very basic info, im sure !!!

[bassjase128]

Hi,

As someone who has never wound a pickup, may I ask some probably very basic questions?

my son has a Yamaha 112 pacifica and I would like to make it sound better

1. why does a standard pickup sound so average? is it down to being machine wound? the potting material?poor magnets?
2. are they purposely made average?
3. would stripping down the original pickup and rewinding it improve the sound? what would you repot with?
4. would I be a lot better off starting from scratch and building my own pickups? I have rewound motors and relays in the past (im an electrician)

many thanks for any info/tips

[Mike Sulzer]

Those are not easy questions; many people are happy with sound of that, or similar guitars. First, have you found another guitar, when played through the same electronics, which sounds a lot better to you? If so, then, and only then, it is time to consider the reasons why. There is more going on than pickups, so one might also ask, have you found a guitar with the same body and neck materials (probably alder/maple) that sounds a lot better?

Hi,

As someone who has never wound a pickup, may I ask some probably very basic questions?

my son has a Yamaha 112 pacifica and I would like to make it sound better

1. why does a standard pickup sound so average? is it down to being machine wound? the potting material?poor magnets?
2. are they purposely made average?
3. would stripping down the original pickup and rewinding it improve the sound? what would you repot with?
4. would I be a lot better off starting from scratch and building my own pickups? I have rewound motors and relays in the past (im an electrician)

many thanks for any info/tips

[Mark Hammer]

Well, do consider that only some of the sound emanates from the pickup itself, and specifically from the pickup design and materials. It is QUITE possible for otherwise pleasing pickups to be:

a) put on the "wrong" gutar
b) installed/set-up poorly (wrong height, etc.)
c) matched to the wrong electronics (pots, tone caps, etc.)
d) paired up with an inhospitable signal path (long cable, clashing amp tone, etc.)

That does not mean there ARE no "mediocre pickups", but that what sounds like mediocrity may be due to a host of other things, and all pickups should be given a fighting chance before dismissal. It also means that simply changing out pickups for other commercial or home-made ones is no guarantee of a big turnaround in terms of tone.

Having said all of that, the Pacifica series is a consumer-grade guitar that attempts to do as much as is necessary at a reasonable price. I may be prejudging but the pickups are likely to be ceramic bar magnet types with steel slugs, instead of alnico polepieces. Such pickups CAN sound good, but do require special attention to do so.

Winding can make a substantial difference, and than includes both the winding pattern, and the winding tension. Looser winding (which higher winding speeds in mass production factories would generally do) wll result in higher DC resistance per #turns, and also increases microphonic risk.

Potting should have no effect on the tone under standard consumer conditions, apart from increasing/decreasing the likelihood of microphonics at higher volumes.

[Jazz P Bass]

As an aside: the funny thing about the Pacifica 112 is it sounds great in a Yamaha amp.

[LtKojak]

What do you mean with "better"?

I've recently acquired a second-hand Pacifica 112J and it sounds simply great with EMG SA pups.

The p'ups height and general setup of the instrument is paramount for the tonal outcome.

HTH,

[Peter Naglitsch]

Beauty is in the ear of the beholder

What one person consider mediocre is the holy grail to someone else. So you need to question yourself, Why do I feel that those pickups are sounding mediocre. Then compare the specs of those pickups to the specs of pickups you like. Only after that you can approach this with a tiny bit of science. And from my experience, if you have never made any pickups at all it doesn't matter if you rewind them of make new from scratch, they will probably not sound better than the existing pickups. It takes a few tries before you get the hang of it. I considered my first pickups good sounding when I first made them. I have since long replaced them all with better pickups as my knowledge and skills have increased.

[bassjase128]

thanks everyone,

The sound is a (sorry for the lack of terminology!) a bit muffled or no definition of notes when strummed, it sort of all mingles into a mush???

I will start with trying to set up with the existing pickups and maybe look at building from scratch if nothing improves.

are there any documents out there showing full specs of a pickup to copy, were not bothered about vintage etc just a nice clear tone

thanks for the tips

jase

[Peter Naglitsch]

Are all of the pickups (1 HB + 2 SC right?) sounding muffled? If so I would start with something else than the pickups. Maybe try swapping the tone and volume pots to a higher value, especially if they are 250 K post. You might also try, just for an experiment, to rout the pickups (ok, one at a time) directly to the output jack, thus eliminating any bad stuff in-between. If that sound is OK, you might also check out these pots:
STEWMAC.COM : JackPot Potentiometer
as that , in the end position, bypasses the pot altogether.

Lowering pickups will also IMHO yield a "brighter" or more open sound. Rising the pole screws in the HB will also do stuff with the sound.

EDIT: While googling to see what pot value the 112 has, came across a post on another forum that claimed that the 112 was too bright sounding... Oh, the pots are probably 500K but a 1Meg pot will make a difference too.

[Jazz P Bass]

What do you mean with "better"?

I've recently acquired a second-hand Pacifica 112J and it sounds simply great with EMG SA pups.

The p'ups height and general setup of the instrument is paramount for the tonal outcome.

HTH,

What I meant was 'better' with the stock pickups.

[bassjase128]

thanks for the advice people,

ive replaced all the pots with 500k pots and rewired and the guitar now sounds fantastic.

thanks for your time everyone!

Jason

[David Schwab]

Yamaha makes nice guitars, but their pickups are junk. I'd start by replacing them with something better.