NEW Tone Upgrades from FU and Mike Learn

[Matt_B]

One can debate the tonal benefits all they want but I've of seen anything like this for direct mounting pickups. Screwing a pickup directly into the wood is not optimal if one wishes to change pickup height easily and have the pickup remain stable at any height.

I've got a few guitar projects in the pipeline right now and at least one of them will use these once they're available for single coils.

[ulijdavid]

Mike,
What thread size is in the brass mount plate? When I direct mount, I usually press #2-56 threaded inserts into the guitar body. The smaller screws means I don't have to drill out the #3 threads in the pickup. How do you mount the pickup to the "base" if you are threading the #3 pickup screws through the pickup and base? Once the screw bottoms out on the pickup it can't drive anymore into the base. I am sure they have this worked out. I am just curious how this works. Thanks.

[Learn Guitars]

This will help David. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature...eature%3Dshare.

The PMS is threaded the same as the pickup

[Shawn Lutz]

You can call it what you want. We should probably not be potting pickups either. Because they will not vibrate or have their own natural resonant frequency. With all the speculation in dis approval...take your pick up out of the guitar and just let it free float over the strings. Hell, for that matter, you do not even need the guitar.



People can believe what they want. The system is designed to give the best and most stable mounting platform on the market. No need to shit talk, just do not buy it.

It is an alternate mounting method which I like better than direct or rings and springs and certainly will like to try but I don't believe there would be any noticeable tonal improvements like there is when replacing a Floyd block with a bigger brass one. I am an engineer and would like to see the R&D testing results to prove it...otherwise if you think it improves tone and sustain then it DOES improve tone and sustain to YOU regardless if no one else can and in a nutshell that is all that matters If you feel people are talking shit Mike...throw the data out there (if it exits at all) and prove it otherwise it is a possible placebo affect. Something subjective as tone is tough for every ear to hear the same things...Ive did this with body woods, neck woods, bridges, blocks, pots, etc over the years to where I personally could hear a difference when some folks couldn't. Bottom line if snake oil makes you believe you sound better then buy snake oil be happy with your tone

[CowboyFromHell]

Well said Shawn.

[Learn Guitars]

Yes Shawn, I understand where you are coming from. Just had hoped the discussion could have had less of a childish approach. Adam is finishing up the vids for the before and afters. I will post them as soon as they are edited. I have had guys tell me they can hear the difference between types of solder. I think you will be getting "feedback" from those who have already bought and installed. In the meantime, this will help those who are not engineers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance

[Shawn Lutz]

Cool and I'm interested in hearing side by side clips regardless of how bad youtube compression screws up the real tone but at least you one can hear two different clips using the same shitty compression I've had people tell me I'm nuts when I hear improvements or difference, one guy said that whether or not whatever thing improved or not I would htink it was improvment because I spent money on the changed part and that was the sole reason I hear a difference lol. If one thinks it does, then it does to them.

[Rupe]

Regardless of the myth you're trying to preach to me, two exactly the same guitars, the only difference being the wood, shows that it does in fact effect tone. If it didn't all guitars would be made out of the same wood. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Reading for comprehension isn't one of your strengths, is it? I explained how wood types affect tone in my last post to you...it's not the same dynamic as pickup mounting. Try reading it S-L-O-W-E-R and you won't look as dumb when you reply.

[Rupe]

Adam is finishing up the vids for the before and afters. I will post them as soon as they are edited. I have had guys tell me they can hear the difference between types of solder. I think you will be getting "feedback" from those who have already bought and installed. In the meantime, this will help those who are not engineers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance

That's all I asked for earlier...show me that it works. Unlike most people with a "that makes sense to me, therefore it must be right" opinion, myself and several other players as mentioned before did some fairly comprehensive testing on this subject and found no meaningful difference. That said, it was done by direct mounting to the wood, not to a mechanism like this. I'm still skeptical but willing to test it out.

It's nothing personal Mike. I think FU has some great products, but Adam lost me when he began touting the tonal benefits of a brass spring claw...from that point on I knew I couldn't rely on his marketing bs and I'd have to try things out for myself.

[CowboyFromHell]

Looks like you're the one having a comprehension issue, not being able to get your brain to grasp a concept so simple without having to overcomplicate it first.

[bucketbrian45]

The estrogen levels run high in this board .

[CowboyFromHell]

Simply put, he has his theories and beliefs, I have mine. They differ but neither of us are willing to accept the other person's. Since we seem to have reached an impass I'm going to just let it go and end the "disagreement".

[Rupe]

Simply put, he has his theories and beliefs, I have mine. They differ but neither of us are willing to accept the other person's. Since we seem to have reached an impass I'm going to just let it go and end the "disagreement".

It's not about different "theories or beliefs"...you simply can't comprehend what I'm saying and you prove it each time you post. Once you show a basic understanding of what I'm saying, then we can move on to disagreeing if that be the case.

Just for shits and giggles, what exactly have you done (testing, experimenting, etc) to formulate your theories and beliefs? Read something somewhere?

[Cliff]

Cowboy - Rupe isn't disagreeing with you when you say that different woods affect the guitar tone. What he's saying is that pickups don't listen directly to the wood vibrations. Instead, the wood affects the relative volume of different harmonic vibrations in a string. The pickup itself can only respond to changes in its magnetic field, and these changes are caused by the vibration of the string (because it's fero-magnetic - a metal that is attracted to a magnet). So yes, indirectly wood affects tone.
What FU seem to be saying is the pickup itself can vibrate, and this can have a negative impact on tone by canceling out or reducing the volume of some frequencies. Imagine the pickup were vibrating completely in sync with a guitar string. In this case, the string wouldn't be moving relative to the pickup, so there'd be no change in magnetic field and hence no sound. You can imagine less extreme cases where the relative vibration of pickup and string would increase the volume of some frequencies and decrease othes.
Personally, I think that if a pickup is mounted on springs, it's very unlikely that it's going to be vibrating at anything like audible frequencies, so I suspect the upgrade will have little effect. But it'll be interesting to see/hear the comparison vids to be sure.

[Rupe]

Cowboy - Rupe isn't disagreeing with you when you say that different woods affect the guitar tone. What he's saying is that pickups don't listen directly to the wood vibrations. Instead, the wood affects the relative volume of different harmonic vibrations in a string. The pickup itself can only respond to changes in its magnetic field, and these changes are caused by the vibration of the string (because it's fero-magnetic - a metal that is attracted to a magnet). So yes, indirectly wood affects tone.
What FU seem to be saying is the pickup itself can vibrate, and this can have a negative impact on tone by canceling out or reducing the volume of some frequencies. Imagine the pickup were vibrating completely in sync with a guitar string. In this case, the string wouldn't be moving relative to the pickup, so there'd be no change in magnetic field and hence no sound. You can imagine less extreme cases where the relative vibration of pickup and string would increase the volume of some frequencies and decrease othes.
Personally, I think that if a pickup is mounted on springs, it's very unlikely that it's going to be vibrating at anything like audible frequencies, so I suspect the upgrade will have little effect. But it'll be interesting to see/hear the comparison vids to be sure.

Thank you