A hello and a Humbucker question.

[Stratz]

Hi all, Name is Rob, long time pickup builder and new member.

I have building my own pickups for many years. My Dad used to build pickups for his Steel Guitars and he taught me a lot at a fairly early age. I don't wind pickups to sell them but rather build them mostly for myself, friends and the occasional player that is really persistent. I build mostly single coils as I need them and I do occasionally build humbuckers.

Very pleased to meet all of you! On to my question.

Bored last night so I pulled an old (early 80's) Dimarzio from the neck position an old Flying V that I've had for many years. It was a brass base plate, short leg 7.3K #42 Poly build. I decided to rewind it with #43 Plain Enamel. I have never wound a HB with #43 wire. I always use 42 and I can get to about about 9K ohms total if I really pile it on.

Well I decided I wanted to make it hotter and since the bridge pickup is a Dimarzio Super Distortion @ about 12.5 - 13K I methodically pulled a DCR of 12K from my a%#

I wound the screw coil to 6350W of #43 PE. It read ~6.7K. Then I happened to take a look at that the the Dimarzio web site and I noticed that all of the high output HB's (most anything over 9K or so) except for the Air HB's were ceramics. I have zero experience with ceramic magnets and since the magnet that I had from the pickup was an Alnico I decided I would lower the output which I had previously decided upon to around 11K and split the coils. I figured the screw would sound pretty good at mid 6K ohms.

So I wound the slug coil to 4,800 winds/~5.2K. I used the Dimarzio color scheme since I used the original 4 conductor wire. I decided not to split the coils and installed the newly wound pickup in the neck position where it came from and now it's very thin and nasal sounding.

I tried every possible wiring combination at the pots but it's still thin and weak. If I ground the slug coil it sounds good but I'm only running on the screw coil.

So..... do you guys think the thin issue can be caused by the difference in the winds on each bobbin or is there something else going on? A phase issue? Theres not a heck of a lot of wire on the bobbins for the DCR it reads.

I re-wound both bobbins CCW but I forgot to note which way they were originally wound and I don't know which direction the bobbins are wound on the Super Distortion that's in the bridge position.
The magnet is installed south/screw and the bobbins are S/N S/N from neck to bridge.

Since I'd never used #43 on a HB before this endeavor I thought it may be thin sounding because of the low wind count as when compared to using #42. Triple checked bobbins and get correct DCR on each bobbin and with both combined.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to provide as much info as I could.
Thanks!

[big_teee]

Welcome to the Forum!
Your Single coil expertise will be good to have here.
Sounds like your pickup could be out of phase.
Are both Coils wound the same direction, and the two finish leads tied together.
Not sure what your particular bobbins look like?
Is it possible one got flipped over, after they were built.
If it is a phase issue, all you need to do with the 4 wire hookup is reverse one coil, provided you wired out all 4 wires.
with 4 wire just tie a start & finish together.
Check on that, and please let us know what you find.
Good Luck,
Terry

[Stratz]

Hi Terry. Thanks for the welcome and for replying to my post.
Yes, both coils were wound CCW and installed on the base plate properly (I have no idea which direction the Dimarzio Super Distortion bridge pickup is wound)

Currently I have the two finish wires tied together and I have tried swapping the remaining coil start wires from hot to ground but it's still thin sounding.
I'll try tying the start & finish wires together and see what happens.

Since I don't have any experience winding humbuckers with 43 gauge wire I was concerned that the small amount of #43 PE on the bobbins (especially the lower 5.2K/4,800 wind slug bobbin) might be the reason for the thin sound.

Do you know if it would be common practice to build a 12K humbucker with #43 PE and an Alnico magnet?
From a quick calculation in my head it would only be somewhere around 6,000 winds per coil which would leave plenty of room left on the bobbins and from my experience with single coils, thinner wire and low turn count equals a weak, thin sounding pickup.

Thanks again!
Rob.

[big_teee]

Hi Terry. Thanks for the welcome and for replying to my post.
Yes, both coils were wound CCW and installed on the base plate properly (I have no idea which direction the Dimarzio Super Distortion bridge pickup is wound)

Currently I have the two finish wires tied together and I have tried swapping the remaining coil start wires from hot to ground but it's still thin sounding.
I'll try tying the start & finish wires together and see what happens.

Since I don't have any experience winding humbuckers with 43 gauge wire I was concerned that the small amount of #43 PE on the bobbins (especially the lower 5.2K/4,800 wind slug bobbin) might be the reason for the thin sound.

Do you know if it would be common practice to build a 12K humbucker with #43 PE and an Alnico magnet?
From a quick calculation in my head it would only be somewhere around 6,000 winds per coil which would leave plenty of room left on the bobbins and from my experience with single coils, thinner wire and low turn count equals a weak, thin sounding pickup.

Thanks again!
Rob.

12k is fine with Alnico.
For an experiment, you might try turning the pickup around in the ring.
See if that changes the tone.
You can always rewind it with 42ga.
I like 7-7.4k for neck pickups.
Good Luck,
T

[Stratz]

12k is fine with Alnico.
For an experiment, you might try turning the pickup around in the ring.
See if that changes the tone.
You can always rewind it with 42ga.
I like 7-7.4k for neck pickups.
Good Luck,
T

I originally chose 12K so I could split the neck and have a 6K single in the neck position. I'll let you know how I make out.

Thanks for all of your help!

[Stratz]

with 4 wire just tie a start & finish together.
Check on that, and please let us know what you find.
Good Luck,
Terry

You called it Terry, it was out of phase. Just swapped two wires and all is good!
The 6.5K split coil sounds very Stratty, I like Stratty

Thanks again.
Rob.

[big_teee]

You called it Terry, it was out of phase. Just swapped two wires and all is good!
The 6.5K split coil sounds very Stratty, I like Stratty

Thanks again.
Rob.

Way to go!
Glad it all worked out for you.
We like Pictures here at the corner if you ever want to post any.
That would be great!
I built a mini bucker one time and I flipped one of the bobbins over during assembly.
The bobbins looked the same, turned either way, no top or bottom.
It drove me nuts till I figured what I had done.
T