The Electra Forums

Well, I said a few weeks ago I had another addition coming. After a full strip down, cleaning, oiling the fret board, wax potted the pick-ups, and a set-up, I have to say it's a real good looker and a great player. After 30 minutes of playing and using the tremelo extensively, it was only slightly out of tune...





The pick-ups appear to be single coils staggering two magnets. They were very microphonic and had tons of squealing feedback prior to wax potting. They sound great now.

Great score and nice work on the cleanup and setup. Most of the Electra pickups need to be potted but they still sound great even when not potted if you watch the distance and power outputs. Congrats

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Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

That is a beauty! Congrats!

Those are without a doubt the strangest pickups I've ever seen (in my sheltered life). Those adjustable pole pieces aren't even part of the magnet structure from what I can see... I'm no electrical engineer, but I would think that they are more for decoration than function. Do they seem to do anything when moved?

On the other hand the finish and wood look great. Especially nice for one of these earlier offerings. Good snag man.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

The screws appear to be for decoration and do not touch the magnets under them. I don't know what the function of the coil sitting on top of two magnets does if anything. They do have a nice vintage sound cranked through a Vox however

The coil amplifies any change in the field that the magnets produce. The bigger the coil the higher the output, however the higher the output the less bandwidth (read as fidelity) the pickup has. This is the fine line that all pickup manufacturers have walked, trying to get a hot pickup that still has decent frequency response.

Rickenbacker pickups use what is generally acknowledged as the finest wire (gauge) of any pickups, the result is more windings closer to the magnets. If you've ever owned/used a Rick, then you know they are probably the brightest (trebly) pickups around, and are the reason many people describe a Rick as 'Chimey' or 'Shimmering' because they're so clean and bright. It's cool that you took the time to wax them, and again its a pretty stunning example both in finish and condition. Cheers, Mike (still not an engineer).

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

remember though, that since the screws are metal, they are going to affect/distort the magnetic field produced by the magnets, just by being in that close of proximity. it's almost like they were trying to structure the magnetic field more through the coil.

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OK, I take that back, the weirdest pickups I've seen are those Boomerang shaped ones on the 'Shrike' Univox guitars! They have a separate coils for the highest three strings and lowest three strings put together at about a 90 degree angle... hmmm, wonder how that didn't catch on?

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch