Humbucker is too clean

[eblock]

I just finished a guitar and put a humbucker in it I wound myself (single p/up guitar) plugged it in and (to my disappointment) it sounds clean as can be. Amp settings are good- for distortion anyway (I tested against two other guitars and lots of distortion in those- with Seymour Duncan Sh-4 and and an Angus Young Sig in the other).

I wound both bobbins with 43 AWG to total of 13ohms, using a Ceramic 5magnet, non-potted (I wanted a sort of dirty, high freq sound- but maybe this was the wrong way to go for that), and wired same as the Seymour Duncan diagram for a single humbucker, 1 vol, 1 tone. However, distortion is zero no matter how much I persuade the amp otherwise.

I'm still pretty new to all of this and would appreciate any input. Thank you.

[David Schwab]

13 ohms? Do you mean 13K?

13K should be plenty loud. Is it very bright? Thin bottom end? Does it hum?

You might have the coils wired electrically in phase, which is then magnetically out of phase. This would result in a thin bright tone with less output. The pickup would also hum.

If that's the case, try flipping the two wires on one coil around.

13 ohms would be low impedance. Very clean with little output. But you'd never be able to just plug it into an amp.

[Spence]

I suspect you've either wired the coils in phase as David stated or your mistake was to wind the coils in opposite directions to each other which to the casual observer would look like a correctly assembled humbucker.

[eblock]

Yep, I meant 13K...

I wired both coils counter-clockwise and then wired the finish leads together. I think this is correct? However, I will double-check. Thanks guys for the input.

[Spence]

I wired both coils counter-clockwise and then wired the finish leads together. I think this is correct? However, I will double-check. Thanks guys for the input.

So maybe you put one of the bobbins on the winder upside down. Whatever the case, you have done something wrong there and it might be advisable to just make another one and compare.

[madialex]

Hell even 7K on a humbucker should give some pretty good distortion. You probably wound 1 coil upside down as Spence noted. I used to do that a lot when I first started. It's an easy mistake and will have you scratching your head for a while.

[eblock]

Apparently...

it also helps if you connect the hot and ground to the right terminals on the jack ;-). Got it connected correctly (after taking the whole thing apart, checking everything then putting back together)- good soldering, etc. practice I guess. Sounds excellent now, just like I had wanted it to. Nonetheless, thanks all for the advice, much appreciated.