How pickups work, magnetism, and other inflammatory information

[Williamblake]

When you shield with metal for example against hum you are using the metal to form the electromagnetic field. Works. If your shielding metall moved the field lines would, too. It's the other way around in a pickup but you have coil in a changing field. Maybe i missed the points... but my pickups are also too high, thought the tremolo-effect was a good sign and i will try lowering them.

[jjasilli]

I think you're referring to a Faraday Cage or Faraday Shield.  The term electromagnetic field is broad - it includes magnetism & RF frequencies.  The purpose of the Faraday Cage or Shield is to block RFI (radio frequency interference).  "There is no known material that blocks magnetic fields without itself being attracted to the magnetic force. Magnetic fields can only be redirected, not created [???] or removed."  http://www.magnetic-shield.com/pdf/magnetic_fields_shields_overview.pdf

[Ed_Chambley]

This thread caused me to route a Telecaster for a neck Humbucker, install 2 dual concentric CTS pots, 250K/500K.  3 position switch and a little 3 position on on on for the Humbucker to use both or one or the other.  It is insane and I didn't even know it was very common thing to do until I looked up knobs and sure enough AllParts makes Nickel Plates Metal Tele knobs for the dual pots.


KEWL! GEETAR


The middle position will cover everything except for the Raw Telecaster Buzzing Airy Twaaaaannng!  Looking for a steel bridge plate now.  I wonder if the steel bridge plate will change the sound of the Bridge pup?  Sure it does!

[SILVERGUN]

Looking for a steel bridge plate now.  I wonder if the steel bridge plate will change the sound of the Bridge pup?  Sure it does!

But how does that work?
Does the magnetism of the steel bridge plate affect the flux lines that the magnetic field of the strings are obviously cutting through, and if so, would a flux capacitor help? 

[Ed_Chambley]

Looking for a steel bridge plate now.  I wonder if the steel bridge plate will change the sound of the Bridge pup?  Sure it does!

But how does that work?
Does the magnetism of the steel bridge plate affect the flux lines that the magnetic field of the strings are obviously cutting through, and if so, would a flux capacitor help? 

Tonally is what we are looking for.  None of us really know how anything works as we basically are still using leaches.  We were going to run out of Fossle Fuels by 1978, Richard Nixon signed into law the existence of the EPA.


What is Flux?  A Capacitor would help, but I don't drive a Dolorean, however I did check under the seat of a few.


What does it do?  Makes it sound more like this:

[Platefire]

Now that video was the best explanation I've heard yet on pickup function

[Ritchie200]

Sorry folks that it took so long to perform my experiment as I've been too busy to do anything.  I used several types of magnets both round and bar above the pickups with both north and south orientation.  The ONLY change that happened was when I got too close to the strings and the magnetism stopped or slowed the decay of the plucked string.  Otherwise nothing, nada, nil.  No change in volume or tone or anything. So any magnetizing of the string is just a byproduct of location and is not a necessary function of detection or output.  Sorry Seth, Faraday wins the day.


Jim

[PRR]

Does the SPCA have a dead-horse division?
http://www.aes.org/journal/
 2020 March - Volume 68 Number 3
Guitar Pickup: Measurement of its Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Function

[Bantam]

All I took away from this was a great memory of a girl that my best friend and I "knew" separately. There was actually two of them and two of us and we'd hang out at a local bar and then back to the house. they were both I guess stewardesses what you called them at the time. This girl would say "here we go" each time she would fly over another Horizon, so to speak. I guess there was a certain bit of magnetism.

[Bantam]

So what was the definitive now known take away. And what was the answer to I can yell Into my pickups and hear myself. and guys like Ed and I who have been reading guitar player magazine since its inception all remember that Carlos Santana has said that he throws those pickups up as close as you can to the strings as part of the equation to how he gets that tone of his. was he just pulling an  Eddie Van Halen saying that he ran the voltages up high when it was actually the opposite?