Measuring Tension On Wound Pickup

[David Schwab]

To split the difference, I like a good firm coil, not too loose with wire falling off the coil.
Not so tight, as to flare the bobbins, or to stretch or break the wire.
Beyond that, I see no reason to analyze how tight a dead coil was wound.
Unwrap some wire, and count the TPL.
Then wind the pickup and hope for the best!
More than likely your pickup will sound as good as the original.
At least I like to think so.
T

That was my point exactly. No one uses tension as a parameter for pickup design, as far as I know.

You use as much tension as needed to maintain a tight coil. Too much and you stretch the wire and deform the bobbin. Too little and you have a lose sloppy coil.

[David Schwab]

No foreplay, honeymoon or anything and you're already acting like that...

I wasn't being snarky. I wanted to hear why you thought it was important without putting ideas in your head.

It's really not that important. You can find lots of posts on tension devices, etc., for winders.

[Beef Coon]

Don't confuse tension effecting the pickup tone, with wire size.
Wire size varies a lot for each size of wire.
This effects tone greatly.
Even if you analyze the dead pickup,
You have to duplicate it going forward winding the new one.
With All Due Respect, I think you're getting overly distracted by tension, when there are things that effect tone more.
Like I said, beyond Lite, medium and Tight, There is not much more you can do, or analyze IMO.

But tension's the secret sauce! I get what you're saying, I prob am going overboard.
I do believe that the 'subtleties' of tension are important - and very easy to manipulate, which is also important.

Thanks Terry!

[LtKojak]

From my vastly small amount of experience I've found that tension plays a significant roll in responsiveness or "dynamics" and "initial pick attack and note decay."

I don't think that's the case.

My own "hands-on" experience leads to attribute this variable I call "behaviour", to the magnetic field geometry AND projection; all dependent on the alloy(s) the different parts used to transfer the magnetic charge to the strings are made of, being the pimary source the magnet itself, plus the mechanical coupling of all the elements put together.

YMMV.

[Beef Coon]

I like that - "behavior."

And I agree, changing the alloy of steel, magnets and/or gauss strength, insulation thickness of magnet wire, etc etc has a much larger impact... but

I am a bit surprised by the responses, but I thank you all for not beating me up too badly.

[David Schwab]

But tension's the secret sauce!

It's not. Wind up a bunch of pickups and see for yourself.

He wasn't saying that either. You use enough tension to keep the coil tight, but not too much. That's what he said.

[Beef Coon]

It's not. Wind up a bunch of pickups and see for yourself.

He wasn't saying that either. You use enough tension to keep the coil tight, but not too much. That's what he said.

You are so rude ... and you're a moderator right?

I already wrote that I did try with a bunch of pickups...
and David, maybe you've just got tin ears.



"secret sauce" was a joke - how could you not get that.

[David Schwab]

I'm not rude at all. Did I call you a name? I asked you a legitimate question. If you have wound pickups before, you would know all about tension. If you think it matters then I think you need to rethink that.


rude |ro͞od|adjective1 offensively impolite or ill-mannered


You have all of 15 posts here. Just chill out a bit.

[Beef Coon]

You're all those elements by your own definition,...

and now you've just called me a liar - so you've got that one as well David.

[big_teee]

If you're going to hang out here, your going to have to toughen up.
Everyone here, has been pretty good to you, and Everyone challenges everything here.
If you have an idea or Theory, be prepared to prove it!
This is the main Pickup forum, it is a technical forum, you may want to try the Beginners/Hobbyist Sub-Forum First.
Good luck with the Dead pickup, I recommend Cutting the wire off of it, and rewinding it.
Lets move on!
Peace and Tone,
T

[David Schwab]

You're all those elements by your own definition,...

and now you've just called me a liar - so you've got that one as well David.

No, you said I was rude, I said you are incorrect. I never said you lied about anything.

I gave you the definition to you show you how I was not offensively impolite or ill-mannered.

If you think I was, then clearly you have a persecution complex!

I just asked you how many pickups you have wound? You learn all this stuff with experience.

[RedHouse]

...I hand guide & use both hands for tension...

Then you will never actually know the answer to your question using your fingers as a tension measurement device.

You can wind some great pickups, but until you use some kind of tensioning device that has measurement capability, well, as the others said before, focus on the major things that mean more to the recipie.

BTW, IMHO Big-Tee was right on the money about post wind tension, I've argued this same notion in the past. IMHO once the copper relaxes, it's tension has subsided. Many of the softer metals do this after being stretched/bent and usually relax into it's new position. Other metals are coaxed into it by heat treating after working the metal.

One more thing about tension, even if you don't warp the bobbin with higher tension, you can pull enough irregularity into the wire shape to cause it to sound differerent. Depending on your winding speed the ends of each turn can be streched into kind of a thinner/flatter oval shape than the wire on the long-straight sides where the stretching would be linear.

[RedHouse]

You're all those elements by your own definition,...

and now you've just called me a liar - so you've got that one as well David.

Yo Beef, just an FIY, David's a straight shooter. Oh you might not agree with everything he says (who does?) but he's here helping everyone, all the time, ya might wanna take 'er down a notch or two and get to know (all) the folks before any knee-jerk reactionism. Jeze if you're this way with David, you're gonna freek when I post in your threadz!

I've found myself in opposing (thoughts) with David a fair portion of the time, arued a bit too, but he's been very good and helpfull with me and the others here over the years, and no matter how hot the debate, he'll always extend his hand later when you need him....Wurd.