Lollar Pickups Blog

Postcards from NAMM 2010

This year’s NAMM show proved to be a fun and worthwhile event.
Jason was able to visit many of the booths of our friends and customers, and also make progress on a few projects that we look forward to being a part of in the future.

Not to mention, have a little bit of fun.  Have a look at some of the photos below.

Jason Lollar & Seymour Duncan. Can you guess what they are talking about?

James Williamson of Iggy Pop greets Jason & Stephanie Lollar

You likely have read the recent blog posting about Jason’s work to reproduce the humbuckers in James Williamson’s “Raw Power” Les Paul.  If you haven’t, scroll down to the December 7th posting.

Jason visits with Gregg from Heritage Guitars. The Heritage H530 features our standard wind Lollar P-90s.

Lollar and guests at Saturday night's Guitar Geek Festival

The 7th Annual Guitar Geek Festival was definitely among the personal favorites.  The show featured a variety of acts, including a performance by rock and roll hall of fame member Duane Eddy, Deke Dickerson’s tribute to Johnny Ramone, and even a live review of the History of the Steel Guitar.

A special review of the new Phoenix, built by Scott Walker Guitars:

Lollar Blade Style pickups are featured on the "Phoenix"

We wish Scott Walker, of Scott Walker Guitars, the best of luck with one of his newest releases – the Phoenix. This project actually started in 2007 with Scott and Steve Kimock, and a conversation about guitar ergonomics. Some time later in that ongoing conversation Steve contacted Jason to seek some advice about pickup design. Jason recalls that Steve had some specific goals in mind, and the two of them worked together to try to accomplish what Steve was “aiming” for.

Steve had purchased a number of Lollar pickups over time, including a few custom items. For example, Steve had liked the Charlie Christian blade style concept, and he had previously asked Jason to make a custom blade style pickup in a single coil design fairly similar to a Strat build. In other words, a taller pickup with a more focused, brighter sound. But for the project that eventually turned out to be the Phoenix, Steve became intrigued by the wider, flat shape of a Jazzmaster style pickup. Something that would be less bright than the tone that is created by a taller, narrower coil.

After the overall coil shape was identified, two more related elements came into clear view – the blade and its overall extension beyond the normal center-to-center outside string spacing. In other words, Steve wanted the blade to extend further beyond each side of the high and low strings so that there were no drop-outs when string-bending, and so there would be no drop in response in the high E string.

A blade style pickup can increase output and sustain

The blade itself is also an important feature of the pickups. The blade does two things that affect the overall function of the pickup. A ferrous (iron) based blade propagates the magnetically field differently than individual pole pieces. The blade also increases the inductance of the pickup. Inductance is a measurement of a pickup’s ability to convert the physical vibration of the string and convert it into and electrical signal. The end result is that the pickup will give you a fuller sound, a little more overall output, and a longer sustain as compared against a Fender style Jazzmaster pickup.

We wish Scott the best of luck with the new Scott Walker Guitars Phoenix. For more information on the guitar, you can go directly to the Scott Walker Guitars web site.