This looks cool - polyphonic pickups

[Strategy]

My apologies if I'm starting a thread around old news but I occasionally browse the music section of Tindie and found this:
https://www.tindie.com/products/Cycfiresearch/neo-6-hex-active-polyphonic-pickup/

I imagine the routing is kind of a ribbon cable driven affair but I LOVE the idea of six separate guitar cords...from one guitar...goint into six separate pedals going to six separate amps....! (or something) 

STRATEGY

[newperson]

yes, very cool.  and open source!   i would like to see more about that winder.

http://www.cycfi.com/category/open-source/

[commathe]

I've been really interested in polyphonic pickups for a while. These are definitely incredibly promising looking. That frequency response chart!

[Mark Hammer]

Or, you could just score yourself a used GK-1 or GK-2 hex pickup.

What you want to use it for determines what constitutes a suitable divided pickup.  Part of that depends on whether you simply want more "air" from a normal guitar sound, or you need/want to isolate each string for separate processing.  The last 35 years of guitar synthesis have taught us that, unless you're going digital, isolation of strings is best done by having a very slender pickup, like a GK type, and nuzzling it up against the bridge, where the side-to-side wiggling of the strings is not enough to bleed into adjacent polepieces.

If it's just a matter of creating some air, and you don't really care about bleed-through, as long as string X is a little louder on this output than it is on that one, then those pickups have been around for a while.  Long-time readers of Guitar Player will certainly recall the back cover ads featuring Eddie Van Halen and the Kramer Ripley guitar: http://www.vintagekramer.com/ripley.htm

The pickups you link to provide a nice compact option in a single-coil form factor, taking advantage of the size advantage of neodymiums and SMD manufacturing.

[Strategy]

Mark, thanks for that, I was not familiar with the history behind these. They also sell the pickups individually - my sense is from the product web pages that there is some intention for these to be used for things other than guitar, .e.g. as pickups added to acoustic stringed instruments etc. - for experimental musical instruments. I had a friend who did stuff like this, axe handle bass guitar sorts of stuff, what to use for pickups in these contraptions, was a constant search, it seemed to be the puzzle and also the fun part. 

Strategy

[Dave W]

thanx for posting this. these are very reasonably priced and really "change the game" for me. i'll be ordering a hex unit as soon as funds permit.
the possibilities are only limited by ones imagination....