alterbridgefan
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Hmm... Interesting. I'd still love to try a set if I could land a deal.
Alumitone Pickups
- Thread starter Cagey
- Start date
bbl4ck
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ಠ_ಠ said:
Here is the deal...
Go to one of these authorized dealers and buy a set!
http://www.lacemusic.com/US_dealers.php
Be sure to post your findings...
:rock-on:
alterbridgefan
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Fat Pete said:
True, but look at this guy over here:
The guy bites chunks out of his $5000 gibby. He sees $5,000 as an incredible deal on something like this:
Damn thing won't even tune itself. :icon_biggrin:
A little late to the party, but I haven't ever seen the underside of these things...man there is almost nothing there.
Anyone have a good link so I can understand how they work? Or if someone is feeling really charitable they can just type it out :laughing7:
Anyone have a good link so I can understand how they work? Or if someone is feeling really charitable they can just type it out :laughing7:
Cagey
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Basically, it's a dual transformer. The magnets, aluminum frame and strings form one transformer, then that little black thing you see clamped to one end of the aluminum frame is another one. The first is very low impedance, the second relatively high. The second is sensing the current flow through the aluminum frame generated by the vibrating strings through the magnetic field set up by the magnets. It steps the voltage up for output to the amp. You get the benefits of a low impedance pickup in a high impedance design that doesn't require power. Better frequency response, low noise, etc.
Well I just saw this. What Alumitones are, is FLAT. Like, their frequency output curve looks like this:
__________________________________________________________
Most guitar amps are designed to pick up and amplify a very midrangey signal, a big boost somewhere between 1.6K to 4.0K. And, so are most guitars, most pickups, most cable, microphones, most stompies etc. This makes sense, in that human speech, roaring tigers, skritchy li'l woodchucks (you'd eat 'em too, if that was all you had), mostly happen in the middle... midrange! (It could've happened somewhere else – but we would have evolved that way instead) So that same midrange frequency carried most of the information that Ugg the caveman needed to survive and procreate with Mrs Ugg.
So, from time immemorable, amp makers, guitar makers, string makers have all promised to send/respond/amplify a "full range of frequencies!" Umm, no. Plug your guitar into a PA system with a horn or tweeter crossover network. Yikes! In regular, standard guitar toys, the stuff you've been playing forever, there's a conspiracy of sorts designed to kill off treble! Take a look at a few of the frequency response curves at US Speaker -
http://www.usspeaker.com/homepage.htm
You see a bit fat load of tone gone bowling around 800 Mhz, a rising curve then – it falls off a cliff around 2K, it's just not reproducing anything up there. However – and this is where it gets spooky – those high frequencies you put in there are still drawing power, they're still in there affecting how the whole rest of the frequencies balance even though only your parakeet can hear 'em. And the bass, too – bass notes draw a very disproportionate amount of power.
So – basically, 87.5% of guitarists want to sound exactly like songs that were recorded 40 years ago. If you don't believe it, listen to country radio for one afternoon, if you can't find a half dozen Allman Brothers, umm, borrowings... ditto with “modern rock” and Zepp.
And I fear that sumtink really, really horrible might happen if -
I HEAR ONE MORE GODDAM P.O.S.:
"MODERN TECHNOLOGY - VINTAGE TONE!"
eeee! eeee! eeee!
Alumitones are a genuine “high-fidelity” pickup, with a disproportionately large amount of bass and treble compared to the usual. But it's not wrong, it's just not skewed so heavily toward midrange. And this is where it gets kinda fun, because if you play with perhaps 20% less volume overall – but you're also being heard way up there and way down there – you will have a good deal of presence, but only you know why. Heh heh etc. Jaco Pastorius's main gift was not speedy licks so much as the desire (and chops) to play the cool parts. and when Stanley Clarke went out on his own the first thing he did was... hire a bass player! :toothy12:
Oh yuckles, the '70's were grand. AND - I think that some great and weird fiddling with who-plays-what stuff is coming on lately, largely because in home studios, people have the luxury of finding out the WHY and WHAT FOR of different layers of frequencies. These “post-rock” bands – (and if ever a catchword deserves to die a wretched and ignominious death dat's it) like Explosions in the Sky, Pelican and Scale the Summit have really flucknin' WEIRD arrangements as far as who's got the melody line, “is the bass sneakin' UP on me!?!” etc.
I currently only have one of my Alumitones living inside a steel guitar – these “BassBars” make a great steel guitar pickup, because a steel may have notes as low as the “A” string of a bass and the highest string may be a “G” corresponding to the 3rd fret, high string on a guitar, even a 5th fret “A” note. And steel guitars are often played in slimy little bars, wired by the owner and he's proud of his flickering beat-to-crap fluorescent beer signs. “Excuse me, sir, but can you turn off all these crappy beer lamps? They're giving my guitar mood swings!”
ummm.........
And they make great bass pickups too, for the clean end of stuff. If a bass player is using distortion, he's lucky to have the kind or gig or band where it's allowed or desirable.
Okie Dokie:
I'd say there's a kind of continuum of pickups, more or less from a pointy midrange bump to a wide, “hi-fi”wide frequency range.
*Regular ol' humbuckers, LOTS of lower and upper midrange , peaking around 2K, up to 4K to 5K depending on what you want.
*Regular old single coils, 4K peak. P-90's may extend that a bit lower. I''ve never had any that weren't just too damn noisy to use for anywhere but home.
