Post
by Embenny » Sat Aug 15, 2020 9:19 am
The thing about lipstick pickups is that they're very low inductance (low output), but have significant eddy currents caused by the thick metal case around them, which really temper what would otherwise be a large peak at a very high resonant frequency. Danelectros are wired to combined their pickups in series and these pickups are very well suited to that, because their low output and high resonant frequencies mean you still get a series mode with a lot of clarity. That's why nothing else out there sounded like the middle position of a 2-pickup Danelectro - two super low output coils spaced wide apart and wired in series. There wasn't anything else like it. Famously put to good use on Cashmere.
The main differences between most modern lipsticks and the originals are that 1) they're now wound onto plastic bobbins with a bar magnet in the center, instead of winding the coil directly onto the magnet like the originals, so modern ones use a smaller magnet since space is limited 2) they're most frequently made into strat dimensions for retrofitting to common guitars, whereas the originals were bigger/longer, and 3) the new ones use various alnico grades, whereas the originals were alnico VI.
The main knock against GFS lipsticks is that, last I checked, they use A2, which is significantly weaker than A6. Higher end reissues tend to use A5, which is still different, but closer in properties to A6 than A2.
Some boutique winders build true reissues - Curtis Novak, for example, winds the coil directly onto a big magnet for a more accurate build and tone, and he'll build them in strat, jag, or original footprints, I believe. Then there's the Nep-Tone guy - he only builds fully authentic ones for the rear-mounted Danelectro style rout, and I've never really understood whether he actually sells pickups or only puts them on his very nice but crazy expensive hand built guitars.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.
