The extended response of our XR pickups has naturally brought us to the attention of extended range guitarists, many of whom use fanned fret instruments. These instruments present a unique challenge in that the pickups should be angled to match the “projected-fret” angle in order to have the aperture respond to the same portion of each string relative to the bridge. Pickups with a single row of polepieces can often simply be angled and the optimum string-to-pole alignment found. Pickups with two rows of poles, such as our Quad XR’s need a more elegant solution to ensure optimal alignment. The following are three options for solving this.
Here a guitar with a soapbar style rout is presented. The pickup baseplate is shaped to match and the coils are placed on the baseplate with the appropriate offset to ensure optimal polepiece alignment. This style of rout is seen in Strandberg Guitars’ Boden series and the Ibanez Iron Label series RGIF7 and RGIF8 guitars –
Next we see a different approach. With the skewed option below, the sides of the rout are kept parallel to the string axis. The other sides are angled appropriately to match the “projected-fret” as seen above, this time achieving a rhomboid shaped rout. This configuration is where our modular design really shines. The shape of this rhomboid will vary with the pickup-angle considerably and is not standardized as a soapbar rout is. With the modular XR design each coil can be located on the skewed baseplate independently for optimal alignment. This type of mounting can be seen in the Carvin/Kiesel multiscale AM6 and AM7 guitars and the bridge pickup of Conklin’s multiscale Sidewinder guitar –
Lastly we have a novel approach using our XR-Dual baseplates. Here we have a staggered rout with cavities for two separate single-width baseplates offset to optimize the polepiece alignment. This gives a unique look and removes the least amount of material from the top of the instrument –
These are certainly not the only configurations possible. The pickups could be mounted in a pickguard, or even mounted from the rear with only the coils themselves visible from the front. The possibilities are vast and fun to entertain.
Email info@cycfi.com to find out more about the options available for the Cycfi XR series pickups. Visit www.cycfi-research.com to view our web store and follow us and join the discussion on Twitter and Facebook, we’d like to hear what your favorite solution is.