doombuggy wrote:darn where can I find a vibramute that looks great!
raygun85 what model pickups do you have?
MWaldorf what the deal with the non pole pickup covers?
I tried to youtube the pickups but no one have loaded a demo yet :/
I was trying not to sound like a cheesy salesman, actually I'm one of the guys behind M-3. I find it difficult to get involved in discussions because I like to stay objective and help people without trying to sell them something every single time. If you want to buy something from us, great. If not, oh well, just enjoy talking shop. You're not allowed to shamelessly peddle your products on a lot of other forums - like the Telecaster Forum (TDPRI).
For myself, I use Dual Tones in my personal guitar. 7.5K/11.5K with Hot Circuits and Alnico V magnets. Alnico V won't give "monster tone", I still recommend ceramic for what you're doing. A single-coil at 15K, with Alnico V, is gonna get pretty muddy. The RC-100's can be wound as high as 20K (maybe even more), but you will significantly lower your resonant peak. Ceramic magnets will give you more output and, in conjunction with a 12K coil, you will be pushing your amp but still have a little bit of clarity and dynamics, you still may want a boost or overdrive pedal in front, though. Early pre-Ventures 60's Mosrite pickups were usually 9.5-11K, with the later ones wound 11-12K. Mel's pickups are also Dual Tones, with the neck, middle, and bridge at 11K, 12K, & 13K, respectively. The pickups that came with his guitar were 14K. You may want to talk to him about his opinions. The number of windings don't necessarily dictate the overall output. The type of magnets and their strength have a direct bearing on the inductance. For instance, a pickup wound to 12K with degaussed Alnico V magnets at 300G will have less output and a lower resonant peak than a pickup wound to 7.5K and Alnico V magnets at full charge - which can be as high as 800-900G, depending on the alloy composition. The magnetic materials (e.g. Alnico vs Ceramic) will have a direct bearing on the tone as well. A typical Alnico V at full charge will register between 700-900G. Ceramic 8 will register much higher, in fact, I've got my meter here at home and I just literally measured a ceramic 8 magnet laying on my desk (yes, I obsess over this stuff day and night
), it's well over 1800G. Ceramic 8 will have a more "scooped" midrange with a much wider frequency range. Some people describe the higher frequencies as sounding like an "ice pick", while others might describe it as "brilliant." I say it depends on the pickup. On a pickup with higher windings, you'll want to scoop the mids a little so it doesn't get muddy. Our pickups have been described by almost everyone as "very loud" when compared to other pickups. That is partly because we fully charge our magnets so folks can get the most of out of their pickups - crisper highs, tighter bass...etc...The stronger the magnetic field, the higher the inductance - the higher the output. An RC-100 at 12K with ceramic 8 magnets is going to give you a very high-gain sound, it'll overdrive your amp, but it'll still sound very open and clear. Whether you have us make your pickups or not, I recommend trying ceramic 8 magnets.
Another thing that we don't usually like to advertise is that when people order custom pickups from us, they can send them back and we'll wind a replacement set that get's them closer to the tone they're looking for, for free. We usually only tell folks that privately for obvious reasons. To my knowledge, we're the only pickup manufacturer that does that. But only a few folks have taken advantage of that offer because they're usually spot on.
I'm currently designing a pickup that will give you 12K single-coil output, and 12K humbucking output that you can switch between, so you can truly have the best of both worlds without the volume drop. When it comes to custom pickups, your options are almost without limit.
-matt
M-3 California
(916) 760-8560
guitars@m3california.com
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