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Draig doom set

Draig doom set NZ$379 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$329.56

Draig doom single humbucker bridge NZ$199 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$173.04

Bridge covers are $20 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$17.39

Draig doom single P90 neck NZ$189 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$164.35

Draig doom set specifications: Alnico VI – Bridge 9.18 KOhms, 7.42H, Ceramic 8 – Neck 6.96 KOhms

The Draig doom set is a pickup set designed for all the genres encompassed by Doom Metal. It has strong mids, smooth treble and a bass response immediate enough to cope with low tunings but not the harsh, dry percussive bass needed for extreme metal. It really is all in the bass and mids.

Draig doom set in chrome and open chrome covers

The Draig is inspired by the sound of Tony Iommi and that heavy riffing guitar tone, mid forward. Iommi’s tone has been in my head since I was a teenager m, I’m delighted to make this pickup available.

Power and Tone

But there’s another factor with this pickup. You’ll notice the Ohms for the bridge are in the 9Krange, lower that you might expect for a powerful humbucker. This is all about increasing the dynamics and reducing compression. When using heavy fuzz, it’s really useful to be able to back off using just playing technique; the Draig is designed to do just that. It’s designed to work along with your fuzz.

The coils are tuned to give the Draig its tonal characteristics with the magnet providing the engine.

Draig Doom Humbucker by Mr Glyn's Pickups
Draig in ‘Dragon Breath’

Pickups designed to derive most of their power from the strength of the coil, rather than the magnet, sound smooth, even and compressed like my Attitude humbucker. The Draig bridge gets a lot of power from its oversized alnico 6 magnet. This makes the Draig touch sensitive, dynamic and punchy.

Draig doom humbucker in chrome
Chrome cover Draig

So why alnico 6 in the Draig doom bridge humbucker?

Alico 6 has similar properties to the more familiar alnico 5 but with more mids – it’s all about the mids. As you’d imagine, it has a little more power too.

Draig Doom Bridge Humbucker
Draig bridge humbucker

Draig doom bridge humbucker design

It wasn’t an easy pickup to design. It was designed for low tuning but with more of a Doom vibe in mind. I’ve made pickups before for extreme metal and it a very different approach to the bottom end. With extreme metal the bottom needs to be much drier and more immediate and percussive. With the bass on this one I’ve tried to walk the line between over hard and dry on one side and soggy and undefined on the other.

The choice of magnet was a big part of this. A bigger magnet has a more immediate response than the conventional size and I experimented with a few different types of alnico, finally settling on alnico 6. This oversized alnico 6 magnet gives all the punch and immediacy I wanted but with slightly stronger mids than alnico 5. Being an unusual size and material, I get these magnets manufactured specifically for this bridge pickup.

Like with many pickups to focus on the winding alone is telling only a small part of the story. The winding is 9.18K Ohms which might seem small but it’s all about balancing the mids. That oversized alnico 6 magnet is where the power comes from. The blade pole pushes more of that magnetic energy to the side of the pickup furthest away from the bridge, lessening the ‘pingy’ high end. It’s all about balancing the tone and emphasizing the mids.

Draig doom humbucker in uncovered black
Open, no cover Draig

I made a short video explaining the thought behind the Draig pickup and how it works:

Draig

Test, tweak and test – Draig doom set

I rigorously test all my pickups in various situations, different amps, pedals and always next to a drummer. For the Draig I asked Timmy Smalls in Australia for his opinion on the Draig bridge humbucker. He has a great Instagram channel and makes fantastic demo videos. Always good to have a second opinion you can trust.

There are always changes along the way; this video is from when the Draig had an alnico 5 magnet.

Draig neck – humbucker size P90

With the success of the Draig bridge pickup I was asked by a few players about a matching neck pickup to complete the Draig doom set.

It was an interesting challenge. I wanted the neck to have a similar ‘mids forward’ character to the bridge pickup. It needed a smooth lead tone but a lot of clarity when playing chords. It needed to hit a fuzz pedal with just the right amount of power so as not to make the sound into an undefined mush. And it needed to be a good match for the bridge pickup.

I decided upon a humbucker size P90.

P90’s have a very different magnetic field to humbuckers with woody mids and less of a lower midrange push. It’s those lower mids that can create a mush.

After a lot of experimenting I landed on a combination of winds and magnet that did what I want.

I used a pair of undersized ceramic magnets that I have specially made for me. Ceramic has a drier tone than alnico which helps with the clarity and I designed the coil windings to compensate for the ceramic’s reduced mid range.

After some tweaking and, as ever, playing the pickup set alongside a drummer and bass player I was happy.

The Draig neck pickup has a different look to the bridge but I think they compliment each other well.

The name – “Draig”

So why call it ‘Draig’? Well, the word Draig means dragon in Welsh and although I’ve lived in New Zealand since ’05 I was born and grew up in Wales.

