Alright, here’s the deal. The rails will have to go. After our 2-week optimization bout, I realized that the steel rails are eating up some high frequencies (above 15kHz) causing a slight droop in the frequency response. The rails increase the overall inductance, which lowers the resonant frequency. It could have been easy to have a mild HF boost, but the baseline I am comparing it to, the original XR pickup: the golden standard, does not have any such droop. I will not compromise for anything less with XR-Spectra.
So, without the rails, what can I do? A bare, boring cover, like EMGs? Or how about LED backlit acrylic rails?
Tell me your thoughts. Of course, this is only available with the active configuration and or course, it can be switched off, or dimmed if needed. LEDs consume quite a bit of power from the batteries, so there’s that. But port-powered systems, such as the Nexus, should not have this problem. And hey, rechargeable batteries come in handy.
Hi Joel, the thing to watch out for with acrylic rails is that they must look good regardless of whether they are lit up or not. From all the other designs you did I trust you that what you come up with will look stylish.
Cheers,
Holger
How about short rail sections under each string position. Should reduce the inductance while accommodating a range of string spacings. I like that better than LEDs sucking power.
What I am attempting to do now is use multiple laminated sheets, much like in transformers. It’s looking like that, it’s not just the inductance (we’ve done frequency response tests prior), but also eddy currents that might be causing the droop. We’ll know by the end of the day.
The LEDs are very stylish, but I would actually like some customization option better. Why not have two small holes so that people can attach their own cover via two equally small studs? You could even sell them…
Interesting idea. Tell me more about it. I’m not 100% sure I know what you mean. What customization options are you thinking? Where are the two small holes?