Heavier gauge wire for bass pups

[Stan H]

Has anyone had any experience using a heavier gauge wire for bass pickups? I'm thinking that the tone would be clearer. Probably a little thinner as well? I have a couple of spools of 39 gauge that I was thinking about experimenting with. What are your thoughts?

[gilligan]

I wound a P bass pickup with 41 single poly once. Didn't experiment anymore with it though, just didn't like the sound. Sounded o.k., but the punch wasn't there. Will try again when time permits. Maybe different magnets. I used regular alnico 5 rods in it. 10,000 turns...I think?!
Maybe someone else can give you the why, or why not.

[David Schwab]

I haven't tried it yet, but it would make a lower impedance pickup, so it should have a wider frequency response. You might need to pre-amp it though. This is one of the things I want to experiment with.

[Stan H]

Thanks guys. As soon as I have a little "spare" time, I'll give it a shot. Will also post my results.

[SK66]

I wind many pickups with 40 and I've used heavier in restoration work (some old pickups used something like 38awg) They are generally very "full" sounding and can get bass heavy if wound to close to "normal" output levels (same turn count)

[blckmynnse8]

I found my way to this old thread via another one, and find it quite intriguing.

I would be very interested in hearing if anyone has experimented with this idea further since this thread was originally started many many moons ago.

[David Schwab]

I got as far as buying a roll of 40 AWG for an Alembic style pickup ... I haven't used it yet though.

[Bruce Johnson]

I use 41 ga for all of the pickups in my Scroll Bass line. Why? Because a local surplus place had a whole shelf full of spools of 41 ga for cheap. I bought several 8 lb spools for $15 each. My pickups are unusual in size and configuration anyway, so I just experimented with geometry, windings, and magnets until I found the sound that I wanted for this instrument.

The basic answer is that you can use whatever gauge wire you want. If you're simply winding to some standard specs and bobbin size, then, yes it will sound a little different. You may or may not like it. You can adjust the design to compensate, or try something else. In winding pickups, as in building instruments overall, there are many possible paths to get to a good result. Don't be constrained by what somebody says is the perfect combination.

[scottmccullor]

even larger wire

The pickups I built out of a couple of contactor coils were 35 ga and have a little over 2000 turns. Not sure what the insulation is but it's much thicker than the 34 ga I bought from MarVac for my next experiment. I used some neodymium magnets, some L-shaped mounting brackets as pole pieces and an EMG preamp. The DCR is 8.6ohms each and I have them wired parallel. The link below has pics and a few samples.

http://music-electronics-forum.com/s...ad.php?t=11627

I've since replaced the neck with one that had an Earvana nut and re-set it up. Sounds better. I've also held a Dean bass in close enough proximity to see what I'd get. I got something. As soon as I can spare them, I plan to transplant them into the Dean for a serious test.