Pushing The 19+K Humbucker Peak... #43 or #44 Wire?

[PatrickMahoney]

Hello Gang,

I have a customer who is wanting a humbucker in the range
of 18K to 19K and I have never pushed one this far. Can I
get this done using #43 wire or will I need to go with #44
wire or? Will be using the Mojo bobbins if that helps.

Thanks for any info you all can help me with, I appreciate it.

Patrick

[jonson]

Depends how tight you wind it, but 43awg won't do it. 44awg max turns may get 8.5 to 9k per coil. I use 45awg and that gets me up to 15k a coil. 45awg is a dream to use once you get use to it and if you search,, all the numbers up to 56awg are available they just get more expensive the higher you go.

[PatrickMahoney]

Thanks for the response Jonson,

I guess my next question would be, which do you think
will retain the better overall tone, the #44 or the #45?
And I am assuming you're speaking about PE wire?

If I can get 8.5-9K per bobbin, that would be good.

Thanks again,
Patrick

[David Schwab]

I guess my next question would be, which do you think
will retain the better overall tone, the #44 or the #45?
And I am assuming you're speaking about PE wire?

If I can get 8.5-9K per bobbin, that would be good.

You are forgetting that thiner wire is higher in resistance per foot. So 45 AWG will reach 9K real fast, and you might not have wound it much hotter than a PAF. This is why saying you want a 16K pickup is meaningless.

Having said that, you will need 44 or 45 to get a hot humbucker.

[jonson]

I use PE in 44awg then change to poly as I go up from there and have great results with both. PE probably has the edge but you will find that difficult to get in the thinner grades.

[LtKojak]

You are forgetting that thiner wire is higher in resistance per foot. So 45 AWG will reach 9K real fast, and you might not have wound it much hotter than a PAF. This is why saying you want a 16K pickup is meaningless.

+ 1. Did you get one from the Brootalz crew...?

I feel for ya, man.

[salvarsan]

I have a customer who is wanting a humbucker in the range of 18K to 19K and I have never pushed one this far. Can I get this done using #43 wire or will I need to go with #44 wire or?

Patrick,

It's not the DC resistance, it's the windings count.

Try running a few numbers with the Coil_Estimator.

How do you think I figured coil sizes for your 666 pickups?

[captcoolaid]

Okay I know this is an old thread but i will put my 2 cents in. I wind higher dc pups as my main stay. I only use 43 for my higher winds. I have one called the Mofee and it is a 20+ k pup. The biggest issue you will have once you hit the 20k mark is the mv that it pushes. Mine push 700 -800 and clip certain affects. DO NOT GO OVER 43 GAUGE WIRE. T he tone will turn tinny with 43.5 etc... It will lack any kind of useable bottom end.

[David Schwab]

DO NOT GO OVER 43 GAUGE WIRE. The tone will turn tinny with 43.5 etc... It will lack any kind of useable bottom end.

There are a lot of hot humbuckers wound with 44 and higher that have a lot of low end.

I make some bass pickups wound with 44, and they actually have too much low end. I had to start winding them with less turns of wire.

[captcoolaid]

Maybe it is my wind pater or style but for me I tried some at that DC and they just lacked punch and a tight low end. then again some use ceramics for them I prefer ALNIcO mags. I do not do bass pups yet but am starting to think about them. Question. Do you find the 44 to be muddy with the bass pups.

[David Schwab]

Maybe it is my wind pater or style but for me I tried some at that DC and they just lacked punch and a tight low end. then again some use ceramics for them I prefer ALNIcO mags. I do not do bass pups yet but am starting to think about them. Question. Do you find the 44 to be muddy with the bass pups.

Ceramic magnets will be brighter than alnico.

I find 44 to be muddy if I wind too much wire. But I did a test one day and wound three pickups with the same specs using 42, 43, and 44, and they were very similar sounding. The thinner wire has more mids. The thicker wire has more lows. But I never found 44 to be thin sounding.

For guitar pickups I usually use 42 and 43. I haven't needed to use 44 because I don't wind very hot pickups. I used 44 on the bass pickups because I was working with very compact coils. But I believe the Duncan JB uses 44. Probably the Dimarzio X2N as well.

[captcoolaid]

Like I said maybe it is my wind pattern but the 44 just did not cut through like the same dc 43. Hmmm. I may have to revisit it again. I found not as much articulatin with it as well. But then again I did a crazy ass 32 k wind with it. So far I can get 12k per bobbin with 43. It is a bit large but if I tape it up right when pulling it from my machine it holds well.

[davos]

I use Mojo Bobbins and just wound a 21K bucker using 43 PE. The bobbins were pretty full but there was space for a couple thousand more turns on them. It actually sounded pretty good, much better once I put hex pole pieces on, they seemed to add more clarity. If I remember rightly then I put about 10,000 turns on each bobbin. I tried to put the least amount of scatter on possible (like Dave suggested in another thread) which I now do on each pickup, looks neater and I can't really hear any notable differences

[copperheadroads]

I use Mojo Bobbins and just wound a 21K bucker using 43 PE. The bobbins were pretty full but there was space for a couple thousand more turns on them. It actually sounded pretty good, much better once I put hex pole pieces on, they seemed to add more clarity. If I remember rightly then I put about 10,000 turns on each bobbin. I tried to put the least amount of scatter on possible (like Dave suggested in another thread) which I now do on each pickup, looks neater and I can't really hear any notable differences

Are you talking about Mojo's standard humbucker bobbin , & you can get over 10k of 43 on a bobbin ?.... cool ,i was just wondering ,i have not wound them that high

[davos]

yup, standard Mojo bobbins with 43 PE also from Mojo