Series/Parrallel verses ohms

[LowNote]

I was doing some research on dual coil bass pickups and started thinking about series and parallel wiring. If I make two coils wound to 4000 ohms each and wired them in parallel for a 2000 ohm pickup and wound another pair of coils to 1000 ohms each and wired them in series for a 2000 ohm pickup will they sound the same? So, with that thought in mind I am going to order some bobbins and do the experiment. All four bobbins will be the same, jazz style bridge A5 slugs, same wire. I'll be using 43 gauge because I have a lot of it. I think they will sound different.

Any thoughts or comments?

LowNote

[big_teee]

If I read your post correctly, sounds like a waste of good parts to me.
1000 ohms of 43 is going to be around 970 turns on a neck Jazz.
1000 ohms of 43 is going to be around 930 turns on a bridge Jazz.
Your going to end up with some weak pickups.
But, maybe that is your intent, and are going to use a preamp?
Good luck with your experiment.
T

[LowNote]

Yea, those are low numbers. I'll raise the impedance.

I did just finished a dual coil with each coil at 9.3 ohms and wired it in parallel. Using it in the bridge position and it sounds pretty good. We'll see how it sounds live, that is the real test.

I'll make another set of coils wound to 2.5 ohms and wire it in series and see what happens to the sound.

LowNote

[David King]

A some folks seem to wind specifically for series or parallel which I really don't understand but that's because I've always liked being able to switch back and forth between the two to get the different sounds. I guess one man's 'mudbucker' is another man's bass pickup.
Then there are folks who specifically try to match the outputs between series and parallel via the use of taps. As soon as you run series via the taps you have a band of extra wire around the outside of the coil that's like a big dead weight of eddy currents killing your tone. I don't get that at all but if you charge enough for it suddenly your customers can't hear how bad it sounds.
LowNote presumably you are talking 9.3k Ohms and 2.5K Ohms? Three orders of magnitude will make a difference.

[David Schwab]

They won't sound exactly alike, because one of them has more wire on the coils.

The reason why you see some bass humbuckers wired in parallel, is because they wind each coil to sound good as a single coil. That would be too hot/dark in series, so they wire them in parallel. But it's not an ideal solution.

Personally I never use single coils. If I want a similar tone I switch a humbucker into parallel.

Now you are talking about Jazz pickups? So are you doing them as split coils?

[Zhangliqun]

I have a +/-4k (yes, two +/-2k pickups in series) humbucker in my line-up and I have tried 8k pickups in parallel -- it's just different. The 4k is more lively, the 8k parallel more mellow, in certain ways like an acoustic.