PICKUP- A BIG SECRET EXPOSED!!!!

 THE SECRET OF THE ULTIMATE NECK PICKUP

I design guitars and ...no it it is not just noodling on paper trying to reinvent the Flying V with body shapes that are neither functional or makeable. If you were to make it you would have to use hand tools. If a guitar is not designed to be constructed in a modern factory then you could not afford it. I have had to learn all best practices of Industrial Design and the manufacturing processes. At the same time I needed to separate the myths from reality about the materials used to make a guitar sound and function for the most amount of players. 

One of the most important things I did was to track down the 'old timers'

who had a hands on iob in the making, research or assisting in the iconic guitars of the 50's. The guitar above is my LENARD guitar. It is quite literally based from reliable info about some guy in 1951 who thought he needed a better guitar for '52 than the one he was selling. If it reminds you of one that came out in '54 it should. Keep in mind that one had changes made by the sales dept. team that wanted both the style changed and features added because they felt the players all listened with their eyes. lol The point is that's how I learnt about PU's :-)

WHAT ABOUT THE PICKUP?

PAF

The myth is that except for the cover that the Gibson Firebird uses it is just a Mini humbucker. Wrong!

 A true mini humbucker is  really a miniature PAF that was designed to fit in the solid body Epiphone guitars when they were only made in the U.S.

A PAF style PU as you can see in the diagram has one large magnet running flat under both bobbins but the Firebird PU has a magnet on it's edge inside both bobbins.

The Firebird was made in the first place to try encourage a Fender player to buy a 

Gibson. The Firebird design creates a similar magnetic field 

as a Strat yet it kills the hum as well.

Firebird

What has away's puzzle me is why the neck pickup in a guitar with a PAF at the bridge does not have a Firebird at the neck. You get a chimey like Strat sound without hum and the sound is very defined and perfect for chord work. Who does not want a fat lead sound? If you set up a PAF at the bridge for a fat sound then when you turn on a PAF at the neck you get nothing but mud!!! The Firebird PU is the 

perfect solution.

The poor ol' Firebird is all but invisible to a guy buying a PU unless he is hot rodding a Firebird.

Too bad :-(