Roland G505 Hex Pickups

[David Schwab]

Does anyone know off hand what gauge wire they used on those Roland G505 guitar synth pickups? Each coil is about 900 Ohms.

I've been asked about repairing one. I don't have it here to look at, so I was doing some preliminary research.

Thanks.

[soundmasterg]

I work for a Roland subsidiary and could put an inquiry in, but probably wouldn't get an answer right away. Let me know if you'd like me to do this.

Greg

[David Schwab]

Sure, that would be much appreciated!

I might have the guy send it to me anyway so I can look at it.

[soundmasterg]

I'll do some inquiries tomorrow and see if anything can be found out Dave. I'll let you know here if/when I find out something.

Greg

[David King]

Roland is pretty F-ing secretive, I doubt you'll get an answer unless you find the guy that designed it. It sounds like a thankless job if it's anything like the insides of the GK-2 pickup. I'd be interested in what you discover.

[soundmasterg]

David,

I checked with the Roland product manager here and he suggested to inquire with Roland US and see if they can get you any info. He said it might be proprietary and he wouldn't want to divulge any info that they wouldn't want to share, though he doubts that is the case. For him to check into it would take longer than you checking with them is essentially what I was able to gather. Sorry I couldn't be of any further help.

Greg

[David Schwab]

Thanks Greg.

Yeah I figured it would be hard to find out anything about it.

Guess I'll just have to look at it and see what's going on.

Of course I'll take notes and pictures.

[Mark Hammer]

FWIW, I tried making myself a hex pickup from scratch some years ago, and wound #42 around a small end-to-end polarized ceramic bar magnet. I must have put on some 3000 or more turns on that sucker, until there was insufficient space to stick two of them side by side without misaligning with the strings. The DCR was somewhere around a few hundred ohms.

Given the size/height of the Roland hex pickup (my own bar magnets were taller), I can't imagine them using anything thicker than #43 or #44.

[jonson]

roland

you may allready have these David but if not, allthough you won't gleen what you require from them they are still a usefull reference.

Application no 11/260.774 havn't got the final.
pats 7375276. 7304233. 4357852.
Gibson issued one for fitting purposes 6849792

[jonson]

that could be fun

Just had a quick read through another iv'e archived us7220912b2 and that is Gibson using a GR ROLAND and stating coil wire of 58awg. That could be fun.

[David Schwab]

I was worried it would be something that thin.

[Mark Hammer]

1) Since the detected signal is not being used for its acoustic properties, but merely as a leg up on knowing what the fundamental might be, you don't really care about the tone produced by said coil.

2) There is a trimpot to adjust the gain of each coil so that the strings are each detected equally. You can find the schematic here: http://www.joness.com/gr300/patent.htm (scroll to the bottom)

What I'm trying to say is that if you don't really care about the tone, and can compensate for differences in signal amplitude at the coil, then it really doesn't matter what wire you use, as long as its thin enough to stick a bunch of turns on there. I imagine that, unless there is something really wacky about the pickup, #44 might do you just fine.