Crazy Experiment! Use a Relay as a Guitar Pickup 

There's a guy called heavymetalATC here on youtube who tests pickup ideas and designs, and one of the things he tested is Neodymium magnets. He found that they give an overwhelming bass response instead of the parroted "ice pick highs" and that they also have similar, if not better sustain than alnicos. Of course, the best way to balance them is to underwind the pickup compared to alnico, and that then gives you a really clear, crisp, broad response overall.

There is a woman on TalkBass who wound her own bass pickups for a build she was making. She went the whole nine yards with bobbins and coil wire, made a winding device with a counter that tracks each rotation so she could wind each pickup the same, it was very cool but it was a lot of work, at least up front to set it all up. I bet with a setup like that one could use it to make different kinds of pickups. For someone without as much patience like me, though, your idea here is cool. I like repurposing stuff like this and I agree the industrial look of it is appealing.

I can't wait to see a 6 string with those pickups.

Hi there, I'm so thrilled to experience your channel. I love to experiment on musical instruments, so this is a great inspiration for me. Thanks a lot Mark

Brushless motors are CHOCK-full of coils!!! I busted open a fan motor and used half of the armature as a pickup. a coil of copper around a magnetic polepiece, thats all ya need!

For a higher coil resistance just use a higher voltage relay as it will have more windings. Also, AC relays will have a different sound than DC relay coils since the coils also work as inductors. A relay coil can make for a good string driver in a sustainer circuit also. Just use a lower voltage relay so the driver circuit can drive the coil better. Thank you for sharing with us.

I've seen boards with channels like that in Home Depot beneath stacks of plywood, boards, drywall. They are spacers and the groove is for the metal banding that holds each stack together and the spacers allow a forklift to slide its blades between the stacks to pick them up and move them. Oh...and thanks for asking: love da background music.

Why doesn't this channel have more views? ..Once again a brilliant video...thanks for sharing!

Hi, I was very intrigued by your video on this approach. I'm an electric guitar builder and was also interested in exploring beyond the current technology to give more options in sound from pickups. This like magnetic field control and individual pickup arrangements as you suggested. The thought of having single string pickups be customized in their location on the guitar could open up new possibilities rather than just bridge and neck placement. Together with a string eq mixer combo could open up a whole new approach. thanks

The neodymium circlejerk is just that. You can make great pickups with any kind of magnet, you just need the size the magnet and adjust the pickup height after it's magnetic strength.

These 12-volt relays are used a lot in the 1970s and 80s cars snd can be had for practically free at your local wrecking yard.

With single string pickups, you could even have them mobile...able to slide to different positions...totally customizable pickup shapes. So fun!

Hey Mark! I was just looking for a way to do this so I can use strings to trigger drums. I think I'm going to have to try using the relays. This is perfect!

Thinking out of the box is excellent , i will try something for my next diy pickup 🙂

That's clever ! I may try it, I have a Big box of this thingies.

Pretty good idea good for old sci fyi movie sound effects

Just what I needed to see! I'm drawing up a lap steel that would also incorporate a single, fretted bass string and wanted to put together a single pole pickup, which is when I came across this. Watched it at work then headed straight to the stores. 24vdc relays had 0.6k, 230v 9k.....110v.....4k perfect......And free!

This is a great idea/experiment. This would be great for my upright bass.

This process is how the coolest stuff gets developed. Keep it up Mark!

I think one of the potential uses for this is positioning a number of them along a string to pickup the various harmonics and blend them together in different mixes. Bonus points to put the sum through a state variable filter ( resonant low pass ) to “voice” the output. Very interesting.

Good idea Mark.

Amazing video, Thank you.

It sounds surprisingly clear and pleasant. Kind of fast and absolutely not dry. Very interesting.

It sounds pretty good!

The last part about your observations on "design language" is really interesting. I love your open mind. Great video!

Nice hack. I will def try this for building an electroduochord.

Twin Peaks sound...very cool !

is it possible to make a pickup for a six-string guitar by arranging the coils in a checkerboard pattern?) that would be interesting to watch!

