CLICK HERE AND HERE to see the insides of Danelectro Lipstick Pickups. |
~ Danelectro Lipstick Pickups' Guts Alignments / Misalignments ~ Some reasons why Dano lipstick pickups can RARELY be weaker on one end than the other end. |
There are several reasons why a Danelectro Lipstick pickup can RARELY seem weak on one end. (1) The most common cause is that the pickups are not height-adjusted for the tilt neccessary to compensate for the different string masses between the first and sixth string. Of course the lighter mass 1st string must be closer to the pickup and the much greater mass 6th string a bit farther away, for all the strings to have the same volume produced by the pickup. (2) The next most common cause is weak magnets, where again magnet picks up the 6th string mass better than the 1st string's mass. In old vintage guitars this can be due to magnets losing their "power" over age. In newer reissue Danelectros after 1998, their magnets have not had enough time (half lives) for their magnets to GET weak, BUT the new 'Vintage Aged' magnet pickups can accentuate the effect said in #1 above. ALSO, the "power" of both vintage and new magnets can be "damaged" by their magnetic domains put out of proper congruent alignment) by being set very close to other strong magnets (less than an inch or-so to other magnets such as speakers, ....or being knocked around sharply, ....or sitting for extended periods on nominally strong vibrating surfaces such as leaning up against a speaker cabinet for an extended period of time. The fix for this problem is to have the pickups "recharged" by a technician realigning the magnet's domains, which is that "charging" does. (3) The next most common cause is that the internal coil wound magnet is misaligned from center inside the lipstick tubes, making one end closer to it's string than the string on the opposite end of the magnet. Shown below are some ways the coil wound magnet can be misaligned during manufacture, or by someone doing "surgery" on the pickup. Most of the time you can "see" the magnet's field alignment by moving a magnetic compass around the pickup and analyzing what it's needle is telling you about where the magnet is located latteraly in the lipstick tubes. You can also feel for the ends of the magnet by using a large sewing needle and judging where perpendicular pull on it begins / ends at the ends of the lipstick tubes. ------- I always use a needle to feel the magnet's location in the lipstick tubes when I am reassembling a lipstick pickup that required disassembly (4) If a lipstick pickup is encountered with one end noticeably stronger than the other, then the pickup might still be useable by making sure the strong end is under the 1st string, which will often balance with the stronger mass 6th string under the weaker end, .....and of course tilting the heigh adjustment of the pickup is always required to balance the volume output of the 1st and 6th strings so they are the same volume. ------- oOo ------- When inserting the wrapped coil / manget during reassembly of a lipstick pickup, ...air pressure, or hydraulic lock with potting wax, can cause the wrap to feel like it is at it's end when it's not. Therefore it's important to exert moderate and slow pressure when reassembling a lipstick pickup to allow air or wax to give way to the coil / magnet's wrapping. Vintage pickups have a hole for the wires in only one of the 2 lipstick casings, while the tubes of1998 and later reissues are clones of each other having a wire-hole even on the end without wires, which vents air and hydraulic lock much better than an old vintage tube with no wire hole. ------- oOo ------- |
The coil wound magnet here is CENTERED in it's "potting" wrap and centered in it's 2 lipstick tubes. Pre-1970 pickups used friction tape wrap ...while 1998 and later reissues used heat-shrink wrap and wax potting. |
Wrap located too far "left". 6th string's mass over lots of magnet will be much louder than 1st string's small mass with much less magnet. |
Wrap located too far "right". Sometimes this will actually balance out a pickup that's set flat, with the opposite effect of the wrap too far left as shown in the above previous example. |
A coil wrapped magnet offset "left" in it's otherwise centered wrap. I have encountered this only in the vintage friction tape wrapped lipstick pickups, due to the chances of the friction tape gathering on one end and not noticed by the assembler; ....although I feel sure that "Murphy" could cause similar boo-boos to somehow occur in reissues' heat shrink wrap as well. |
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STRINGS |
CLICK HERE AND HERE to see the insides of Danelectro Lipstick Pickups. |
11-5-08 |
Clearances and misalignments are exhagerated here for illustration purposes; And pickup tilt for different string masses is not shown here. |
But of course a pickup must be tilt adjusted to compensate for different string gauges mass. |
6 5 4 3 2 1 |
