magnetic pickup?

[AnalogUniverse]

i once heard a recording made in the london underground using a magnetic pickup instead of a microphone. the guy who made the recording i think built the pickup as well, but, essentially it just grabbed any magnetic fields in the area that were fluxing in the audible range. the sound of the magnetic field around the train engines may as well have been a brian eno synth piece : )

so.. anyone know what kind of device this could have been, and even better how i might get/make one? i wonder if a tape head could be modified..

[AnalogUniverse]

bumpity bumpity



should this be in geekslutz?

[joeq]

It sounds interesting so I tried searching for this recording with the magnetic pickup. I am usually a pretty good Finder of what I am looking for but I couldn't find anything. I even tried other cities, in case you were mistaken about the London part. nada.

An interesting side note, I came across an interview with Seymour Duncan where he described an occasion where he claims Andy Summers' guitar's pickups got DEMAGNETIZED by the trains in the London Underground. That's some magnetic field those trains must put out!

Now Duncan was the one who built the Giant Pickup for the Giant Guitar for the Discovery Channel's BIG! show, so maybe there is some connection, but is in California and he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would make such an 'arty' recording.

[AnalogUniverse]

it took me a while to search it out again as well...

http://www.quietamerican.org/downloa.../vacation.html
the june 21, 2004 entry

[Zeppelin4Life]

well, thats the whole theory behind the electric guitar/bass pickup, right? Sounds weird, but feasable. Im following this thread, just wanted to point out the obvious.

[Rodney Gene]

Originally Posted by AnalogUniverse

i once heard a recording made in the london underground using a magnetic pickup instead of a microphone. the guy who made the recording i think built the pickup as well, but, essentially it just grabbed any magnetic fields in the area that were fluxing in the audible range. the sound of the magnetic field around the train engines may as well have been a brian eno synth piece : )

so.. anyone know what kind of device this could have been, and even better how i might get/make one? i wonder if a tape head could be modified..

It wasn't guitar pickup coils...but something like it. Although any unpotted guitar pickup has a microphone like quality...That is why they call a 'squeaky' pickup 'microphonic'.

An interesting side note, I came across an interview with Seymour Duncan where he described an occasion where he claims Andy Summers' guitar's pickups got DEMAGNETIZED by the trains in the London Underground. That's some magnetic field those trains must put out!

Actually it wasn't a single train ride...but years on the train that slowly degaussed Andy's pickups making them weaker and therefore softer and spongier in tone...Hence Seymour (whom I have done work for years) invented his Antiquity line. He actually created / Invented a controlled way to deguass Alnico 2 and 5 magnets to get a vintage tone or a natural aged tone.

BTW...Never use a soldering GUN while working on guitar electronics...the coil in it can easily deguass your pickups. If you have ceramic high gain pickups you can simply kill the magnet as ceramic magnets are either 100% or dead.


Respect,

[joeq]

Originally Posted by AnalogUniverse

it took me a while to search it out again as well...

http://www.quietamerican.org/downloa.../vacation.html
the june 21, 2004 entry

that was really neat. thanks!