Zexcoil Pickups

[Updown]

http://www.zexcoil.com/
Anyone used or know anything about these ?

:icon_scratch: I can't recall anybody talking about these.
They sure do look interesting
http://www.zexcoil.com/technicalInfo.html

 

[taez555]

Never heard of them before. 

They do look cool though.  The off-set blade/poles are pretty unique.

 

[drewfx]

Interesting. I thought they'd be ungodly pricey, but it seems not.

 

[ZionWarmoth]

Here a pick of the back, search for Zexcoil in the forum

 

[Zexcoil]

Hi,

Scott Lawing from Zexcoil here. I just joined up. If you have any questions about our products, please ask.

 

[Updown]

Hi Zexcoil …. Scott  :icon_thumright:

I'm curious about these's in a slightly different way …….
Please tell me if I'm on the wrong path.

Do these have divided individual coils for each string ? 

Meaning you could use a break-out box of some kind, to record each string separately.
Along the lines of what I can do using a GK-3 pickup.

So ….  :icon_scratch:

As is it's not wired for separate hex outs.
But …. with some soldering iron wizardry, I'm sure you could get the outputs separated in no time ...
It should be a simple job to make a version of this pickup wired to 7 wires (6 for coils + common ground) which
then gets wired into the GK2/3 plug end.

My thoughts were, then plug this thing right into the existing Roland GK2/3 electronics board and ………………… hope for the best!  :toothy11:
A more educated approach would be to match the resistance of the coils too ...  I suppose …  :dontknow:
I like the idea of 13 pin output guitar which does not have to use the additional GK3 pickup.
Something that just users a standard pickup.

The GK-3 thou …. needs to be as close as possible to the bridge, for best results.
This could be a problem .... But I don't know if thats so true.

Something to ponder  :icon_biggrin:

Thanks for dropping on by  :icon_thumright:

 

[bagman67]

I can't speak for Scott, but by the look of things, the pickups have two coils placed kinda-sorta end-to-end to achieve hum cancellation.  Kinda like the G&L Z-3 pups, but without the offset so the pups retain a conventional single-coil form-factor.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

It's a coil per string.

 

[bagman67]

Wowzers.  Neat.

 

[SalsaNChips]

Now those are some pretty interesting pickups. The demo video showcases them well -- articulation for individual strings is stunningly crisp. Also quiet, superb noise cancellation. The technical video was just that and I need to watch it again to get the true essence of the technology. But appears to be a real, bona-fide advancement in PU tech. I hope they make the Tele set available soon as I am in the market for those and need them in like, the next 6 weeks

 

[Zexcoil]

Hey,

Sorry for the late reply on this one...I meant to answer it a few weeks back but then spaced it.

This is a query I've gotten a couple of times. Hex output is definitely possible.

How big is the market for this? Is it worth the development effort you think?

Hi Zexcoil …. Scott  :icon_thumright:

I'm curious about these's in a slightly different way …….
Please tell me if I'm on the wrong path.

Do these have divided individual coils for each string ? 

Meaning you could use a break-out box of some kind, to record each string separately.
Along the lines of what I can do using a GK-3 pickup.

So ….  :icon_scratch:

As is it's not wired for separate hex outs.
But …. with some soldering iron wizardry, I'm sure you could get the outputs separated in no time ...
It should be a simple job to make a version of this pickup wired to 7 wires (6 for coils + common ground) which
then gets wired into the GK2/3 plug end.

My thoughts were, then plug this thing right into the existing Roland GK2/3 electronics board and ………………… hope for the best!  :toothy11:
A more educated approach would be to match the resistance of the coils too ...  I suppose …  :dontknow:
I like the idea of 13 pin output guitar which does not have to use the additional GK3 pickup.
Something that just users a standard pickup.

The GK-3 thou …. needs to be as close as possible to the bridge, for best results.
This could be a problem .... But I don't know if thats so true.

