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Location: Marlton, NJ | Aside from the layout of the poles, are there any other differences between the neck and bridge pickups on the Preacher?
I had previously obtained a set of covers and never bothered to check, but they both appear to be neck covers. I checked them against an original Preacher and the holes are definitely different.
Thanks,
Mike |
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Posts: 1445
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada | Preacher pups or Viper? The P pups pole pieces and specs look identical to me.
Wayne |
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Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | Wayne - Preacher - and that's what I thought as well. I took one of the empty pickup covers and laid it against both a bridge and a neck pup and sure enough they are different. The poles on the bridge pickup seem to be spread out just a little further... enough so that the wrong cover would not fit correctly onto the poles. The part number on the specs is different for each of them. I was just wondering if there is any difference in sound, wiring, etc. And what would the effect be of using two bridge pups instead of one of each. |
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Posts: 1118
Location: NW Washington State | Oh boy, a chance to use the LC meter I got for Christmas! I measured the DC resistance and inductance of pickups from a Breadwinner (mini-humbucker size) and a few others I had around:
Breadwinner neck: 14.01K / 11.63H
Breadwinner bridge: 14.02K / 11.65H
Viper bridge: 10.08K / 9.20H
Duncan SM1N: 6.08K / 5.20H
Strat: 6.66K / 7.40H
I was surprised that the Breadwinner pickups read so close- I had to desolder them from the preamp to double-check. The E-to-E pole spacing is about 1/8" less on the neck pickup. I can't say for sure that the Preacher pickups are the same.
The Duncan pickup I tested is a "vintage" neck mini-humbucker, not supposed to be "hot". I think the Strat pickup is from a Mexican model- probably pretty typical.
-Steve W. |
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Location: Marlton, NJ | Steve - Good info! Sizewise the 1/8" spacing looks about right for the Preacher pups. Based upon your measurements, I would guess that they are interchangeable? Glad I could give you a chance to use your meter!
Any of the solidbody experts (Miles, BruDev, Woody, Samova ... and anyone else I may have left out) have any info or experience with this? |
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Location: Upper Left USA | They did make them different for some odd reason. Are you considering the covers that Sam Desparicio has on Ebay?
Don't forget this chart:
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Location: Marlton, NJ | Woody - Those are the ones.
I was looking at that chart, but aside from the different part nos. and wire coloring, it doesn't give any info about functional differences.
Mike |
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Location: NW Washington State | About 15-20 years ago I ordered an extra set of Breadwinner/Deacon pickups and preamp from the parts lady (Mary?) at the factory. I had them on a Viper for a while but the neck poles didn't line up well with the strings- the volume wasn't consistent. Only in the last couple of years did I realize that the neck and bridge have different spacings. So I have two bridge pickups, not a set. I wonder if they'll let me send one back for replacement? :)
I know it's heresy, but if you could get a set of covers, you could probably disassemble any mini-humbuckers and put them inside the Ovation covers. That way you could choose your sound and have different bridge and neck options. A pickup with a blade or full-length magnet shouldn't have any dropout. You'd have to make sure that the bridge pickup was wide enough to cover both E strings.
I see that desparicio has some covers pictured in his tuners auction (300080672173), but no separate listing for them.
-Steve W. |
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Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | He had a listing for them... I'm guess that someone bought one of them and that he's relisting the rest.
I guess I could see about trying to redo one of the neck pickups to fit into the bridge cover. I'll have it open anyway... that should be interesting :eek: |
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Location: NW Washington State | Mike-
You have two neck pickups? I've got two bridges!
I've noticed a couple of things about the bridge pickup I have loose. The backplate is silver colored (maybe plated?) instead of brass, and the meter readings are higher than the Breadwinner at 21K/19H. Really unusually high. I'll have to get the other one out of the Viper to test it. Since I ordered these after the guitars were out of production, could be they're something odd. Maybe they're incredibly valuable! :)
By the way, did you get the jazz guitar books I sent last year?
-Steve W. |
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Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | Steve - I did get them. I really apologize if I forgot to thank you afterwards! My son has gotten alot of use out of them.
As for the pickups - I have one of each, but the covers that I was looking at on ebay are only for the bridge pickups. If they do turn out to be interchangeable, maybe we can swap a neck pickup for a bridge pickup. |
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Location: NW Washington State | Since I have everything out, I plugged a cable into the Viper and measured the bridge pickup (small Breadwinner style) at 19K/16H. Since it's loaded by the pots and perhaps the tone cap I'd guess it might be the same as the other one. These are pretty high resistance/inductance readings for any pickup. The chart above shows 10,000 turns at the max. These measure as if they could have more, but that would really be a lot of turns for a small pickup. Maybe someone who has seen more Ovation pickups can explain?
You could probably jam a neck pickup into a bridge cover, but you might run into the problem with some strings being weak if the poles don't match up. Based on a quick eyeball, it looks like the neck pickup poles on the Breadwinner lines up reasonably well with the strings at the Viper bridge. You might be able to use your neck pickups as they are. Seems like a bridge pickup in the neck position is a bigger problem.
-Steve W. |
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Location: Upper Left USA | Yup.
Listing is back
Pup covers |
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Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | Ya - he's selling them one at a time. He's got 8 of them so it's going to come and go for awhile. |
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Posts: 1118
Location: NW Washington State | I've put my toys away for the day, but one more thought about using pickups in the "wrong" position. The Viper neck is 1-5/8" at the nut, other solidbodies are 1-11/16". Using two bridge pickups might not be a problem on a Preacher or Breadwinner. |
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Location: Scotland | I have a Breadwinner with Viper 3 pickups, the strings line up with the poles perfectly. I seem to remember using Viper neck or middle pickups in the bridge position without a problem. |
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August 2006
Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | Paul - the issue seems to be with Preacher pickups only. I have no doubt that both the neck and bridge pups will line up with the strings. The bridge pup poles on the preacher just seem to be spread a little bit wider than the neck ones.
The only question remaining at this point is if there are any other differences besides the width. My guess is no... but I would appreciate it if someone could confirm it.
Thanks,
Mike |
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Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | Interesting that there is a Viper 12 string listed on that pickup spec sheet. |
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Preacher Pickups - difference between neck and bridge
