodymium button magnets and putting them underneath their pickups.
I have tried that and was surprised. Placing a ceramic bar magnet underneath alnico poles significantly rises resonance frequency of a pickup.
BTW to lower f res effectively, steel should be placed between magnets not underneath.
how do you install a ground wire? do you just run a wire fro that to somewhere else
Yes, just solder it to the pickup plate then to any ground point, like the back of a pot, cheers!
Like a Tele bridge plate....,just try over-winding the pickup as long as you have the equipment....
Amazing that a 70 year old instrument design has so many little secrets. I'll share one of my own: The dampening from the pickup's magnetic field (basically how much the magnet is pulling the string toward it) will influence the other pickups. And sometimes it can do some very, very surprising things.
Magnetic string pull is a fallacy.
@@vorpalblades That's kinda how pickups work. The strings sit in a magnetic field and produce signal when they disturb it. But I'm saying that you can cause resonance changes to the strings themselves, especially in strat.
Do you have any evidence of this? The magnetic field around a pickup is very weak compared to the amount of tension the string is under. If you play a piece of metal near a pickup it moves with the slightest of pressure.
I might add that if you place the string too close to the magnet it will start 'chourus-ing'. But that effect goes away after a millimeter or two. That is not the same thing as saying that the magnetic field will pull on the string and cause it to lose sustain.
You should use a looper, as it's impossible to play exactly the same way 100% of the time. Additionally, using a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) can help you visualize the tone. Relying solely on detecting it through RUclips is difficult.