someone enlighten me
someone enlighten me
Why does the wire in a pickup have to be so small in diameter, would a thicker wire work,lets say 20 wraps(just as an example) of 1/8 inch wire as opposed to 6000 wraps of .0042. i ran across lace pickups they have no wire wrapped around a magnet at all, ive never made a pickup however after doing some research here and asking questions i might give it a try i have taken them apart to see how they are made and what i found out its very simple,Im enterested in a blade type of pickup, whats best the pole s or a blade type?How is a split type pickup made ? how or what is a coil tap? does the wire have to touch the coil? Russ
Re: someone enlighten me
Russ, you need a long length of wire to get the desired resistance. For a pedal steel 10 string pickup, the magic number seems to be 17000 to 20000 OHM resistance.
True, the Lace Alumitones have just a small coil inside, separate from the magnets, but there the actual pickup top made out of aluminum bar is instead of the coil. it goes around on both sides of the magnets which you see laying flat and form part of the top of the pickup. I don't know much about these.
anyway, back to the regular ones. The thinner the wire, the more resistance(OHM). The longer the wire, the more resistance. So it is a marriage between those two factors.
Now, the single coil pickups have a strange behaviour: They emit an annoying hum largely due to our 60 cycle electrical system in N.A. I don't know why but that's the way it is.
That's where your split type pickups come in, or commonly known as Humbuckers (They BUCK the hum) There you wind two coils, one clockwise and one the opposite way and hook them up in series when done, meaning, you connect the + from one coil to the - on the other one. Say you want the pup to have an18000 OHM resistance, or 18K, you wind each coil to 9000 OHM. True, often the blade type is used in a humbucker. There you have a flat bar magnet that lays in the bottom of the coils and then you have a blade of steel going up thru the coils . They pick up the needed magnetism from the flat magnet.
Tapping is when you want a pup with different output, adjustable with your toggle switch on the guitar. You simply wind to say 8000 OHM and solder a wire on here. Then continue winding til you get the desired taps/ohms. When done, you hook up the wires that you have marked, to the different points on the toggle.
All I have done so far are a few single coils. I hear it is simple to make a good sounding humbucker because of the split coils and hum is automatically canceled. I would love to get good at making a quiet single coil, if at all possible. Also, there is a definite difference in sound between the two and I happen to like the single coil sound.
Hope this is helpful and not written in a too confusing manner. I am just learning myself and have found the best way to learn is to discuss with people and learn from each other.
True, the Lace Alumitones have just a small coil inside, separate from the magnets, but there the actual pickup top made out of aluminum bar is instead of the coil. it goes around on both sides of the magnets which you see laying flat and form part of the top of the pickup. I don't know much about these.
anyway, back to the regular ones. The thinner the wire, the more resistance(OHM). The longer the wire, the more resistance. So it is a marriage between those two factors.
Now, the single coil pickups have a strange behaviour: They emit an annoying hum largely due to our 60 cycle electrical system in N.A. I don't know why but that's the way it is.
That's where your split type pickups come in, or commonly known as Humbuckers (They BUCK the hum) There you wind two coils, one clockwise and one the opposite way and hook them up in series when done, meaning, you connect the + from one coil to the - on the other one. Say you want the pup to have an18000 OHM resistance, or 18K, you wind each coil to 9000 OHM. True, often the blade type is used in a humbucker. There you have a flat bar magnet that lays in the bottom of the coils and then you have a blade of steel going up thru the coils . They pick up the needed magnetism from the flat magnet.
Tapping is when you want a pup with different output, adjustable with your toggle switch on the guitar. You simply wind to say 8000 OHM and solder a wire on here. Then continue winding til you get the desired taps/ohms. When done, you hook up the wires that you have marked, to the different points on the toggle.
All I have done so far are a few single coils. I hear it is simple to make a good sounding humbucker because of the split coils and hum is automatically canceled. I would love to get good at making a quiet single coil, if at all possible. Also, there is a definite difference in sound between the two and I happen to like the single coil sound.
Hope this is helpful and not written in a too confusing manner. I am just learning myself and have found the best way to learn is to discuss with people and learn from each other.
http://benrom.com/
21 BenRom pedal steel guitars, a Nash 112 and a 1967 TOS Milling machine with many cutters making one hell of a mess on the floor.
21 BenRom pedal steel guitars, a Nash 112 and a 1967 TOS Milling machine with many cutters making one hell of a mess on the floor.
Re: someone enlighten me
Hi Bent , i think im beginning to understand a bit now about how they work , i might even give it a try . Russ