HRW Mystique

[MartyGrass]

I have always liked HRWs sometimes!  The right guitar and amp settings can bring out a very pleasant brightness and sparkle.  The secret about making these pickups, as best I can guess, is a cryo treatment of the magnets.  I've asked Ren Wall a couple of times over the years about cryo treatment.  He just smiled and wouldn't comment further.

I'd like to put this to rest.  What's the truth?

 

[DetroitBlues]

The truth lies with Ren.  Just like the secret sauce of the 357, so does the HRW mystique will go down in history as a great unknown.

Only way is for someone to sacrifice the HRW and see what is different about them.

They pop up here every now and then, but no one has ever dissected one of them.

[MartyGrass]

We've gone down this path.

 

 

[ElNumero]

My 2004 555 has HRW’s. I even got a black dot on my pickup selector switch!!  

[Steiner]

24 minutes ago, ElNumero said:

My 2004 555 has HRW’s. I even got a black dot on my pickup selector switch!!  

Me too!
It’s a black switch though…

[Heritage1970]

46 minutes ago, ElNumero said:

My 2004 555 has HRW’s. I even got a black dot on my pickup selector switch!!  

They put those on all guitars that left the factory with HRWs. It's a side fretboard marker dot. Ren told me that was Marv Lamb's idea, so any time someone would see a Heritage with that marker, on TV, live, etc, they would know it had HRWs in it. 

[MartyGrass]

You're right about the dot.  I've put HRWs in my guitars a couple of times and did this. Clever guys!

Edited February 12 by MartyGrass

[ironmike]

unbalance the  coils by unwinding one a handfull , and slide in an alinco 2 magnet.

[MartyGrass]

47 minutes ago, ironmike said:

unbalance the  coils by unwinding one a handfull , and slide in an alinco 2 magnet.

Where did this idea come from?  

[TalismanRich]

16 hours ago, ironmike said:

unbalance the  coils by unwinding one a handfull , and slide in an alinco 2 magnet.

But I thought Schaller glued the magnets in, so they aren't so easy to replace.

[Heritage1970]

8 minutes ago, TalismanRich said:

But I thought Schaller glued the magnets in, so they aren't so easy to replace.

Yep. Pretty sure they do (or did) 

[MartyGrass]

To be candid about this, around a decade ago I really didn't like HRWs, at least in the bridge position in solid bodies.  The high frequency output was too sharp to my ears.  Eventually I sorted it out.  The neck position was always fine.  It's odd to me because I've never had an issue with Schallers.

I'm pretty sure HRWs were cryo treated.  I asked Ren once.  He just smiled.  In that particular context it would have been easy for him to say something like there's more to the story.  He didn't.  This conversation occured when I brought in a Johnny Smith with a Floating #3 pickup and asked about getting a tone control added.  He did the work while I was there, which took maybe 15-20 minutes.  He charged very little, no more than $50.

  

[nuke]

I’ve taken apart and repaired many Schaller humbuckers and there’s nothing special in them. The parts are all metric, and specific to Schaller, so you can’t swap bobbins and magnets, keeper bars and screws and baseplates with US made pickups or parts. They also come with different pole spacing depending on whether they are bridge or neck position. Many other brands are the same spacing for any position even if marked neck and bridge. 
 

Even many Chinese manufacturers use the standard US measure components. 
 

It isn’t so much you can’t take the magnet out and swap it, it is just you probably won’t be able to get another magnet of the exact same dimensions to fit in the Schaller humbucker. 
 

Anything is possible as to what’s in the HRW’s. It is entirely possible they were cryogenically treated. It is also possible that the baseplates, covers, bobbins and magnets were supplied to Heritage unassembled and they wound and assembled them at Heritage. 
 

Im happy with the HRW in my 2001 H535. Don’t want to take them apart. 

Edited 1 hour ago by nuke