Low Impedance pickup - prototype

[Veronica Merryfield]

If you a looking for a low impedance pickup that is magnetic but small, might I suggest you look at variable reluctance gear teeth sensors. The downside is the price and size in that one must place them close to the bridge such that the string excursion stays within the sensing range. The plus side is the clean signal output. I used these back in '82 on my first bass. As a consequence of the position, the output is harmonic rich compared tot he fundamental but that can be coloured should one require. I mixed in an amount of fingerboard pickup from a humbucker and then color the signal.

An alternative if one requires a pickup closer to the fingerboard would be to make an individual pickup per string that is not a humbucker plus one background pickup and subtract that signal from each individual signal using op-amps. You could also pair neighbours where you have an even number of strings.

That said I can think of a few ways to put together a small single turn humbucking pickup with current transformer but not easy to make.