SCN Pickups - the Patent

[ChrisK]

As invented by Willi Stich (THE Bill Lawrence) and Licensed to FMIC (Fender Musical Instrument Corporation).

www.google.com/patents?id=oymAAAAAEBAJ&dq=7,227,076

[newey]

I love reading patents. The "claims" portion is always an interesting exercise, to determine how many different ways one can express the same concept- so as to leave no claim unclaimed!

The grammar and verbiage therein would make your H.S. English teacher's head spin a la Linda Blair.

But we've come a long way since 1935:

Pat. No. 2119584

You could actually build a pickup from the above patent- not so much from the SCN one.

And, note the reference to dealing with the noise problem, even back then!:

"A structure of such nature as to be insensitive to stray electric and magnetic fields"

Guy was a guitar nut for sure.

[andy]

'tuned vibrators of magnetic material'! At least he is covered for the day someone uses his design for the electric zither!

All that contract style blurb is hell to me. The hours of work that must go into that sort of thing just spell a bigger kick to give yourself when someone uses your design in the one possible instance you didn't contrive to forsee.

I do prefer the typeface and hand-drawn diagrams of the '38 patent though. Does that make me a hopeless retrophile?

[newey]

Does that make me a hopeless retrophile?

No, there's hope. The hopeless ones believe their axes need cloth-covered wiring to get that "Vintage Sound"

[D2o]

That Knoblaugh dude was a forward thinker, as his pickup concept appears to have been applied to some airports.



I like how later airport designs appear to have incorporated tone controls in the middle - it looks like they ponied up for Orange Drop caps too.



I don't know what this is ... maybe Japan's "Jetson Airport"?

[ChrisK]

D2o, that's a double decker 18 position selector switch for satellite radio.

[ijustwannastrat]

newey, are you suggesting that cloth covered wire does not give a vintage tone? And if so, I think you should take this up with Dirk Wacker, from Premier Guitar dot Com. (You can't use black beauties without vintage cloth wire!)

[newey]

newey, are you suggesting that cloth covered wire does not give a vintage tone?

I'm not suggesting it, I'm stating it. As I (and others) have said before, a piece of wire either has continuity or it doesn't. If it doesn't, then it will affect your tone adversely, since you won't have any output, and thus, no tone whatsoever.

Mr. "Dirk Wacker" 's article (in quotes because I can't believe that's not a pseudonym ) from Premier Guitar was discussed at some length here a while back, but I can't seem to find the link right now. If he wasn't kidding about the cloth wire, then yes, I disagree.

And I haven't used Black Beauties since I was cramming for finals in college.