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