a charlie christian replica: believing my ears or theory?

[jason lollar]

i have seen vintage examples as low as 1.6K ohms but you are using even larger wire

[Mike Sulzer]

i have seen vintage examples as low as 1.6K ohms but you are using even larger wire

Which means that the number of turns is higher than the vintage examples you have seen, and so the output should be higher if everything is equal.

[frenchy]

I have overwound this pickup I suppose: 4500 turns of 36awg....in french we said "it weighs a dead donkey"...Advantage of a P90 format without cover: ugly but a lot of space.
Thanks Mike & Jason for the inputs...Now, I will see if this coil will give something else that a muddy tone - with his shape and the thickness of the blade, it is not really win...
Next time, 38awg!

[frenchy]

Dear all,
I tried it and it works well. Not the way I thought however: on my telecaster he just sound like a tele pickup. I know my earing is deficient, but I can tell that the result is very close from a standard pickup, and far far far away from the sound of a lollar or a CCpickup.
Not muddy, not at all, just a tele sound.....a little disappointed, but your right David, Mike & Jason: 1.15Kohms sometimes enough.

Also, I have tested several magnets, A5, A2 & neo, and stayed surprised. Indeed, changes were difficult to identified. I guess it came from the second thing that surprised me: the blade, a 1018 mild steel piece, stayed magnetized, the pickup gaved me the same sound without the magnets.
Ok, the blade has been stored with alnico 2 bars during a month, but I thought mild steel would have lost his magnetism...

A few days and I upload something on the internet.

Thanks everyone, even if it sound like a tele pup, it sounds and it is something

Frenchy

[frenchy]

Good morning everyone,

so no link to some videos showing how bad I am as a musician, just a question - I search everywhere, I cannot find answere.
I told in my last post that my blade keeps magnetism. Yes, but their is one more weird thing that I need to understand before doing something: the pickup works without the blade. Yes the output is not as powerfull that with the blade, but still important. I have never read that a coil could did that sort of thing.
Somebody could help?

Greetings,

Frenchy

[Joe Gwinn]

The blade is not essential. Look into "air coil" pickups, of which there are many kinds. The bare minimum is a magnet and a coil of wire. No iron is required.

[jason lollar]

you dont even need a magnet if there are enough stray magnetic fields bouncing around from tools and lighting etc. output would be extremely low but youll hear something

[frenchy]

Thanks Joe & Jason for your answers!!!!!
Now, the pickup is assembled: 2 bars of Alnico 2. It fits well in a P90 routing.
Unfortunately, this first Pickup is far from a being a good pickup.
After an 8 minutes waxpotting, it give a sound...how to say that.... rudimentary: some mids, few highs and bass. The richeness of the sound the guitar is squeezed. I messed somewhere - first by choosing 36awg I guess.
Anyway, now: I try a true replica.
First the blade - electroless nickel plating advised by Jason
A structure that contains enough 38awg to give an output of 1.5 to 3 Kohms.
A brain.

I will use some of these USB interface (the Behringer thing) to connect the guitare to a reliable recording source. It is not the best option but, anyway, there is nothing to loose here.

See you and thanks again.

Frenchy

[David Schwab]

You should be getting a lot more highs from that pickup.

What are you plugging it into to listen?