Friday, October 24, 2008

Another Click in the Wal....


About twice a year someone mentions the 8 coil Music Man pickup I make on a forum somewhere and before long I start getting Emails about my "Wal Pickup".
While this pickup does use one set humbucking coils per string much like the Wal design I don't think it's accurate to call it a copy of a Wal pickup. My pickup is essentially 8 of my Scarab single string pickups in one housing. It uses Neodymium magnets and offers an out put for each string.
Most folks aren't too interested in the things once I tell them they sell for $300 each plus shipping. The fact that they are getting 4 humbucking pickups for that price doesn't seem to register with most. They are very time consuming and tricky to make so they cost a lot.

Do they sound just like a Wal? I have no idea.

2 comments:

Jacko said...

That is wild and wacky stuff. I can only imagine the amount of work that goes into one of those.

How many windings go in each humbucker?

David Pinton said...

Hello,
I'm designing a hybrid bass for a customer. It's across between a gibson semi hollow and a Wal. I was wondering if you ever fiddled with an original Wal pickup and took notes of the specs (wire gauge, DC resistance of each bobbin, etc).
I plan to make replicas but data is hard to find.
I know from the Mimforum that you've repaired many odd design pickup, so I was hoping you could help...