*Bill Lawrence blades, those imitations, Lace Sensors, maybe some other high-fidelity? I can never tell what people mean by a “great” distortion pickup – if your pickup distorts, it's malfunctioning. If they mean to say their pickup has a peak in it's response curve that makes a “happy accident” with their amp, I wish they'd just say so. :dontknow:
*Then the Alumitones
*Then you drift into powered pickups - EMGs and such. This is really a weird area, because Les Paul made the first low-impedance pickups to BE high-fidelity, dead clean with a real wide frequency range. But some metal guy, some still-drunk morning, figured out that with the “live” pickups, he could adjust the volume to be just on the verge of his whole amp barfing – and then keep it right there.
And: Never EVER dispute the role of happy accidents - you might even BE one! :laughing3: :laughing7: :laughing3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziw4yd5R0QI
__________________________________________________________
Most guitar amps are designed to pick up and amplify a very midrangey signal, a big boost somewhere between 1.6K to 4.0K. And, so are most guitars, most pickups, most cable, microphones, most stompies etc. This makes sense, in that human speech, roaring tigers, skritchy li'l woodchucks (you'd eat 'em too, if that was all you had), mostly happen in the middle... midrange! (It could've happened somewhere else – but we would have evolved that way instead) So that same midrange frequency carried most of the information that Ugg the caveman needed to survive and procreate with Mrs Ugg.
So, from time immemorable, amp makers, guitar makers, string makers have all promised to send/respond/amplify a "full range of frequencies!" Umm, no. Plug your guitar into a PA system with a horn or tweeter crossover network. Yikes! In regular, standard guitar toys, the stuff you've been playing forever, there's a conspiracy of sorts designed to kill off treble! Take a look at a few of the frequency response curves at US Speaker -
http://www.usspeaker.com/homepage.htm
You see a bit fat load of tone gone bowling around 800 Mhz, a rising curve then – it falls off a cliff around 2K, it's just not reproducing anything up there. However – and this is where it gets spooky – those high frequencies you put in there are still drawing power, they're still in there affecting how the whole rest of the frequencies balance even though only your parakeet can hear 'em. And the bass, too – bass notes draw a very disproportionate amount of power.
So – basically, 87.5% of guitarists want to sound exactly like songs that were recorded 40 years ago. If you don't believe it, listen to country radio for one afternoon, if you can't find a half dozen Allman Brothers, umm, borrowings... ditto with “modern rock” and Zepp.
And I fear that sumtink really, really horrible might happen if -
I HEAR ONE MORE GODDAM P.O.S.:
"MODERN TECHNOLOGY - VINTAGE TONE!"
eeee! eeee! eeee!
Alumitones are a genuine “high-fidelity” pickup, with a disproportionately large amount of bass and treble compared to the usual. But it's not wrong, it's just not skewed so heavily toward midrange. And this is where it gets kinda fun, because if you play with perhaps 20% less volume overall – but you're also being heard way up there and way down there – you will have a good deal of presence, but only you know why. Heh heh etc. Jaco Pastorius's main gift was not speedy licks so much as the desire (and chops) to play the cool parts. and when Stanley Clarke went out on his own the first thing he did was... hire a bass player! :toothy12:
Oh yuckles, the '70's were grand. AND - I think that some great and weird fiddling with who-plays-what stuff is coming on lately, largely because in home studios, people have the luxury of finding out the WHY and WHAT FOR of different layers of frequencies. These “post-rock” bands – (and if ever a catchword deserves to die a wretched and ignominious death dat's it) like Explosions in the Sky, Pelican and Scale the Summit have really flucknin' WEIRD arrangements as far as who's got the melody line, “is the bass sneakin' UP on me!?!” etc.
I currently only have one of my Alumitones living inside a steel guitar – these “BassBars” make a great steel guitar pickup, because a steel may have notes as low as the “A” string of a bass and the highest string may be a “G” corresponding to the 3rd fret, high string on a guitar, even a 5th fret “A” note. And steel guitars are often played in slimy little bars, wired by the owner and he's proud of his flickering beat-to-crap fluorescent beer signs. “Excuse me, sir, but can you turn off all these crappy beer lamps? They're giving my guitar mood swings!”
ummm.........
And they make great bass pickups too, for the clean end of stuff. If a bass player is using distortion, he's lucky to have the kind or gig or band where it's allowed or desirable.
Okie Dokie:
I'd say there's a kind of continuum of pickups, more or less from a pointy midrange bump to a wide, “hi-fi”wide frequency range.
*Regular ol' humbuckers, LOTS of lower and upper midrange , peaking around 2K, up to 4K to 5K depending on what you want.
*Regular old single coils, 4K peak. P-90's may extend that a bit lower. I''ve never had any that weren't just too damn noisy to use for anywhere but home.
*Bill Lawrence blades, those imitations, Lace Sensors, maybe some other high-fidelity? I can never tell what people mean by a “great” distortion pickup – if your pickup distorts, it's malfunctioning. If they mean to say their pickup has a peak in it's response curve that makes a “happy accident” with their amp, I wish they'd just say so. :dontknow:
*Then the Alumitones
*Then you drift into powered pickups - EMGs and such. This is really a weird area, because Les Paul made the first low-impedance pickups to BE high-fidelity, dead clean with a real wide frequency range. But some metal guy, some still-drunk morning, figured out that with the “live” pickups, he could adjust the volume to be just on the verge of his whole amp barfing – and then keep it right there.
And: Never EVER dispute the role of happy accidents - you might even BE one! :laughing3: :laughing7: :laughing3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziw4yd5R0QI
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