Alumitone Pickup Design Revealed

[Pat Comeau]

Here's a link to youtube i found about how the alumitone pickup is made and function.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI8sMJVjHrY&NR=1

Pat C.

[Jim Smith]

I watched the video but I guess I must have missed the "design secret" mentioned in the title.

[Bent]

oh they will never reveal the design secrets. They wouldn't sell pickups that way. They just put on a video as a teaser without really teaching you anything at all.
If you want to know how anything is made you have to buy one and tear it apart and analyze it.

[mac639]

I think the "secret" is just a small transformer inside that transforms the really low impedance of the single turn coil (bar) into something a lot higher to couple to the amp. It would probably be similar to a tiny audio output transformer operating in reverse. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Bent]

Mac, something like a pre amp and a power amp?

[Bay]

I've been searching the design and found this... http://music-electronics-forum.com/t19305/

[mac639]

Bent, You will find a lot of stuff on the site that Bay mentioned. I haven't read all the bits yet but what I was referring to was either a low to high(er) impedance transformer like in a low-z mike or...remember when transistor radios came out first there was a small audio transformer between the output transistors and the speaker. That's what I was thinking of. Being a "ham radio operator" for over 50 years (VE2ANU) I've played around with a lot of this kind of stuff. I tried out that concept for a pickup using a small audio transformer a long long time ago but never actually made a working one. Anyway it's an interesting pickup and more power to LACE if they become really popular. I've never seen one in person!

[Bent]

Mac I am in the unique position to try one out. A kind steel player loaned me his Alumitone for as long as I wish. I will give it a good going over.

[mac639]

Bent....that's cool, lucky you!
Can you do one thing? Just measure the ohms on the wires that comes out where you'd hook it to the guitar jack. It'd be interesting to know what you're actually feeding your amp with. Then we can guess how it gets from practically zero ohms from the one turn coil to however much it is at the output. It'd be nice if you had a scope and could measure the output voltage as well, but whatever.
I don't have the time to fool around with that stuff right now anyway. I'm building two more steels as we speak. Both SD10s, one keyed and the other keyless. Both made from beautiful old butternut lumber. It's nearly as hard as maple and with a lovely grain. One will be 3/5 pedals and the other one 4/4 I think. Coming along good so far.
Cheers,
Mac

[Bent]

Mac, I envy you - the way you get orders no prob. Now you're working on two at the same time...How neat is that!!
I'll measure the OMS right now.
I need instructions..Can the output voltage be measured wit h my multimeter as well? If so let me know, and exact setting on the meter to achieve this.
PS I just measured the resistance which was 4.97 ohm
I found no way to measure the voltage