Which WCR

Guitar Adjuster · Post by **Guitar Adjuster** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 11:16 pm

Maybe George should add a "pickup" forum under the guitar forum???

fillmore nyc · Post by **fillmore nyc** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 2:20 pm

toner wrote: How do the Fillmore's sound different, fillmore nyc?
I would guess they are a little darker with a tighter bass response than the others. True?

No, they're not dark at all. Very warm, tight bottom, but with excellent mids and top... harmonics that jump out at will. Honestly, they sound a LOT like what you hear on "Fillmore East" by the Allman Brothers. (Duanes tone, NOT Dickey's tone). Plus, of course the amp makes all the difference too, but as I've said before, the Fillmore set thru a cranked Marshall (type) amp (especially a 50 watt'r) is really a killer sound. Here is a link to a review of them. http://www.wcrguitar.com/fillmore_review.pdf I absolutely love 'em. My favorite pickups, period. (but again, Im kinda addicted to Duanes tone anyway).

WCR · Post by **WCR** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:40 pm

Hi guys,
Finally got some time to get in. Thanx much for everything, lotta people here have been friends and customers for awhile, so I figured I should at least register here.....

Rockstah is one!!1 Hey Bro, I tried hard to make your ClearLake gig, just couldn't do it. Bummer, but I'll catch you the next time around for sure.
Scumbags another. Good friend of mine. We have a history...........hahahaha
OK, pickups. On the magnet side of things. The weaker the mag, the rounder the top and bottom end, mids will stand out a little more, but also will be rounded off. Especially the upper-mids.
The stronger the mag, the tighter things become. You'll get more highs, and a bigger, but tighter low end. You'll get more , sharper articulation, especially in the mids and upper mids.
The mags I have , in order of strengths, are Alinico3,2,4,5, 8 and Ceramic 8. The 3 is the weakest, and although they are called Alnico3, they are not a true alnico. No cobalt.
Seavall knows this about PAFs in general:
They ranged anywhere from 6.5, to over 10k. Some sounded great, most to me are just expensive junk. So when someone askes me for a PAF sounding pickup, I can only ask: which one out of hundreds, if not thousands of possibilities?
Think about it. They had machines without counters, at least 4 different magnet types (tons of them were cheap rejects), inconsistent wire (which they finally quit using), MANY different operators, even varying voltages from the public utilities (which affects motor RPMs,especially back then), etc. Wire tensions? Another guess at best.
So, that's why I don't have a lot of tech info on my site, because unlike electronics whizzes like you guys, they mean almost nothing to most people. Consequently I just compare tones to ones that most players are aware of. Gets them in the ballpark. They're not one-trick ponys, it's just a place to begin. Then, any other adjustments can be made from there. I have most of the basic winds that cover many of the bases, so anything else can be pretty tweaked with mags, pots, caps, and pickup adjustments themselves.
On the wire side, it's pretty easy. Say you have a coil reading at, oh, 5k with #42 gauge wire. Then you have another one at 5k with #43 gauge. Same reading, but thinner, more easily distorted sound. The same electricity is just 'going through a skinnier pipe." But, I can still get a nice fat tone with the skinnier wire, by adding more of it. So then, the 2 coils will have a largely different reading, but about the same amount of copper mass in a given space.
For example, my IronMan is a 22.5k pickup. TAkes up about as much room as, say, a DarkBurst bridge. I don't sell a lot of them, because the numbers scare people. Kinda funny really. You would think it is a shrieky, squeally, feedbacking POS, but is actually a darker pickup if used with the A5 mag. So I use a Ceramic8 for it instead. And because of the way I pot, there is no squealing problems, and you still get a good "wood" tone. But better sustainn, pinch harmonics, etc.
In the long run, it is just a weird balancing act. Lotta trial and error goes into it, but it keeps me outta trouble, and makes me enough money to live like a human....hahaha
Man, I wrote a book with the 1st post! lol Sorry if I got a little long-winded, but I hope it helps clear anything up

Thanx Dan and George for hooking me up

http://wcrguitar.com
http://www.myspace.com/wcr_guitar

45auto · Post by **45auto** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:53 pm

welcome & thanks for everything Jim. You have alot of fans here (including me!)

rockstah · Post by **rockstah** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:55 pm

welcome Jim! - thanks for the info

Mark

p.s. im sure our paths will cross soon in the future.

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 6:11 pm

Guitar info is welcome here, long or short.

toner · Post by **toner** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:57 pm

Thank you Mr. Wagner! Long posts with great info are not a problem around here. Some of us have nothing better to do.

The magnet info is very helpful to me.

WCR · Post by **WCR** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 11:28 pm

Glad to help out anytime. Lately I've been pretty busy, so if anyone needs some help/info here, and I don't answer soon enough, just e-mail me the link to get me outta my daze....

Thanx again guys !

5150loveeddie · Post by **5150loveeddie** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:07 am

Cooooooool stuff thx Jim

fillmore nyc · Post by **fillmore nyc** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:52 pm

+1, and dont be a stranger!! We need guys like you to keep our asses in line around here!! (you know how the rumor mill works... "Hey Jim Wagner is using Alnico 3 mags, and winds with 43 gauge wire, and you can coil-split the pickups"... within 4 posts, its "Hey, man, Jim Wagner uses 3 Aluminum magnets in his pickups, and I heard he uses 43 wires, but an "insider" (

) told me that the guy who supplies his coils split on him, the bastard.").

45auto · Post by **45auto** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:07 pm

that's called "the van halen" effect isn't it?

fillmore nyc · Post by **fillmore nyc** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:28 pm

45auto wrote:that's called "the van halen" effect isn't it?

Yep!!

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:37 pm

Known in some regions as the 'magic marshall effect'

novosibir · Post by **novosibir** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:27 am

Billy Batz wrote:Known in some regions as the 'magic marshall effect'

For some people the best sounding Marshalls in the 80' here in Germany have been those with the old french fries below the board - this sometimes has happened, after the amp has been modded by Reinhold Bogner

Larry

novosibir · Post by **novosibir** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:42 am

Hey Jim, welcome to this board!
Nice, to see you here too

Any news about your new PU project in collaboration with Jon?

Larry