Weighing wire and possible discrepancies - Let's Discuss

[David Schwab]

I'm pretty certain its only your hearing that I've questioned David. And since you cant hear the differences between certain materials which many others can you adamantly state it as a fact that there are none when many others do in fact hear it.

Here's the vague "many others" reference. Many people believe lots of stupid things. Go on YouTube and look at the people that think they hear a difference between different tone caps. It's the placebo affect.

I asked you to post a sound clip of a slightly potted pickup and a fuller potted pickup to prove they sound different. But you keep ignoring that. Why should anyone just take you word, or the "many other's" word for it.

Then you make comments like the coils are singing. No, the pickup might be slightly microphonic. Also since wax has a certain dielectric constant, it might even be a little brighter. I used to use other things besides wax to pot pickups. I used varnish for a while, and I tried polyurethane. When I switched to wax I wanted to be certain that the tone of my pickups was not going to change. Unlike guitars, basses are often very hi-fi, with little or no distortion through very clean solid state amps. You can hear every little thing. Also bass players tend to use a brighter tone than many guitarist. So in my tests, which were done recording the instrument direct, I detected no significant change in tone. Once I was certain that my pickups sounded the same, I started wax potting them. So I actually did my own tests. Did you? You can't just trust your memory on how you think a pickup sounded from yesterday, or an hour ago. That's why I make recordings.

What certain materials can't I hear the difference of? I use certain materials in my pickups based on the tone of that material. And I'm not just making Fender and Gibson pickup copies.

Difference in finishes? I've built guitars and played them with no finish. Then I played them with finish. I've also stripped instruments down and applied a different finish. A film finish has no affect on a solid body guitar. It has some affect on an acoustic guitar.

So either back up your claims or give it a rest.

[David Schwab]

I think the late 50's models had an adjustable bias.

Considering they were formed in 1969, sure they did.