ShortScale.org

4th post combo!

It does seem a bit odd that Seymour Duncan or someone hasn't started it right enough. But then it might not really make business sense. If you can rake in loads of money without CuNiFe, why spend loads producing it?

BacchusPaul wrote:It does seem a bit odd that Seymour Duncan or someone hasn't started it right enough. But then it might not really make business sense. If you can rake in loads of money without CuNiFe, why spend loads producing it?

i would say give it time, but yeah, i think companies like SD are creatures of habit and are big enough now to be quite risk averse.

take their super dooper deluxe ott model, the "zephyr" - all the parts are already mass produced, the only difference being they are a little left field: silver wire, and stainless steele/nickel pole pieces they had to cut to shape (probably a VERY easy material to work with at a mass produced level cos it's strong). all they had to do was stick it in a cryogenic freezer and BOOM, they could slap a huge price tag on it for not much risk. some mugs probably even bought them.

cunife is a) not currently in mass production, and b) allegedly quite a weak metal, which could be a pain to mass produce on the scale that SD would want it. therefore to tenure out to a producer and deal with breakage would potentially cost a lot of money, and that's probably why it ends there - i have no doubt it was brought up in the boardroom and was then canned for the aforementioned reasons. having said that, mass produced cunife pickups could be a real golden goose for a company willing to take the risk.

George wrote:these don't have a bar magnet so it is safe to assume the pole pieces are magnetic

How do you know there is no bar magnet in there?

cos i looked at them

wait, if they actually are wrhb regular sized humbuckers im lmao right now

George wrote:cos i looked at them

The bar magnet could be concealed on the inside just like the Fender reissue WRHB. Do you have a superpower?

George wrote: i would say give it time, but yeah, i think companies like SD are creatures of habit and are big enough now to be quite risk averse.

take their super dooper deluxe ott model, the "zephyr" - all the parts are already mass produced, the only difference being they are a little left field: silver wire, and stainless steele/nickel pole pieces they had to cut to shape (probably a VERY easy material to work with at a mass produced level cos it's strong). all they had to do was stick it in a cryogenic freezer and BOOM, they could slap a huge price tag on it for not much risk. some mugs probably even bought them.

cunife is a) not currently in mass production, and b) allegedly quite a weak metal, which could be a pain to mass produce on the scale that SD would want it. therefore to tenure out to a producer and deal with breakage would potentially cost a lot of money, and that's probably why it ends there - i have no doubt it was brought up in the boardroom and was then canned for the aforementioned reasons. having said that, mass produced cunife pickups could be a real golden goose for a company willing to take the risk.

The market for WRHB pickups would likely be smaller than something specialised like Jaguar or Rickenbacker pickups. I can't see a major company trying to do anything to snare that market.

George wrote:

BacchusPaul wrote:It does seem a bit odd that Seymour Duncan or someone hasn't started it right enough. But then it might not really make business sense. If you can rake in loads of money without CuNiFe, why spend loads producing it?

i would say give it time, but yeah, i think companies like SD are creatures of habit and are big enough now to be quite risk averse.

take their super dooper deluxe ott model, the "zephyr" - all the parts are already mass produced, the only difference being they are a little left field: silver wire, and stainless steele/nickel pole pieces they had to cut to shape (probably a VERY easy material to work with at a mass produced level cos it's strong). all they had to do was stick it in a cryogenic freezer and BOOM, they could slap a huge price tag on it for not much risk. some mugs probably even bought them.

cunife is a) not currently in mass production, and b) allegedly quite a weak metal, which could be a pain to mass produce on the scale that SD would want it. therefore to tenure out to a producer and deal with breakage would potentially cost a lot of money, and that's probably why it ends there - i have no doubt it was brought up in the boardroom and was then canned for the aforementioned reasons. having said that, mass produced cunife pickups could be a real golden goose for a company willing to take the risk.

Cunife isn't needed, it's just used because it can be machined. Curtis novak wrote a whole article on it, he uses alnico and his wrhb's still sound great, I think it's just a small market item that a lot of boutique builders already working on it. Considering the only option 5 years ago was $400 per price vintage units, we are in a much better place now.

Article:
http://curtisnovak.com/Articles/GB98.pdf

paul_ wrote:"So me and a buddy were up to smeltin' one day and got to talking about Fender's old wide-range humbuckers from the '70s... you know that sound... that Keith Richardsy, intro-to-Radioheady, Kula Shakin' common element that other pickups just plain don't have due to their ordinary douche-approved ceramic and alnico magnets. Our new Q-Knife Wideridges are constructed exactly like the originals..."

I'M DYING