Roboguy Logo. Draig Doom Humbucker

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updated 26 June 2023

Draig doom humbucker

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HS Strat Wiring

HS Strat wiring diagram

Here’s a suggested wiring diagram for a HS Strat.

I originally drew it up for Gabor from superfunawesimehappytime pedal show.

He has a green Strat with a Mr Glyns Tui neck pickup and a Cloud Nine bridge pickup that he’s been using for YouTube pedal demos. https://www.youtube.com/c/thesuperfunawesomehappytimepedalshow

HS Strat Wiring diagram

The format is:

1 Humbucker

2 Coil tap Humbucker

3 Humbucker and Neck

4 Coil tap Humbucker and Neck

5 Neck

The 470K Ohm resistor is there so that the humbucker ‘sees’ the volume pot as 500KOhm and the single coil ‘sees’ it as 250KOhm, clever eh.

Here is is in action:

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updated 4 September 2023

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HS Strat Wiring

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Kōkako Strat Pickup

Single Kōkako Strat Pickup NZ$129 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$112.17

Set Kōkako Strat Pickup NZ$339 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas they’re GST free; NZ$294.78

AlnicoV – Neck 6.15 KOhms, 2.79H, Middle 6.15 KOhms, 2.79H, Bridge 6.64 KOhms, 3.08H

The Kōkako Strat Pickup is is strongly influenced by the Fender Stratocaster pickups of the 60’s but with a little more. It has a full yet clear bottom end , smooth highs and clear mids. It’s aimed at players who love the sounds of Frusciante and Hendrix.

The Kokako set was spawned by a few things coming together in November ’22.

For a while I’ve been offering my Bellbird Strat set with various winding options – 5% under, 5% over or 10% over wound. I’ve been playing with a 10% over wound set in one of my own Strats and for me they have ‘that’ vintage Strat tone that’s perfect with a little dirt be it fuzz or overdrive.

I was sent a Strat pickup to re-wind and the customer told me his ideal sound was Hendrix.

I’d just read an article saying how Seymour Duncan had wound some pickups for Hendrix and the spec of those pickups looked very similar to the 10% over wound Bellbirds.

That got me thinking.

The same day a customer contacted me wanting advice about my pickups and which one would be best for a John Frusciante sound.

Well, it’s the Bellbird +10%.

Kokako Strat Pickup

I thought this was too good to let go.

I could have left the pickup as a version of the Bellbird but decided it needed its own life.

My Strat pickups are named after native New Zealand birds like the Bellbird and the Tui; I chose the Kokako because its song reflects the tonal characteristics of the pickups. I wanted a bird that has a song fatter and fuller sounding than the Bellbird but not as aggressive as the Tui – so Kōkako Strat Pickup it is.

Here’s the original Bellbird pickup https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/bellbird-vintage-strat-set/

And YouTube demos of all my Strat pickups https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOdXLT6XwMymw8-Kvl1fQi1wfkQ-iDg7z

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updated 22 Sept 2023

Kōkako Strat Pickup

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Pickup Phase Explained

In this short video – Pickup Phase Explained – I look at what phase is, what it isn’t and why you need to know.

I use a Strat to demonstrate the ‘out of phase’ sound and how it would sound if it really was out of phase. There’s no maths, no diagrams. Just a simple explanation with a guitar to demonstrate.

Positions 2 and 4 on Strat switches are often referred to as ‘out of phase’ when they really aren’t. Those positions are the sound of 2 pickups in parallel (a humbucker is in series). Out of phase is quite different as you’ll hear in this video.

There is another video in this series explaining how to test phase – the easy way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lhnCf4JIyw&t=3s

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For more blog posts https://mrglynspickups.com/blog/

Updated July 2023

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How To Test Pickup Phase

As part of my series on How Pickups Work here is How To Test Pickup Phase – The Easy Way.

There is, of course, a hard way and that’s putting pickups into a guitar and having a listen later. That’s fine if you get it right first time but a pain if you have to re-wire the pickup again later.

In this video I demonstrate how to use a cheap test meter to identify which phase your pickup is in out of the guitar.

Traditionally, Gibson style and Fender style pickups are in the opposite phase to each other. This is just how it is.

So it’s really useful to know how to wire your pickups especially if they have an unfamiliar colour code. In my line of work I often repair pickups. I need to send them back to the customer in the correct phase. This is the simple test I use.

I realised after making this video that I needed to make another on what pickup phase actually is. So here’s a link to that one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eX2VLEDHLY&t=153s

In this second video I demonstrate the sound of pickups out of phase so you can hear the difference which is, of course, the whole point.

There is also a demonstration of the Strat ‘out of phase’ sound and how it isn’t out of phase at all – yeah really! The sound of positions 2 and 4 on a Strat are 2 pickups in parallel.

Roboguy Logo for Mr Glyns Pickups Test Pickup Phase

Here is more about Mr Glyn’s Pickups – https://mrglynspickups.com/mrglyns-pickups/

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How To Test Pickup Phase