q-tuner neodymium guitar pickups thread

[darron]

I just did a search and was shocked that nobody has written any report on neodymium guitar pickups?
I'm considering buying a Q-Tuner http://www.q-tuner.com/. I guess people in the forum just don't know about them?

There are some cool samples on the site. Because it's supposed to be 10 times stronger, I've read reports that you can drive the output to pieces and the noise to tone ratio is very minimal. EG Screaming solos without hiss.

If anybody has neodymiums in thier guitar I'd love to hear about it!

- Darron

[billings]

I have no idea about the product itself, but this is the biggest pile of bull I have read in a long time:

In parallel, neural activity concerned with generating (un)pleasant sensations increases, thus bringing Q-tuner technology into association with the mechanics of emotion; this phenomenon is caused by opiate-like substances called endorphins which are released as a side-effect to forcing the brain's mathematical analysis circuitry-applied to ferred out and reassemble hierarchies of harmonic relations- to it's limits. Fascinating stuff, as to that, we will come up against cutting-edge issues in neuroscience and psychoacoustics alike. These matters are the focus of the next pages.

There is also a lot about the "virtual edge continuum" hypothesis which is sort of superfluous, and so on and so forth...

[Mark Hammer]

The idea of coils on their sides is nothing new, and people have been talking about using neodymium magnets for a while though some are a little hesitant of having that much pull in the vicinity of a light gauge string.  I'll say this for these pickups: they're pretty solidly potted, and they DO tryto be a little different.

The blurb accompanying them is a little creepy though.  Has the flavour of someone who has spent a little too much time alone.  I mean, jeez, it's magnets with wire wrapped around them, and  when you wiggle metal strings nearby it induces a voltage.  Get over it!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I suspect that one real advantage of using a stronger magnet (ignoring the ridiculous BS & blathering on the website) is that it might be possible to design a lower impedance pickup with the same output.

[Mark Hammer]

While I have misgivings about using very strong magnets in pickups, I've actually being toying with the idea or a "lateral" coil and neodymiums such as the website shows for a while.  Almost exactly 20 years ago, I picked up a late 1930's Kalamzoo archtop that is my pride and joy.  I have been wanting to install a mag pickup for a while, but unfortunately the fingerboard and strings are so close to the body as to make every single commercially available pickup impossible to install near the neck (for true jazz tone) unless I cut a hole in the top (we're talking 3/8" clearance).  I'm not going to cut a hole in a historical piece like this, and I'm not going to get the tone I want by sticking a pickup near the bridge or going for a Fishman bridge like so many music store people tell me to.  So, I bought some teeny tiny neodymium magnets from Lee Valley Tools, I have some #43 and 44 wire, and am thinking about winding something thin that lies on its side.  The neodymiums can go at the bridge end of the coupling polepieces, where they won't be quite as close to the strings and affect any sustain.

[billings]

I suspect that one real advantage of using a stronger magnet (ignoring the ridiculous BS & blathering on the website) is that it might be possible to design a lower impedance pickup with the same output.

That is one thing that the guy is trying to convey with all that continuum junk.  I have no idea why it is necessary to go into the details of how human ears infer fundamentals from higher harmonics to justify pickups with lower inductance, though.  Perhaps to justify the frequency response?

SACD compatible?

[WGTP]

I love to read stuff like that.  So how will it sound thru a Tone Bender???

Psychoacoustics, the study of the physical effects of sound on biological systems, also involves research into illusion related phenomena such as the precedence effect, scale illusion and virtual pitch.   

[darron]

I suspect that one real advantage of using a stronger magnet (ignoring the ridiculous BS & blathering on the website) is that it might be possible to design a lower impedance pickup with the same output.

they come in 17, 14 and 11 KOhm. they are supposed to have heaps of gain. the tone (from recordings on the net) does sound different to alnicos etc. either the samples use a lot of harmonics, or they just produce a more bell-like tone.


thanks for your input on these guys... i didn't read the whole psycho-effect part on the site haha.

[SolderBoy]

I came across Erno several years ago, when I bought his book from the late 80's called "Animal Magnetism".  In it he describes the construction of a couple of basses and several pickups.  A very eccentric book that's for sure.  But quite wonderful for this reason!  The front cover features a close up of one of his pickups with a huge hairy spider on it!  If nothing else, you'll be inspired by his passion for asthetic excellence.  The photos in the book are something else...

Personally I was knocked out by the sound of his pickups.  Plus I love that he has only 16 and 24 bit wav files to download instead of mp3's for sound samples of his pickups!  Shows he really cares about their sound.

Has the flavour of someone who has spent a little too much time alone.  I mean, jeez, it's magnets with wire wrapped around them, and  when you wiggle metal strings nearby it induces a voltage.  Get over it!

Way too harsh.  The world needs eccentrics like this.  His musings are not doing anyone any harm. 

95% of fuzz pedals are just a gain circuit and a pair of clipping diodes.  Mark's old archtop is just half a dozen lumps of timber glued together.  Bach's music was just a bunch of chords, scales, and rhythms.

Whether sonic properties are "Psycho-accoustic" or actually able to be measured with good science, these pickups, (and our stompboxes for that matter!) exist for the purpose of inspiring art!

[QSQCaito]

I came across Erno several years ago, when I bought his book from the late 80's called "Animal Magnetism". 

Way too harsh.  The world needs eccentrics like this.  His musings are not doing anyone any harm. 

95% of fuzz pedals are just a gain circuit and a pair of clipping diodes.  Mark's old archtop is just half a dozen lumps of timber glued together.  Bach's music was just a bunch of chords, scales, and rhythms.

Whether sonic properties are "Psycho-accoustic" or actually able to be measured with good science, these pickups, (and our stompboxes for that matter!) exist for the purpose of inspiring art!

I believe it's all relative. It's just a matter of point of view. For some may be worth 10.000$ champagne bottle, is he crazy? no if you respect his point of view.


Bye bye

DAC

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I may have been a tad harsh. When all is said & done, from a playing angle, it's better to do the right thng for the 'wrong' reason, than to do the wrong thing for the 'right' reason.
Any open experimentation with pickups or anythng else is to be encouraged & if they really do turn out to be an advance, good luck to him!