Great Video, Mark! You're on your way to making a Hexaphonic Pickup system. If you do, I suggest utilizing the wiring topology of the PS/2 standard for personal computers. They have M/F jacks ready to go and have a core of six leads. This way, you don't have crazy wires going to and from your modified guitar and your 6 TS-F breakout box. How much gain are you using after your magnetic relay pickup?

Cool!

I'm gonna have to try this. I know I've got some relays with failed contacts out in my tool box.

yes! more weird guitar stuff! 👏

no stone unturned! love this exploration of new ways of creating electric guitars, keep at it, loving every stage of your work

Very cool "experiment." Sounds great, and the "bamboo transition flooring" looks remarkably like a fretboard. 🤔

wow nice Expeeiment

Very cool ideas. Could you potentially wire these with all kinds of switches to put seperate strings in Series/Parallel and In/Out Phase too? I'm going to be designing another 3d printed guitar, and am very seriously looking into these as an option.

Interesting video! Just a thought, you could design a small circular circuit board fairly easily that would allow you to quickly make the bobbin only version. It could have 2 small slots in the outside that lead to large pads to easily solder the fine wire to, and then tracks to each pad for the pickups wires. Being 2 wires, this would even make it easy if you wanted to use shielded wire (Hot on the internal wire, ground on the shield), makes your multi-pickup idea fairly compact. Getting a large grid of something so small manufactured and sent to you would be really cheap, so the price per piece would be extremely low. But maybe i'm just overengineering things bahaha.

It's only a magnet while the juice is applied an electromagnet is basically just a coil of wire around an iron core when you apply voltage to it it creates a magnetic field

WOW!!!! Brother...you are absolutely fascinating, as you share your depth of thought, and breadth of actions. You mentioned "being in a box"!!! This is a mantra for me, in that I am doing all I can to alter mindsets to not accept being misguided to "remain inside a box systematically chosen for us all"! Yes, this is a bit off from the superb approach you have considered for an individualized string pickup but.....in a way, they are indeed very similar. My friend...I will watch your work very closely, as I am very receptive to study your thoughts, and methods towards EXPANSION!!! Thank You Very Much 🖖🏼

11:43 Love the new soundtrack for the remake of 'Repo Man"....very cool ! ..Thanks !! ( 2.. , the new Kodo ( is that what they call 'em ? ) " Make instruments !...not war !!

It'd be nice to be able to make a replacement hexaphonic pickup for the Roland GK2A

amazing djent stick

This was great, thanks for sharing this. The sound is really indistinguishable from a full on guitar. Props for finding the harmonics and bringing out the game changing ebow! Btw, what synths/plugins did you use for the music in the beginning? I love that high pitched boards of Canada style patch you had going on

Cool idea, not sure what gear, gadgets and gizmos you were using but had a very Pink Floyd feel to it, all from 1 string 👍

It would be interesting to know what level of ac voltage your coil setup is generating in your 1 string guitar. Do these sort of pickups generate millivolts or is it closer to volts when the string is vibrating above the pickup ?

Cool diy project. Round/cylindrical guitar pickups are really nothing new. EMG makes them for the NS electric upright basses, and Atlansia guitars of Japan has been making & using them since at least the 1980's. Open up a Wal multi-coil pickup and you'll see a pair of cylindrical pickups per string under the square pickup shell. Ernie Ball uses neo magnets in their pickups, as does Nordstrand in the pickups they make for Dingwall.

Thanks for sharing this... Around 14th minute you get something close to the string... Is this really an ebow? Or is a homemade diy ebow?

I see a heavy metal didley bow in my future :D I have a ton of relays lying around, one is bound to work. What is that grey doodad you used to keep sustain? That sounded awesome. Love you untraditional work, keep it coming!

