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Assuming we have come a long way in pickup development over the past 40 years, if you were to only have ONE pickup in a guitar, what would it be? I have a later 70s Musicmaster with ONE single coil rout. I have a period correct pup, but I also have a Lil 59 HB. One of those, or door number 3?

Who has some favorites? I found one on ebay that is actually for sale locally. I don't know if he would stop the auction or not. It's a Burns TriSonic pickup by Kent Armstrong. This is the sales pitch. It sounds like a real FUCKER.

Original Tri-Sonics were favored by Brian May and Hank Marvin of the Shadows. Enclosed in a chrome cover, true to the original vintage design, the Armstrong 'Tri-Sonic' is a wonderfully unique sounding pickup that's easy on the eyes. The power and punch of a ceramic magnet is used to produce a sweet, full-sounding tone, characterized by tight lows, light mids, and airy highs. Somewhere between the quack of a single coil and the growl of a P-90

Or here is a Bill Lawrence tall strat looking thing:

The L-280 is for players that love the beautiful rich sound of a traditional single coil pickup without the tormenting 60 cycle hum -- but that's not all. What seems to be a tame, sweet pussycat at lower volume levels turns into a wild beast when you turn up your amp! Remember, high-volume players, like Jimi Hendrix and Roy Buchanan, did not use so-called "power pickups." The L-280's low magnetic attraction allows your guitar its full, natural sustain --even if you adjust them very close to the strings -- to enjoy their maximum performance! They easily compete in tone and in output with the finest single coil pickups ever.

Fernandes Sustainer.

I wonder if a Twang would fit in a that little hole. The sustainer sounds compelling but I am anti batteries. I'll look into both.

DGNR8 wrote:I wonder if a Twang would fit in a that little hole.

THEY ALL WONDER.

Rickenbacker Hi-Gain.

bill laurence are famous

i gave idea add Seymour Duncans Lipsticks for strato

try winding your own, like hurb did.
i think he said he used a record player and a timer to get the number of wrappings.
i vote for trying to wind your own!!!

I think you've been rolling yer own.

Someday I might try winding. But I am too overwhelmed wifs projects right now.

of course i roll my own,
its either glass or smoke clears.
no glue, no metal, no plastic, no paper.
wait, were you talking about stoges?
or choking a smoke?

DGNR8 wrote:if you were to only have ONE pickup in a guitar, what would it be? I have a later 70s Musicmaster with ONE single coil rout.

Of course, choosing one pickup for "a" guitar is diff. from chosing one single-coil-sized pickup for a Musicmaster. My MMs have tons of "pop" in the pick attack (the sustain's there, but it's somewhat overwhelmed by the loud attack), and a pickup with strong magnets will emphasize this even more. While the pickup placement gives a good balance between highs and lows, MMs are not overly bright-sounding, and an "overwound" pickup will remove even more top end from your tone. So beefy magnets and lots of windings are not necessarily better.

If your MM was my MM.... My top three choices would be:

-- Hand-wound Strat/Mustang/Duo pickup, wound to about 5.5K, flat polepieces (not staggered). That'll provide all the high end needed, and any extra I'd just roll off slightly with the tone knob. Maybe experiment with tone cap values too. This is basically my '66 MM setup (stock pickup 5.4K), and it works well for all sorts of music -- the art of tone knob tweakage is crucial.

-- Steel-poled Strat pickup like this or this. Maybe use 500K pots and experiment with the tone cap value again if more highs are needed.

-- Traditional Telecaster bridge pickup in a filed-out pickguard hole (that black stuff around the pickup ), but I'd have to either find one without the big bottom plate, modify the PU to fit the rout, or modify the rout to fit the PU. The wider coil is the thing. Again, I wouldn't bother with extra windings and stronger magnets given the choice. And I'd check the pole-piece spacing first to see if they'll line up. MM pickups are set at a different angle from Tele bridge pickups. I guess this is the Twang King approach.

Here's my '78 MM, with funky mystery Tele-Burns-ish pickup in the neck position. This is a loud, dark, poppy chunk-tar, but there are some good sounds in there. I'll probably swap to 500K pots eventually and/or a hi-bypass mod on the volume knob to get some more highs in there.

Very informative. I like the black screws. That's a real looker.