Grindcore anyone?

[StarryNight]

a local fellow asked me to put a humbucker in his Ibanez 7 string guitar. The Dimarzio that came stock is rated at 12 kOhms on the neck. With the 42 guage formvar wire I currently have, I seem to only be able to wind around an 8.5 kOhm bucker. I'm not getting any microphonics with my winding technique (unpotted) so I don't think I am winding too loose. Would you guys advise me to switch to awg43 to get a higher DCR or is there anything i can try to get a higher rating with 42 guage?

[David Schwab]

I'd go with 43 AWG.

[StarryNight]

thanks David,
hopefully that info will also be useful to others as well.

[madialex]

Just an observation but if you are winding pickups for the public, this should be something you should already know. Not trying to be a smart ass or anything but you really should know all the in's and out's before going public, it's just a bite in the ass waiting to happen.....

[StarryNight]

i'm am currently not 'selling' pickups right now. I am completely upfront with this individual stating that I am a beginner at this endeavor and he has volunteered his guitar to be used as a test subject for me to see if i can get a better sound than he is currently getting. I have made this arrangement with a couple of locals here. I am interested not only in winding for different guitars and basses but also hearing what players want in terms of pickups. I can't learn that if i don't deal with players directly. I also don't have a large guitar collection so i am not able to test out pickups when I don't have guitars to put them in. So far the arrangement seems mutually agreeable (I also do things like a neck cleaning and intonation setup).

[David Schwab]

That's kind of how I got started with guitar repair.... I did a few things for friends here and there.

One of the first pickups I sold was to me uncharted territory. A guy wanted a 5 string bass sized guitar pickup for a 9 string guitar! He played in a metal band, and gave me fairly vague descriptions of the tone he wanted. I had nothing to base the design on, so I just improvised. I came up with something that sounded good on the first try, and he went with that.

In the beginning I had wondered the same thing about PAF sized humbuckers, as far as over-winding them, but if you think about it, if you can't wind anymore 42 on a bobbin, you have to go with thinner wire.

[StarryNight]

in hindsight maybe it was an obtuse question - sorry about that. I think the subtext of my question had to do with the fact that I'm about to purchase more wire and realzing that I may be needing 43 guage more often than I first thought. I probably should get an equal amount of both. I guess you can never have too much wire

[David Schwab]

I use 43 and 44 on pickups that aren't particularly overwound just to get a different tone. So it's good to have on hand.

[Electricdaveyboy]

Hello,
I am not making 7-string pickups at the moment but I wonder how to o it.
The bobbin is larger and so this will bring a change in tone but how to compensate or ain´t there no need ?
Shall I wind to the same turns like on my 6-strin models or shall I wind to the same DC-resistance?
Will I need longer magnets or do those work with my long version PAF magnet?
Cheers
David

[David Schwab]

Ah, that's the conundrum! I do 4, 5 and just did a 6 string bass pickup. I had this debate with myself... do I do the same number of turns for each, or adjust for the larger or smaller coil.

I think you just have to do one and see if it sounds the way you want. I've been doing the same number of turns, and the DC resistance is different on each model, but they sound pretty much the same.

When I get some more time I'm going to wind a set to the same resistance and compare the two.

[Electricdaveyboy]

Dave,
yes just lurked at the DimaRingo site and all his 7-string versions have a higher DC- R but they do change the magnets from Alnico V (6-string version) to Ferrite/Ceramic for their /-string versions.
Maybe they do change the magnets to compensate a (possible ?)loss of output and highend?
cheers
david

[madialex]

i'm am currently not 'selling' pickups right now. I am completely upfront with this individual stating that I am a beginner at this endeavor and he has volunteered his guitar to be used as a test subject for me to see if i can get a better sound than he is currently getting. I have made this arrangement with a couple of locals here. I am interested not only in winding for different guitars and basses but also hearing what players want in terms of pickups. I can't learn that if i don't deal with players directly. I also don't have a large guitar collection so i am not able to test out pickups when I don't have guitars to put them in. So far the arrangement seems mutually agreeable (I also do things like a neck cleaning and intonation setup).

Sorry, I hope I didn't come off as an ass, not my intentions at all.. Thats cool, I guess all of us did the same thing getting started out. I didn't realise you were not selling to the public, my bad.......

[David Schwab]

Maybe they do change the magnets to compensate a (possible ?)loss of output and highend?

I've only been using ceramic and neos, but I think that's probably right.

I love alnicos for many things, but when I tried them in my pickups, they were too soft and dark sounding. Just the wrong design for them.

[StarryNight]

observations

I couldn't resist to unravel the tape on the original pickups and see what's underneath the hood. The allen key poles look small from the top but they are massive underneath. the magnet also is twice as thick as what's normally sold (from what i've seen advertised). I took pictures for my own records but i don't think it would be cool to post pics of other people's work here. I assume all that steel induces a higher voltage from the strings. Sound wise, this pickup is played through a basswood body with a maple bolt-on neck guitar and is very umm... even sounding. It's very difficult to pinch harmonics or coax different tones out of the pickup - I'm using heavy gain for testing purposes as that's what this guitar is mostly used for. I think this pickup is more reliant on the amp to color the sound. The woods also have a lot to do with it.

[David Schwab]

With magnets, the surface area of the pole is what counts, so you see very thick magnets when they want a lot of oomph.

I have a set of DiMarzio Evolution pickups here, and the bridge pickup has a very thick magnet, while the neck's magnet is much thinner.

Bill Lawrence also used really thick ceramic magnets in some of his pickups.