Re: A Bit OT - Just Made My First Pickup And It Works

On 19 May, 17:21, Charmed Snark <sn...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mr. Green expounded innews:c75cd43f-8472-4046-80d0-b640e42ac082@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:





Thanks for the info, I will file it away in my very untidy mental
attic. I've been thinking that tonal properties of pickups are very
much a "fine print" aspect of pickup resistance among other things. I
tend to favour t
he
low range, because I think it is easier to get good tone out of
bright pickup by eg mid-boosting than it is with a hot pickup by
trying to boost the highs. - But I judge pickups on their clean tone.
Absolutely the wors
t
pickups I have ever tried have been hot humbuckers with alnico slugs,
the combination doesn't seem to work for some reason.

Tony D- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I agree, you've gotta have a good clean tone. I tried one of those
Epiphone Gold Tops, with the P90s. Great clean neck tone, warm and
clear. IMO it beat humbucker equipped Gibson LP hands down. For me
'buckers rarely have that crisp clear quality you get with a good
single coil. Well I'm planning a pair of lowish output minibuckers.
Around 7K with, small (3 mm dia x 16 mm long) alnico V poles and no
metal work. If they work out, I may eventually build myself a tele
body to fit them in.

Green

Thanks for sharing your experience here. I'd like to try that myself
one day (does anybody know where I can buy some time?)

One thing I'd like to know is what you based your coil resistance
decisions on? Existing pickups that you admire? Presumably the
same guage copper wire with the same total dc resistance is a
way to arrive at the approx number of turns of wire. I don't
expect that "normal magnet wire" varies that much in ohms per foot,
though I suppose it is a parameter available in the ordering
info (I've always used surplus for other projects- for this I
would order it as you did).

I knew I wanted a single coil which was hotter than my stock strat
(5.8K) but not as dark as a P90. I checked out the figures on all the
pickup manufacturers sites. Almost every maker uses 42 awg (0.063 mm
dia over wire but about 0.076 mm over the enamel) wire. The old
Fenders used a formvar coating which is a bit thicker than the modern
enamel coating. Most pickup makers offer both. Based upon reviews etc.
it seemed I was looking for something between 6.8K and 7.5K. You'll
find strat bobbin dimensions if you search the web. Making the bobbin
higher gives you a brighter tone but adding more windings makes the
tone fatter. To get 7.4K I increased the bobboin height from 11mm to
12.5mm.

Wire resistance is pretty consistant. I put 100 winds around a
cardboard kitchen roll tube. That worked out at 14.4 metres, measured
the resistance and worked it out to be 5.81 ohms per metre, crack on
spec.



The interesting thing about all of this is that the "whole as a
system" has to be considered. The same pups used in a different
amp (esp SS) can sound a lot different. Differences in impedance
and even cables can affect your tone. Apparently cables going into
high impedance inputs (like tube amps) are much more significant
than SS amps with lower impedances for cables (in fact, I doubt
you can tell the diff with ss). So yes, pup covers, controls,
string size, cables, stomp boxes and amps can have a great effect,
either enhancing that elusive tone, or taking you away from it.

Yep, this is so true. I have two amps which sound completely
different. I have a Blues Drive pedal, sounds great with one but shit
through the other. IMO metal work, on pickups, makes a lot of
difference to the tone. Pot and cap values definately make a lot of
difference. As you say, we're building a system here.


All of this guarantees that we'll all be messing with our tone
until we expire.

Snark.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

All the best, Green

.

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