Hi I've been thinking about doing this for a little while. As an engineer with a good knowledge of electronics I could never understand the idea of winding all the pole pieces in one winding. In fact I always thought they were individual until recently which to me would make sense. I was looking at 110v coil relays somewhat smaller than the one you show, they would easily fit side by side on a 6 string if required and have a higher number of windings/resistance. I also thought of using a very small neodymium on the bottom. The relay slug is just UN-magnetized ferrous metal or the relay would be always on. Some also have a diode across the coil which should be removed. Individual gain summing amp was also in my list of things to try, maybe very little to no gain so traditional amps etc. can still be used. Keep up the good work, can't wait to see the next developments.

Roland made tiny humbuckers on their synth pickups so I think you'll be okay; there are patents published if you are interested in taking a peek at the way they made them.

Some years ago I built an “electric cello” from an old strat copy by pulling out the frets and covering the fretboard with epoxy. Similar to what you did, I made a pickup from surplus 12 volt relay coils wired in series and potted in casting resin. No controls...straight to the output jack: the pickup worked quite well. But I could not get used to playing tuned in fifths... I am currently working on a new project which is a 5 string multiscale bass. I will use again the relay coil-as-pickup idea. However, this time each string will have its own independent pickup. I bought ten 24vdc pcb-mount relays off aliexpress for $15, free shipping. I got the 24vdc coils because the spec sheet quotes the coil resistance as 1.3k vs 275 ohm for the 12vdc coil. I will use an IC-based mixer to combine the outputs. Have not decided on onboard or offboard EQ. I subbed your channel so I can see where you go with this. Cheers and well done!

totally agree .

Pffft, we all know it can only sound good if you use a vintage, oil-filled, cloth covered tone relay! I've been very curious about alternate pickup construction, especially getting out of the "route box", as you say. Nicely done!

I was thinking about the possibility of linear response pickups across the whole audible frequency. The acoustic characteristic can then be shaped through softwares modelling. There is a company by the name Cycfi that already make these linear response pickups and it turn out to be isolated individual coil as you describe here. With low impedance too. I guess the relay coil should also have fairly low impedance.

I have a few relays that I got from some old electrical circuitboard which I found/stole from an urban explore in some old derelict factory. Interesting that you used a relay as a pickup.

Awesome experiment! I've been trying to do this myself for a DIY electric cello project that I need four indepented pickups for, but I can't figure out the best way to remove a coil from the metal housing of an electromagnetic relay. Any tips for how to take the slug out? I've also tried looking for relay coils as separate parts or relays that are easier to dismantle, but haven't had any luck with that.

👏👏👏👏

e-Bow made my day :D

You sir, good show! I build original instruments in Just Intonation and this is exactly what I need! Can anyone point me to resources that explain the repercussions of either daisy-chaining several of these or summing them to one output? The separate output is also useful but I've dreamt up instruments with 18+ strings and would want to have one output. Keep up the great work. It's these little elements and design language that are essential for forging new directions in instrument-building!

Is it the ferrous metal in the string that lets the pickup "hear" the magnetic field? Would the pickup work if it was next to, say, a thin vibrating flat iron sheet?

The metal bar in the relay is not magnetic. It becomes magnetic when electricity is passed through the coil on the relay, which then closes the circuit. So basically it's the same sort of arrangement as a guitar pickup

But how you make such eerie tones with the string. Is the output so high that it only needs to be touched to make the drone sound?

Kind of reminds me of a alumitone

Does anyone know what that white u shaped box with the blue led is he was holding over the string?

Do you imagine if you used the 24v instead of the 12v the output would be twice as much?

2 elements? Retro headless guitar ala silvertone?? probably not :(

ok. hear me out, a hexagonal design of this single string pickups, covering basically the entire fretboard under the strings. but then, the guitar randomly switches through them as your playing.

Very 70s to my ears.

I use Nd in pickups some times sounds real good. If you don't like it don't use Nd. BUT not every guitar has to emulate some old highly specific year Telli ..."everything else is just wrong". I have used Nd to make pickups that are so hot I can barrie them under the face or in the neck and you can still get all the gain you need. If you are actually debating this you'r just a narcissistic twat, it's NOT your guitar it does not matter play what you like.

artificial non-drum track and no expertise... skip it.