Something to ponder  :icon_biggrin:

Thanks for dropping on by  :icon_thumright:

 

[Zexcoil]

:icon_thumright:

Now those are some pretty interesting pickups. The demo video showcases them well -- articulation for individual strings is stunningly crisp. Also quiet, superb noise cancellation. The technical video was just that and I need to watch it again to get the true essence of the technology. But appears to be a real, bona-fide advancement in PU tech. I hope they make the Tele set available soon as I am in the market for those and need them in like, the next 6 weeks

 

[thesjkexperience]

I have a set of Zexcoil Signatures on one of my Strats and you can hear for yourself how great they sound and they are absolutely silent!  What you may not know, especially thinking it is a noiseless single coil design, is the dynamics are even better than any single coil or humbucker in 30+ years.  You can think of how Jimmy Page would lower his volume on Since I've Been Loving You and then turn it up to just scream in your face.  Well the Zexcoil pickups can do better and you don't even have to touch the volume knob.

I have a set ready to go into a Telemaster I am building which I am really excited about. I stained the neck and put 5 coats of Tru Oil thinned with naphtha over the last 2 days.  I will check it out tomorrow and decide if I want to do more coats and then I will let it cure for a week. 

 

[swarfrat]

Interested in hex, yes, but would the hex output be humbucking? I'm guessing not - unless that was the intent from the getgo. I've got piezos, and I can tell you that thumps and bumps are a real problem. I can only imagine what n*60 hz hum harmonics would do to tracking.

 

[Phostenix]

Interested in hex, yes, but would the hex output be humbucking? I'm guessing not - unless that was the intent from the getgo. I've got piezos, and I can tell you that thumps and bumps are a real problem. I can only imagine what n*60 hz hum harmonics would do to tracking.

Zombie Thread Resurrection

You make a valid point here. The GK pickups have mini humbuckers in them. I would love to be able to use the Zexcoil bridge pup as the synth pickup, but I'm guessing that you'd have hum if you broke out all 6 individual coil outputs.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I assume that each pickup has 3 pairs of complimentary coils in a standard series out-of-phase configuration.  That is, it's three humbucking pickups right next to each other, or a hypothetical one humbucker for 2 strings.

If each coil's output were treated as isolated, they'd eventually all be in parallel.  If the 3 coils where still out-of-phase, whether series or parallel, there's no reason it should hum.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Could cause issues for the 7-string version...

 

[Phostenix]

If each coil's output were treated as isolated, they'd eventually all be in parallel.  If the 3 coils where still out-of-phase, whether series or parallel, there's no reason it should hum.

I haven't seen a schematic of the Roland synths, but I have to assume that the audio signal from each pickup of the GK (or piezo output of a Ghost bridge, etc.) is independently buffered & processed. I can't imagine any time those signals would be summed until after the frequency detection is done - including any hum that exists with the audio signal.

 

[swarfrat]

The whole point of  the Roland pickup is per-string output for note tracking. I've looked at the conversion process math pretty extensively. It's not possible to 100% distinguish notes in a polyphonic source, although given enough horsepower and enough tolerance for  latency, you can make some pretty good guesses.

But the guitar-to-midi market is basically big enough only big enough for one big fish, and I think  even Roland stays in it because someone at Roland way up there is convinced they need to be in that market, and has to go to bat for the guitar/MIDI stuff every time the market wiggles even a little bit. I don't think we'll see anything radically new for another 10 years or more, and even then I think it has more to do with the economy than technology.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

If each coil's output were treated as isolated, they'd eventually all be in parallel.  If the 3 coils where still out-of-phase, whether series or parallel, there's no reason it should hum.

I haven't seen a schematic of the Roland synths, but I have to assume that the audio signal from each pickup of the GK (or piezo output of a Ghost bridge, etc.) is independently buffered & processed. I can't imagine any time those signals would be summed until after the frequency detection is done - including any hum that exists with the audio signal.

With the Zexcoil, it eventually ending up parallel was referring to a 1/4" mono cable.  Midi and buffers, that stuff is just magic.