Latest Newark Street pickups (Mini Hums) on the Starfires?

[F30]

So does anyone here care to comment on the latest Newark Street Starfire pickups?
Still thinking about getting a Starfire as I reduce my guitar herd.
What do you think about the pickups on the current models out?

 

[guitarlover]

I have a NS Starfire iv (few years old) and I really like these humbuckers.
There is a mimatch between the bridge and neck pickup though. Personally that does not bother me too much but some players swap the bridhe and neck pickup.

 

[F30]

Are they still coming out with ~5k Bridge Alnico 5 and ~7k Neck Alnico 5?

 

[F30]

Can't you just adjust the bridge up and neck down to balance or are we taking more mismatch than that?
I still think the Starfires in all their variant models are some of the coolest looking electrics offered out there

 

[GGJaguar]

I have been able to adjust the LB-1s on all my NS models to get good balance and tone for my needs. YMMV

 

[F30]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[F30]

From an older post
......Guitar pickups can be measured a few different ways: resistance (ohms K), inductance (Henries) and output in millivolts are all typical measurements. While any of these measurements can give you a ball park estimate of your pickup output (when compared to another identical pickup), they don’t tell the whole story. For that, you’d need to compare all three different measurements as well as components used and overall pickup efficiency. For example, the Starfire bridge pickup does have a lower resistance than the neck; however, it is wound with 41g wire. The neck pickup is wound with 42g wire. This difference in component alone will impact the resistance of the pickup. 41g is a thicker wire and as you increase your wire thickness, you decrease the amount of resistance.....

 

[matsickma]

From a figure-of-merit POV measuring the Voltage output would be the purest way to assess the pickup. However that also has be address over various frequency ranges to be sonically meaningful. The inductance is related to the magnet(s) and the number of wire windings.

Resistance is most common measurement but from a circuit POV it is the most misleading. Fatter wire is lower in resistance. Resistance is a measure of wasted energy being transformed into heat. It is a simple measurement and so most common. For example if you were able to use a material at room temperature that was super conducting (i.e. no resistance) you would not be able to assess a pickup with a resistance measurement yet the pickup performance may be outstanding. The number of windings is the item directly proportional to the output voltage. The magnet type, orientation and shape will set the starting frequency signature.

If you imagine a pickup with superconducting wire with no resistance, the wire wraps and magnet set the basic tone and voltage output. However as you wrap more and more wire around the magnet and increasing the voltage you also increase the inductance. Inductance "chokes out" the higher frequencies. Essentially a series inductor in a circuit looks like a Low Pass Filter, LPF. That is why humbuckers and highly wound single coils begin to loose their bright tone. The resulting Inductance rolls off the upper frequencies. The more you add windings the higher the voltage output but you progressively loose more high end frequencies. The LPF effect cuts the upper frequency level and moves the filter frequency lower.

Ultimately you get a hot pickup that drives the input to the amplifier harder and saturating the preamp stage at the expense of high freq rolloff.

So truth be told resistance is not the best way to assess a pickup because different wire material, thickness and coatings influence the loss or resistance and resistance is wasted energy turned into heat. However real wire is what we got and it's easy to measure. But it can lead to misunderstanding as in the case of the mini Guild humbuckers.

I've always found the Guild small humbuckers to be tricky to setup and balance on a guitar. In regards to an application...positioning a pickup in an area where the strings displaces a wider region, like near the neck, will increase the voltage output of the pickup. Positioning the pickup near the bridge does the opposite effect. It reduces the amount the string can be displaced and the corresponding voltage output of the pickup decreases.

Bottom line their is a complicated number of items being adjusted to get a good balance between the guitar pickups and Guild mini pickups are more of a challenge to get the tone and balance you want.

M

 

[Dirtyhands]

I’m not technically educated enough to understand the various pickups levels of individual parameters. I can only go by what my ears are hearing. That said, I can usually adjust the height of my pickups to make minor adjustments.

 

[F30]

Thanks matsickma for the explanation

 

[F30]

this is wild

 

[SFIV1967]

this is wild

Well, that is exactly how it is done! Nice video.

Ralf

 

[rg2002]

I recently acquired a NS Starfire IV 12-string, and in addition to having the pots/switches/wiring replaced, I'm considering having the pickups re-wound, or maybe replacing them with a set of TV Jones T-Armands.

 

[F30]

A Starfire with T-Armands...I:d like to hear that

 

[GGJaguar]

A Starfire with T-Armands.

I put them in my X-160 Rockabilly. The are better than the stock pickups, but they still don't exactly sound like vintage DeArmonds. They are certainly closer to DeArmonds than the stock pickups, though. I'm tempted to try a set of Duncan Dynasonics in the NS Starfire III Dyna and I've heard good things about them. The cost more than the TVJones T-Armonds and are over a third of the cost of the guitar itself. And I'm thinking about Dynasonic'ing a couple of other guitars first, so the SF-III will have to wait.

 

[Default]

Are they still coming out with ~5k Bridge Alnico 5 and ~7k Neck Alnico 5?

Yes, they are that still. Probably doesn't make a difference if you play through a fuzztone, but if you like the sweet spot in a tube amp, it makes it more difficult to dial that in.
Me? I can't stand the mismatch at all. Not hard to fix in production, but it's easier and cheaper for corporate denial.
It's great that other people can tweak it to their satisfaction, but I hate to come up with a half-assed solution for an easily corrected manufacturing issue.
If it can be tweaked to be ok, just imagine how good it would sound if you didn't have to screw with it...

 

[F30]

Thanks GGJaquar & Default for the info
I actually returned the "New" Starfire III with Mini Hums as it was not as described and was probably a return that they didn't even bother cleaning. Was supposed to be factory sealed - what is up with some of these dealers????
Oh well I think I'll wait patiently for my Novaks to go in my Sunburst M75 and be thankful for the good things, I have, that will be better.

 

[LesB3]

I put them in my X-160 Rockabilly. The are better than the stock pickups, but they still don't exactly sound like vintage DeArmonds. They are certainly closer to DeArmonds than the stock pickups, though. I'm tempted to try a set of Duncan Dynasonics in the NS Starfire III Dyna and I've heard good things about them. The cost more than the TVJones T-Armonds and are over a third of the cost of the guitar itself. And I'm thinking about Dynasonic'ing a couple of other guitars first, so the SF-III will have to wait.

I never really bonded with TVJ T-Armonds, to me they weren't bad pickups, but not really anything distinctive about them either.

I actually have a PE Gretsch 6120 that came with Gretsch Dynas, fully expected to want to replace them with SD Dynas but ended up liking them just fine. Much better than the cheaper sounding Guild "dynas" in my SFII.

Sometimes the Gretsch dynas show up on Reverb for cheap, so might be a good alternative to the SD's to try.

 

[Smiert Spionam]

I quite like the T'Armonds, and was glad to replace the Gretsch reissue Dynas in my Japanese Duo Jet with them. In that guitar, the TVJ were better balanced than the Gretsch pickups. I haven’t spent enough time with the Duncans to have a strong opinion, but they seem great, too. They’re all better than the pseudo-DeArmonds in newer Gretsches (or the Korean DeArmonds, for that matter).