What xii split pickups do you recommend?

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Embenny
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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Embenny » Mon Dec 14, 2020 3:23 pm

garyptaszek wrote:
Mon Dec 14, 2020 10:08 am
I thought that was the whole purpose of split coil pickups in a XII :wtf:
I always assumed they were like the p bass pickup!
I know, right?

Even the Alternate Reality XII that was just released by Fender has same-polarity, humming pickups. It's possibly the most bizarre wasted opportunity in Fender's history.

It's made slightly less tragic by the fact that most people play 12-strings at low gain, and that a 12-string has roughly double the signal to noise ratio of a 6-string single coil (twice as much string energy with the same amount of single coil hum).

Still, it's pretty stupid. The only "cost" is having to keep track of which pickup halves you've wound backwards with the magnets pushed in upside down during assembly.
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Soniqfreq
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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Soniqfreq » Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:45 pm

You rock! I just ordered a set of covers for my Oly White ARXII
rank wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 3:48 am
Soniqfreq wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 12:41 am
rank wrote:
Sat Feb 29, 2020 7:19 am
Where did you have the white pickup covers made? I’ve been looking for some for my AR EXII but have had no luck. It looks like Novak made them at one point but are not offering them now.
If memory serves, I ordered them from Shapeways. https://www.shapeways.com/product/AWSYR ... ckup-cover

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by rank » Fri Dec 18, 2020 6:35 pm

Soniqfreq wrote:
Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:45 pm
You rock! I just ordered a set of covers for my Oly White ARXII
rank wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 3:48 am
Soniqfreq wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 12:41 am


If memory serves, I ordered them from Shapeways. https://www.shapeways.com/product/AWSYR ... ckup-cover
You gotta post a pic when you get them put in!
We are merely moving shadows.

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Soniqfreq » Tue Dec 29, 2020 10:18 pm

rank wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 3:48 am
You gotta post a pic when you get them put in!
Just got a set in from shapeways. I don’t think I’m gonna put them on...too white. I got the “natural” white set thinking they would fall in the antique/parchment white range, but they are more like a bright white when against the Olympic white of the AR EXII. They had another white option listed but no pic. Oh well.

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Nudger » Wed Dec 30, 2020 12:45 pm

I had same prob with white mustang pups..
Gave the surface a buff with fine sand paper and dusted them with light tint nitro laquer "rattle can"
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Beauty of this fix is you can go as dark/light as you want.

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Embenny » Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:09 pm

Have you tried soaking them in hot tea yet? Some plastics absorb the tint in a super linear fashion proportional to time exposed, and others never absorb it at all.

Give it 5-10 minutes in a hot mug of tea before writing them off.

And if it doesn't work...PM me ;D
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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Nudger » Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:23 pm

Waste of a good T bag :D

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Soniqfreq » Wed Dec 30, 2020 1:52 pm

Both excellent ideas. I’ll give them a shot. Thanks!

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Soniqfreq » Mon Jan 09, 2023 7:14 pm

Well I finally got around to changing out the pickup covers and it was quite the disaster. Even though it has been awhile, I figured I'd share the journey for anyone still interested (and I promised I would). Turns out the Alternate Reality pickup covers are glued onto the pickups and I ended up nicking the wires trying to remove the covers to put on the Shapeways. Toasted the neck pickup. Word of caution kids.

So with my XII out of commission, I decided to take the plunge and grab a set of Novak's and replace all the electronics. So glad I did. I ended up installing the Novak XII-V in the neck and XII-Fat in the bridge with vintage correct 4-position rotary knob. What a difference! My ARXII sounds incredible! These pickups are so much better than stock. It's evident the second you play them. The additional switch position is also useful. In addition to the Novak's and rotary switch, I installed new CTS 450G 250K pots (10%/10%) and an .022uF 400V orange drop cap. Here is the end result:

Image
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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Nudger » Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:47 pm

Soniqfreq wrote:
Mon Jan 09, 2023 7:14 pm
So with my XII out of commission, I decided to take the plunge and grab a set of Novak's and replace all the electronics. So glad I did. I ended up installing the Novak XII-V in the neck and XII-Fat in the bridge with vintage correct 4-position rotary knob. What a difference! The additional switch position is also useful. In addition to the Novak's and rotary switch, I installed new CTS 450G 250K pots (10%/10%) and an .022uF 400V orange drop cap. Here is the end result:

Out of curiosity.. What value was the original tone cap?
I had a ARXII but never checked.. Been making parts builds using .047uf "which sound fantastic" now wondering if itd be better with .022uf
Luv the 4way mod, I think a toggleswitch spoils the XII look and the extra setting "parallel out of phase"? is good to have.

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Soniqfreq » Tue Jan 10, 2023 3:17 pm

Nudger wrote:
Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:47 pm

Out of curiosity.. What value was the original tone cap?
I had a ARXII but never checked.. Been making parts builds using .047uf "which sound fantastic" now wondering if itd be better with .022uf
Luv the 4way mod, I think a toggleswitch spoils the XII look and the extra setting "parallel out of phase"? is good to have.
The original was a .033 ceramic. I also got a .047 to try too. The .022 definitely has some bite and I’m kind of liking that. If it gets too brash a little nudge on either the tone or volume pot seems to tame the edge. The pickups in series darkens the tone, while the parallel really creates a sharp glassy edge. The neck has a dynamic depth to the tone and the bridge alone seems really balanced through the midrange to high end. All the settings work well with the rich harmonic content the XII is capable of.

My DCR values through the jack are
Neck (Novak-V) = 9.03k
Series = 14.99k
Parallel = 3.81k
Bridge (Novak-Fat) = 6.42k

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Nudger » Wed Jan 11, 2023 1:34 am

Thanks for the numbers :)
Ive heard of some XII builders using 33. hmm food for thought.
I fitted one out with 1M pots and .02 Same as vintage but was always messing with vol knob.

Ive done 4 way with series setting but for me was less usefull/fun than Parallel out of phase.
Maybe someone smarter than me could come up with a 5 way rotary diagram that gives both..
I got around it with this build by adding a phase switch giving option for parallel/Series both in or out of phase.
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Did you get your bridge/reck reading mixed up?
Usually bridge higher ?

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Soniqfreq » Wed Jan 11, 2023 8:55 am

I thought the same thing so I emailed Curtis. He confirmed the value for the bridge with the Fat version. It was 6.63k direct without any added resistance.

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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Embenny » Wed Jan 11, 2023 11:13 am

It's because the XII-FAT is wound with lower gauge (thicker) wire, which has far less resistance per turn than the 42 AWG wire used on the neck pickup. It also has much longer magnets, which increases the inductance.

That's why you can never infer output from DC resistance unless the wire gauge, bobbin shape and magnetic circuit are identical.
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Re: What xii split pickups do you recommend?

Post by Nudger » Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:51 pm

Embenny wrote:
Wed Jan 11, 2023 11:13 am
It also has much longer magnets
I dont think so 8)
If you look at soniques pics, the bridge slugs pertrude less than on neck pup.
Me thinks this is only due to deeper bobbin on bridge pup.

Mind still blown over lower k on "fat" bridge pup though :freako:
Good to know

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