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Post by axekicker on Jun 18, 2010 15:58:04 GMT -5
I think I read somewhere that EVH was the first to do this, but I'm guess it was Les Paul. Any ideas?
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Post by D2o on Jun 18, 2010 16:08:54 GMT -5
I think I read somewhere that EVH was the first to do this, but I'm guess it was Les Paul. Any ideas? I Googled "wax potting" and I'm willing to go with the first result that came up! D2o P.S. I trust you don't mind my tongue-in-cheek EVH humor.
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Post by axekicker on Jun 18, 2010 18:11:59 GMT -5
Doesn't answer who invented it. Or did I miss it?
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Post by axekicker on Jun 18, 2010 18:14:32 GMT -5
And don't tell me Al Gore, smart butt ;-)
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Post by D2o on Jun 18, 2010 18:28:18 GMT -5
No, you didn't miss it.
I really don't know, other than I think I recall reading that EVH learned of it from someone else ... Charvel, maybe?
Whoever it was that EVH heard it from said that he was one of the few guys doing it at that time ... so I guess it was still a newey idea - a working musician's secret weapon!
But where it originated, and when, I really don't know - it wasn't Al Gore
... how old is Sarah Palin?
... ah, never mind ... she just makes me wish I had wax potted ears.
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Post by chuck on Jun 18, 2010 23:20:31 GMT -5
wasnt John of JD guitars wax potting his pickups back in the early 70's ?
if i remember correctly , they were also sealed in epoxy .
..... mmmmmm Sarah Palin ... she can talk to me ANY time . my my my she may not have invented the process of wax potting pickups , but she is number one in my book ;D
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Post by newey on Jun 18, 2010 23:56:17 GMT -5
Wax and electrical components have a long history together. I'm going to guess that wax potting of pickups is older than any of the people so far mentioned.
It was certainly prior to 1950, as the original Fender Teles from that era are wax-potted.
Adolf Rickenbacker, perhaps?
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Post by newey on Jun 19, 2010 15:34:37 GMT -5
OK, guys, I haven't edited anyone's post here, but this discussion is turning political, which is inappropriate for the forum. Let's talk guitars and leave the rest for other venues . . .
EDIT: I took 'em out. Too much potential for starting a meltdown, no matter how unintentional at the beginning.
re-EDIT: Upon second thought, I'm not sorry I took out the political talking points, but I could have done it with simple Edits instead of wholesale carnage. I apologize for abusing my Weapons of Crass Destruction.
But the lesson learned here is, I don't play favorites - everyone gets it when they need it, my friends included.
sumgai
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Post by D2o on Jun 19, 2010 15:49:13 GMT -5
OK, guys, I haven't edited anyone's post here, but this discussion is turning political, which is inappropriate for the forum. Let's talk guitars and leave the rest for other venues . . . Sorry, newey - good call. Sorry, chuck - I was not intending to offend you. Cheers, D2o
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Post by sumgai on Jun 19, 2010 18:15:09 GMT -5
newey gets close - most sources give the nod to George Beauchamp, while working at Rickenbacker in the early 40's. Some fanboi's like to think it was Bill Lawrence, but he was quite a few years later. (However, you might give Bill kudos for kick-starting the whole after-market pickup industry.) Seth Lover came along in between those two, but he really gets the credit for the Humbucker, which wasn't potted for several years after its introduction. I have no hard and fast evidence, only anecdotal legend and lore. I'm open to persuasion that someone else first did the job.... but it better be good. sumgai
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Post by newey on Jun 19, 2010 21:53:32 GMT -5
Wax encasing things would have been second nature to any electrical designer, back to the 1910s and '20s. So, the first guy who ever heard a pickup squeal probably immediately thought "Dunk it in wax".
By 1955, Fender was lacquering their pickups to accomplish the same thing. But wax is easier to get out if you ever need to take it apart later. . .
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Post by chuck on Jun 19, 2010 21:56:56 GMT -5
hey D2o ... no offense taken pal i love a good exchange of ideas and information
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Post by gumbo on Jun 20, 2010 4:04:17 GMT -5
I tell ya, there's a few politicians on this side of the Ball that we'd like to see wax-potted!!! ;D ...seriously though, I just kinda thought that the whole wax-potting thing had been going on forever..I remember my dear old electrical-engineer Dad talking to me (in the 1950s) about stuff like that being very old-school.....and he had been working for the BBC in the 1930s & 40s...
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Post by chuck on Jun 20, 2010 9:33:12 GMT -5
isnt it amazing that that "we" always think that "we" invented EVERYTHING ?
our forefathers were not idiots ... they came up with a few pretty cool things way back when.
heck , our ancient ancestors created things that we cant duplicate today ... maybe in a few decades we will "invent" the technology to do what was being done thousands of years ago by " ignorant savages" ;D
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Post by newey on Jun 20, 2010 13:30:05 GMT -5
The Ancient Library of Alexandria is reputed to have contained hundreds of thousands of papyrus scrolls. To think that nothing in that collection was anything that we don't already know is naive, and statistically improbable as well.
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Post by chuck on Jun 27, 2010 20:39:41 GMT -5
AMEN !
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