Description
The Clydebucker is an original design by North Star Pickups.
Elements from various classic designs have been brought together to create an alternative to PAF® style humbuckers.
A pair of humbucker bobbins are trimmed down by a few mm in size in order to sit directly on a steel baseplate. Alnico polepieces are loaded stratight into the bobbins which repalces the 1950’s combination of a single large alnico bar magnetizing stainless steel slugs and screws. This simplified approach gets rid of the need for a spacer bar and maple shim which results in a simplified and compact design.
The use of indiviual alnico rods allows for some interesting attention to detail – the low-E, A and D string rods are alnico 5 whereas the G, B and high-E rods are alnico 2. This allows for a smoother high end as well as retaining a tight and punchy low end.
Cloth covered hook-up wire is used to ommit the need to connect the baseplate to earth. This helps produce a far more focused tone with the chime and bite usually associated with singlecoil pickups.
Both humbuckers are wrapped with string before being wax-potted (just like a vintage Telecaster® bridge pickup) creating a unique aesthetic and providing durable protection for the bobbins.
Clydebuckers are wound to have a DC resistance output similar to a vintage-voiced singlecoil rather than a PAF® style humbucker with the bridge reading approx 6.90kΩ* and the neck approx 6.05kΩ*. This makes for an extremely versitile and unique tone that incorporates the best of both worlds.
