How do method testing output pickups mV ?

[realtonecustompickup]

Thank you very much every answer.

[kg]

i'm not aware of a standard method that's universally applicable.

the first issue is finding a repeatable input signal method. frankly i think just plucking strings on a test guitar is a useless method for anything but the most gross measurements.

i'm envisioning using an electric motor turning at a constant speed to move an eccentric ferrous object in close proximity to the pickup under test, and a jig to hold everything in the same spatial orientation.

if you wanted to calibrate your results on the same scale as say dimarzio, you'd need one of their pickups as a reference.

sounds like a PITA, but could be invaluable if you are a custom pickup mfg.

[frankfalbo]

That pretty much describes one of my projects over the next several months. Problem is the Dimarzios I've tested are all over the map vs their posted specs (multiples of the same model as well as different models) so I feel like I have to calibrate with at least 5 pickups of theirs if I'm going to play of their benchmark.

[kg]

That pretty much describes one of my projects over the next several months. Problem is the Dimarzios I've tested are all over the map vs their posted specs (multiples of the same model as well as different models) so I feel like I have to calibrate with at least 5 pickups of theirs if I'm going to play of their benchmark.

so it sounds like dimarzio uses the "string pluck" method then.

[Steve Conner]

Sounds like they use the "What the pluck" method.

[frankfalbo]

If I have to I'll just post the data about the Dimarzios, like where they say the Super Distortion is 425, maybe I can read five of them, calibrate the readings so they average 425, but also detail that they range between 400-450. That way if I have a Seymour Duncan pickup that I'm posting at 430 I don't want someone saying "But my Dimarzio Super Distortion still sounds louder!" when they just have an extra hot Super D, and maybe our pickup is on the weak side of the reading.

You're already going to be fighting those battles in that the frequency response of one pickup can hit the ears as "louder" than another, when the full frequency reading is telling the opposite story. More mids is generally more overdrive, which makes people think the pickup is louder because it's driving their amp harder. But something with a scooped midrange wouldn't sound as "loud" though it may very well be.

[big_teee]

If I have to I'll just post the data about the Dimarzios, like where they say the Super Distortion is 425, maybe I can read five of them, calibrate the readings so they average 425, but also detail that they range between 400-450. That way if I have a Seymour Duncan pickup that I'm posting at 430 I don't want someone saying "But my Dimarzio Super Distortion still sounds louder!" when they just have an extra hot Super D, and maybe our pickup is on the weak side of the reading.

You're already going to be fighting those battles in that the frequency response of one pickup can hit the ears as "louder" than another, when the full frequency reading is telling the opposite story. More mids is generally more overdrive, which makes people think the pickup is louder because it's driving their amp harder. But something with a scooped midrange wouldn't sound as "loud" though it may very well be.

It's a losing battle.
Like my Hero John MellenCamp said "Forget all about that macho $h!t and learn how to play guitar" !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmoAUdwXLCQ

[RedHouse]

Sounds like they use the "What the pluck" method.

They used to have a video on youtube, can't recall what the video was about but it showed just for a few seconds the process while the narration went on talking about whatever the video was about.

For a few seconds it showed a plate on the bench which appeared to have a drive coil in it, they placed a pickup on top of it and read the response with some associated gear.

I wish I had saved that clip as it also showed a very cool bobbin flange setup for winding, which had two parts and the bobbin was placed into a relieved area and the flanges were also the end-stops.
(was a CNC winder)

[Steve Conner]

Hi Brad!

If they used a drive coil, that would only be telling half the story. Because it just induces a signal straight into the pickup coils, it doesn't measure the strength of the magnets and how well they're magnetizing the strings, for a start.

If the industry got sucked into a pickup volume war like the one that happened in CD mastering, that would indeed suck.

[RedHouse]

Hi Steve,

Wouldn't it indicate a mV output relative to the driven signal? allowing extrapolation to it's output.

They use their own methods for their metrics, which I'm sure are relative more to production continuity than across-the-board pickup profiling.

I've wondered about other peoples "output" measuring techniques as well at times, seems when simply attaching a pickup to a load (vol pot) and scope'ing the output I see way more than a few hundered mV's.

[Ronsonic]

If the industry got sucked into a pickup volume war like the one that happened in CD mastering, that would indeed suck.

Oh, I thought we'd already been and done that. Like back in the days when Quarter Pounders and DiMarzio SDs and X2Ns and other mudbuckers battled the dinosaurs.

Then again, power battles never get old and someone will show up with neo mags and 20K coils.

[kg]

If they used a drive coil, that would only be telling half the story. Because it just induces a signal straight into the pickup coils, it doesn't measure the strength of the magnets and how well they're magnetizing the strings, for a start.
(

my very first thought was to do it inductively too, but that's exactly what i realized straight off...

basically if you do it inductively you could have a magnetless pickup test equally as well as the same pickup with an strong neodymium magnet.

one will have a bit more output once mounted in a guitar though!

[kg]

Oh, I thought we'd already been and done that. Like back in the days when Quarter Pounders and DiMarzio SDs and X2Ns and other mudbuckers battled the dinosaurs.

Then again, power battles never get old and someone will show up with neo mags and 20K coils.

hey now, i use an x2n at the bridge position!

[frankfalbo]

...induces a signal straight into the pickup coils, it doesn't measure the strength of the magnets...

We already know that can't be it, because they have greatly larger numbers for their similarly wound ceramic pickups vs. alnico. I thought I had known at some point they had a strummer, but maybe not.

[Albert Kreuzer]

i'm envisioning using an electric motor turning at a constant speed to move an eccentric ferrous object in close proximity to the pickup under test, and a jig to hold everything in the same spatial orientation.

Like this?


(Hammond tone wheel)