Tone Tuning Technology™
The pole piece is the single most important part of the pickup. The pole piece “colors” the tone as it focuses and filters the magnetic flux from the vibrating string.
Our Tone Tuning Technology more than anything else is pole piece engineering. We’ve built a quantitative understanding of tonal response and a library of pole piece materials that allow us to go anywhere on the tonal map and with a degree of predictability and finesse that nobody else can offer.
When we talk about the “voice” or the basic character of a pickup, we’re talking mostly about the tonal signature imparted to the pickup by the electro-magnetic properties of the pole piece. Eddy current effects in the pole piece, driven by material properties and material thickness, influence how the magnetic flux emanating from the string is filtered through the pole piece.
Our models are based on voicings corresponding to a series of pickups built around a basic pole piece configuration. The pole piece defines the voice and we can take that basic voice and dial it in at different output levels by adjusting the number of turns of wire in the coils coils and the strength of the magnets we use.
We can take the same basic design platform and dial it in from open, glassy and Stratty, say using an “5” voice at a relatively low wind like our Z-Core 5 Vintage Underwound, a little rounder take on a single coil tone (like with AlNiCo2 magnets) with our “2” voice, to rock and roll humbucker using our Juicy voice at a high wind, and all kinds of stuff in between. Our Fat 5, Convertible and Throaty voicings all represent tonal responses that you don’t typically find in the conventional space, and are examples of how we use our Tone Tuning Technology to dial in our tones with an unprecedented level of predictability and finesse.