Strange idea or is it real?

[jazzboi]

Hi guys,

I've just got an idea,and I want to share it with you.
So is there a PU,that is like a 5in1 kind of thing? Let me explain. It would be a PU in a bigger housing,like the MM ones,but not with exposed pole pieces.

It would come with a five way switch,which can switch between the following characteristics,or "pole configurations":

1) normal P
2) reversed P
3) jazz neck closer
4) jazz neck farther
5) Humbucker,everything is full on (MM like)

This PU would be placed at the normal P (aka middle position) or normal MM position or both.

What is you opinion about it?
Is there anything like this?
How would this sound?

Cheers, and have a nice day!

[Stealth]

It's not a strange idea at all, I've thought of it myself a few times Your first options could be the Nordstrand MM4.4, Delano MC 4 FE/J M2 or Delano MC 4 HE/M2. Those pickups are what's commonly known as a quad-coil.

To understand a quad coil, consider having two very, very short Jazz pickups that cover two strings each. Now, put them one beside the other so it covers all the strings, then wire them so they're humbucking - you've got a split-coil pickup. Finally, put two of those just beside each other and wire those as humbucking as well. There's the quad-coil.

Here's the biggest issue, though. Most of those pickups have only four leads out - basically, you can only make combinations of the two split-coils, without being able to, say, select the neck-wise EA coil and the bridge-wise DG coil. I suspect you'd have to ask the manufacturers to leave the extra leads out for you.

After that? No problem - a five-position rotary can be wired to give you the combos you need - all of them.

[jazzboi]

wow! :O Thanks that is awesome. Maybe for my next Warmoth or so project I try to ask either Delano or Nordstrand to leave these leads out for me,hopefully they'd be kind enough to do so! And after that I can get someone to wire it the way as I want to!

[Bardley]

The Skjold Lion's Pride P5 has something similar to this pickup.
It can be standard P, Reverse P, Coils in Series, Coils in Parallel.

Here is a thread about it.

[stylonpilson]

Couple it with the ability to move the pickup, in the style of the Gibson Grabber, and the possibilities are endless!

S.P.

[riker1384]

This is all you need:


The Derek Smalls bass!

[Darkstrike]

You could use two Dimarzio Ultra Jazz pickups(split coils, with four conductors), cut two tabs off, and glue them together as one pickup, and each half would have four conductors, giving you access to all four seperate coils, add a three way switch to each half, to choose between each coil, or both on, and another to select which pickup to use, a four way slider neck/series/parallel/bridge, thats even more options than you listed.

So you'd have two J's side by side, and a four way sliding switch to choose which to use, with an extra series option.

Then each pickup would have the three way mini, to choose which coil is active, or both.

Glued to each other, with the tabs cut off, would give rougfhly the size of a MM pickup.

The useable options would be,
Neck J,
Bridge J,
P,
Reverse P,
Parallel Humbucker(Stingray),
Series Humbucker.

[mikezimmerman]

Originally Posted by Stealth

It's not a strange idea at all, I've thought of it myself a few times Your first options could be the Nordstrand MM4.4, Delano MC 4 FE/J M2 or Delano MC 4 HE/M2. Those pickups are what's commonly known as a quad-coil.

Actually, there are two different configurations that could be described as "quad coil". The pickups you mention, like the Nordstrand MM4.4, have four coils, but they're more like a pair of stacked humcancelling pickups together in a case, so each of the four coils cover all the strings. You can't do a P/reverse-P with those.

In order to do the P/reverse-P, you need something like the Bartolini version of "quad coil", which is more like two split coil humcancelling pickups together in a case. Each of the coils covers half of the strings (or 3 strings and 2 strings, in the case of a 5-string pickup).

Mike

[Stealth]

Odd. From what I recall from my own thread on Carey's forum, the MM4.4 is actually a regular, Bart-type (or Delano-type) quad coil. I'll have to check someplace.

[mikezimmerman]

Originally Posted by Stealth

Odd. From what I recall from my own thread on Carey's forum, the MM4.4 is actually a regular, Bart-type (or Delano-type) quad coil. I'll have to check someplace.

No, you're right--I just went and looked at the Nordstrand site, and I'd misinterpreted the MM4.4 coil layout based on the MM4.3 coil arrangements.

Mike

[PRUNEFACE]

Originally Posted by riker1384

This is all you need:


The Derek Smalls bass!

bbbbbeassst

[newbold]

Check out Delano's Hybrid Pickup...Not exactly what you're looking for, but I doubt a J pickup would work quite like a P pickup anyway.