[Frankenstrat2]

hello
hello
hello
sound of an echo in an empty
hallway

Everybody must be off practicing.
I'm off to go sit in on slide with friends at some of their gigs.
Tweed deluxe, Frankenstrat2, Nunwell and an OD box
Haven't decided what songs to sing yet.
Ask me later.
Barry

[allthumbs]

hey, i am still here. I posted yesterday. As long as I have your attention Barry. What style pickup would be best for slide if you only had one pickup at the bridge. I can make a razor, humbuck,single coil or p90. I am leaning towards the p90 just because it is one of the easier ones to make from scratch. What do you think?

[Frankenstrat2]

Hey AT
It seems its you and me.
This Forum gets little flurries of activity and then gets deadly quiet.
Its a shame its not more well attended.

I usually shy away from questions involving 'best'.
Best is too subjective.
Pickups are tools, anyway. Whats the best screwdriver, y'know? Depends on what screw your driving.
P-90s are great pickups. I have a 57 Les Paul jr with a P-90 that I love. But they have quite a bit of hum. Being that I favor strats overall I do like the articulation of single coils for slide but dislike the hum. Mostly I'm using Kinman Vintage Noiseless Single Coil. Chris Kinman knows tone.
His website is extremely informative if you've never seen it. I think his strat pick ups are quite brilliant and I've been through lots of others, but its all a question of taste and need. Although I prefer to play my strats some of my best overdriven slide tones come out of my old 335 with humbuckers, very similar to the one Dave Hole uses, mine sounds very much like his also. So its a question of what sound you're chasing too. I guess I'm more into the tones captured by Lowell George, Cooder and Kirk than Dave Hole or George Thorogood at this stage.
How about you. What sounds do you hear in your head that youd like to capture?

[allthumbs]

since i am making my own pickup, it probably will sound pretty far away fom a factory made anyway. I love Kirks sound. i haven't listened to ry cooder in years but, i remember thinking he sounded too thin for my taste. I am kinda fond of muddy waters too.

[Frankenstrat2]

Well I dont know the first thing about making pickups from scratch other than it involves winding wire around a magnet.
Pretty funny.
But I've driven cars my whole life and never built an engine.
I've met quite a few pick-up builders and hung out with them, talked about it. Intersting people, as a group. It seems to be a rather mysterious and inexact science done to exacting standards by some, and with a lot of mojo and luck by others. Depends on who you talk to. For me, I'm a player. If I plug in and like the tone, its a good pickup. Simple?
Muddy played a tele late in his carreer when he went electric. I think they were regular tele single coils.
Kirk is a strat guy. I find his tones very similar to Ry Cooders. I'm pretty certain Ry was a big influence, but I leave that for Kirk to say- I hear a lot of Ry and Lowell George influence on his Cd.
Ry uses alot of off-beat stuff for his tones. Not your typical humbucker or single-coils. Also a lot of studio compression. Ry is much more the studio guy it seems to me. I find his tonal palette is very diverse depending on what era and CDs you are listening to.

[Diamond]

Count me in also guy's - taking a 'breather' here from the bottleneck & slide business (it's 24/7 at the moment :shock: ) - although i haven't picked up an electric to play slide for a few years, P90's always did it for me

Slide On!

Ian.

www.diamondbottlenecks.com