Hum reducing pickup

[mac639]

Awhile ago I mentioned in another post that I was making a single coil shielded pickup in a slightly different way. I mentioned that I have a lot of rectangular aluminum tubing that I use whenever I can for parts construction. The couple of pictures attached show my best effort to date with a REALLY quiet single coil. The coil is wound to about 14.5k and is totally enclosed in the piece of rectangular pipe that's 1-1/4" OD and 1" ID. (1/8" wall of course). Magnets come out the top. It is totally silent, even more so than the humbuckers I usually wind. Anyway....just thought I'd throw this idea in the mix, maybe somebody else could use this idea. If you're wondering about the body, it's black walnut 7/8" thick and the aprons are some beautiful tamarack pieces I had. Can't believe this walnut....man is it hard and heavy! I found half a dozen ancient boards in the barn of the 160 year old place we bought 5 years ago. We have lots of walnut but I'll bet these boards were sawed a hundred years ago. They are nearly 12" wide and over 1" thick and 9 ft. long. I wanted to get the board for this guitar top down to 3/4" but gave up at 7/8".....nearly wore out my planer!
Cheers,
Mac

[Jif]

That's an interesting idea, do you think using the tubing alters the sound characteristics in any way?

[mac639]

Well.....I don't know about any interaction the aluminum casing would have. The guitar seems to sound good to my ears anyway. Every guitar I've built (19) sound different. I guess it's always a combination of all the parts.....body, changer, nut, strings, pickup etc. that makes one guitar sound different from it's neighbor. This guitar is a keyless with a solid nut rather than rollers, and the sustain is really great.
Mac

[azureskys]

Nice design on that pickup Mac.

[maxi19]

I like it, it's a nice train of thought.