Mounting pickup directly to the wood or using a bezel

[Nitro Express]

Eddie Van Halen always used to claim he got a better tone when he screwed the pickup into the guitar body instead of using a bezel.

I've played around with mounting directly into the wood. This method in many ways is a pain in the ass. You are stuck with one pickup height unless you want to use shims.

Using a bezel alows you to ajust the hieght of the pickup and to my ears, I can't tell a difference. I basically set the pickup a 1/4 from the string and them fine adust the hieght to where it sounds the best and where I get the best sustain. Doing these fine adjustments with shims is a pain and you only can go closer to the string.

[BrownSound1]

Mounting directly to the wood doesn't do a damn thing...so you are right. Pickups do not pick up vibrations from wood...because wood is not magnetic. Where wood does play a part in tone is in the mass of it, and how much it vibrates...which in turn effects the way the strings vibrate. The string vibration then interrupts the magnetic field of the pickup, which produces voltage around the coils...and so on and so forth.

[Eyes of the Night]

Intresting:p ...

[sambo]

I'm up to the stage where I am just about to install my EVH pickup into my striped Kramer and was not too keen on mounting directly into the wood for exactly the reasons listed above.

You've helped me with my decision... cheers!

[Eyes of the Night]

Well, there ya go ...

My dumbass talks shit while it helps out another ...

Then again *I* can tell the difference ... it's there ... just not dramatic enough ...

Haven't heard the "yeah, that guy has his pickups into the wood you can tell" line before ... ever ...

[Nitro Express]

Then you haven't read as many Eddie Van Halen interviews over the years as we have. Yeah, Eddie would go into the; "I feel it's important to have everything connected. I screw the pickups directly into the wood and don't float my Floyd Rose because that's where the tone comes from." speal all the time.

Look at the frankenstrat, the 5150 Kramer, the EVH Musicman, and Wolfgang guitars. No pickup bezel, the pickups are screwed directly into the wood.

[BrownSound1]

I do agree with Eddie on the floating Floyd....I have mine resting against the body as well, and I CAN tell a difference in tone. Of course it is much more understandable on the bridge...because the vibration of the strings is transferred better to the body if the bridge touches a bigger surface area.

[sambo]

I have two Floyd-equipped guitars and I notice a difference a superior tone on the non-floating one.

I have read Ed talking about mounting the pickup into the wood but I am still unsure as to whether I will go down that path and whether it will make that much difference to my tone.

[BrownSound1]

The pickup mounted directly to the wood is total bullshit.

[Big Troubles]

post some pics of these guitars guys. please.

[sambo]

Here's mine.. it now has the black stripes and headstock done.

[Eyes of the Night]

Originally posted by Brownsound1
The pickup mounted directly to the wood is total bullshit.


Riiight ... then why do *I* hear a dif in them after having bezel's all my life ...

I guess if it's a wolf pickup there IS a dif ... ya know how the fuck it's wound n' shit?:D ...


Nice slanted damarzio? ...

[GAR]

Originally posted by Brownsound1
Mounting directly to the wood doesn't do a damn thing...so you are right. Pickups do not pick up vibrations from wood...because wood is not magnetic.

This is not completely true: wood is not magnetic, yet no one yet has an explanation why when you tap on the pickup with your finger or a pick that you can hear the "KUNK KUNK" when you do that, even though one's finger or pick aint neither magnetic nor metal.

A pickup is a coil of wires wrapped around a magnet. that's an "inductor" which are prone to suffering from "microphonic" resonances such as tapping. As well as hearing the resonances of strings, the tremolo spring reverberations and nearly every other bump and hump you give it via the guitar body while playing.

Even with shims for height, securing the pickup feet directly to the wood induce greater resonance which some people like and can hear, and other's can't tell the difference of it either way.

Those folks who can't tell the difference and don't care should mount their pickups in mounting bezels.

[BrownSound1]

Well, I can explain the "kunk kunk." This is happening because when you tap the cover, you're actually vibrating the coils of the pickup. Same thing happens when you get microphonic squeel from a shitty pickup...the noise of the amp is enough to cause the coils to vibrate, thus causing feedback. I still say that the amount of tone gained is minimal at best. 99.9% of what you are going to hear is coming from the strings, through the pole pieces.

[GAR]

Originally posted by Brownsound1
Well, I can explain the "kunk kunk." This is happening because when you tap the cover, you're actually vibrating the coils of the pickup.

Covered or uncoverd pickups transmit induced vibrations to some degree whether or not any magnetic parts are within the field!

Copper windings inside the coils are non-magnetic. Experts going back to the 20's in books and on papers of the subject of coils and inductance cannot explain it, its just a part of electromotive force Engineering folk try to theorize upon by describing physical properties of or effects within a circuit.

[BrownSound1]

Well that's what I'm saying, GAR. When you tap a covered, uncovered, or whatever pickup the coils still vibrate...which will in turn cause a voltage output to be created, resulting in the sound. That is basically how a dynamic microphone works, because the diaphram actually moves the coil around a magnet. So instead of having the magnetic field disturbed by some ferrous material, you disturb it by basically changing the position of the coil itself.

I understand what you are saying. What I'm saying is that I do not believe that there is enough vibration of the body to notice a change in tone. If someone could offer up some concrete evidence that there is a noticeable difference, then I would be more than glad to say mounting a pickup to the body is the thing to do. However, after experimenting with this myself, I still need more convincing, and I'm way past the point of doing it just because that is what EVH does. (Not saying that you do this, by any means, but you know there are some who do things that way.)