Magic turn number for humbucker PU!

[fuzzman93]

Hi,
Could someone give to me the exact number of turn for winding an humbucker bobbin?I've heard of a magic number told by PAF guru's .I want to rewind a PAF with the correct number of 42 AWG ,with the sound near of the Jimmy Page 58 or 59 LP.IS it 5000 turns or 8000 or other?
Thanks a lot for the info
Best regards
Bruno

[Dave Kerr]

Gotta be some multiple of 666

[fuzzman93]

Only Seth Lovers

LOL!!
I'm sure the man himself doesn't know!But maybe only Seth Lovers could answer to me about a rational number !

[madialex]

If Seth answers you I am leaving this place and not coming back... As the music to the Exorcist plays in the background

[David Schwab]

Hi,
Could someone give to me the exact number of turn for winding an humbucker bobbin?I've heard of a magic number told by PAF guru's .I want to rewind a PAF with the correct number of 42 AWG ,with the sound near of the Jimmy Page 58 or 59 LP.IS it 5000 turns or 8000 or other?
Thanks a lot for the info
Best regards
Bruno

You wont get 8,000 turns of 42 on a Humbucker bobbin. 5,000 is pretty standard.

But I'm no PAF guru... I've only wound two of the things.

I love when people talk about Jimmy Page's LP since he mostly used a Tele with Zep. I guess he used the LP on the blues stuff though.

[Stan H]

5000 turns of #42 has pretty much always been the general consensus...but who actually knows for sure. The actual PAFs varied so much from pickup to pickup that you can just throw a dart at the board

[Possum]

:-)

The official number of turns was supposed to be 5,000 for each bobbin. They wanted to get the same number of turns a P90 had which is 10,000. But their winders were crude, the operators weren't coil winding experts, so it could be anything, pick a number....

[kevinT]

Turn count vs. DCR

Another way to approach it is by way of DCR. PAFs could be anywhere from 7K Ohm all the way up to 10K Ohm.....depends on what you're trying to achieve.

I assume you're winding a bridge pickup?

[fuzzman93]

Magic number for a ticket to heaven!

Hi ,
Thanks to all here for the infos ,i asked this because in the Guitar Electronic for Musician book the author speak about 6500 turns told by some manufacturers.I'm going to try 5000 turns .Sorry David but after his telecaster was ruined by a luthier ,J Page mostly of the time played on stage 58 and 59 LP (one with coil split system to have a more Telecaster sound )I've got a 67 Tele with a TBender and you've got reason,most of his recorded stuff was done with a tele but i like very much the sound of a LP plug in a Marshall but i'am very far from his tone ,i've got the ACDC type of sound(My bridge PU is from a 1968 SG and it sound like an SG huu)A friend of mine went at home with a 72 Custom LP and what happen with my Marshall ?I had the exactly Jimmy Page tone(Stage Tone see TSRTS video) !So the Pup's are TTOP too so i could consider there's a huge difference beetween two T Top's Pup's.Frequencies first the custom was more focused on the vocal frequencies,.Second the output parameters ,the custom seems to be lower than mine even at the same height set-up and finally with more high ends and a lot of air ,notes are articulated (maybe the ebony fingerboard).
I'm not a pro,it will be my second hand winding and i don't want to spend a lot of time to find what i'm searching.I know that more turns give more output but a different frequency response than less turn ,i'm looking for compromise beetween tonal response , frequency voicing i'm not looking for a powerfull pick-up but i couldn't buy a good sounding PAF to compare.
All your suggestions are welcome for my graal (heu PAF)quest!
Bruno

[David Schwab]

Yeah, Page used the Paul live. But he used that brown Tele with the bender all the way to the last Zep album. Pete Townsend also used Pauls live, but used a Gretsch a lot on recordings.

I love Les Pauls though... I had an '81 Standard for a while until it suffered a fall...

My guitar making partner has a lot of LP's... here's like half of them (check out the one with the Explorer head!)

[SkinnyWire]

Hi,
Could someone give to me the exact number of turn for winding an humbucker bobbin?I've heard of a magic number told by PAF guru's .I want to rewind a PAF with the correct number of 42 AWG ,with the sound near of the Jimmy Page 58 or 59 LP.IS it 5000 turns or 8000 or other?
Thanks a lot for the info
Best regards
Bruno

5000 is where you start, but here's where you need to take things into your own hands and see what happens. That and a bit of research on the net should get you down the road to where you want to be in fairly short order. Good luck.

[Peter Naglitsch]

It's more than just turn count. It’s not to hard playing around with different magnets. Reading your description (and I’m probably the least experienced guy around here so don’t listen too much to me) I would start with somewhere between 4500 and 5000 turns on the bridge and maybe 250 turns less on the neck. Wind the pickups slightly offset (maybe 5%). Combine that with Alnico2 magnets and you will have a set of sweet sounding pickups.

OK guys, now rip my post apart and tell me I’m all wrong.

[NightWinder]

It's more than just turn count. It’s not to hard playing around with different magnets. Reading your description (and I’m probably the least experienced guy around here so don’t listen too much to me) I would start with somewhere between 4500 and 5000 turns on the bridge and maybe 250 turns less on the neck. Wind the pickups slightly offset (maybe 5%). Combine that with Alnico2 magnets and you will have a set of sweet sounding pickups.

OK guys, now rip my post apart and tell me I’m all wrong.

lol, that was an honest answer...tpl is another story. Peter's on his game

[fuzzman93]

Hi David ,

What a nice collection! What pickups you're friend use on them ?Stock Gibson or others ? Yes,Jimmy Page likes the sound of single coil pickups ,sure(look at all the stuff he played with his danelectro and telecaster ) .
I see here with all your answers, that the good start number is 5000 turns of 42 AWG and a lot of luck and try.I'm going to Alchemy?I've got an AlnicoV long magnet and i'm waiting for the wire,
Why all the vintage PAF are so expensive if they are sounding all differents?It is only because they are made with old components? I don't understand who could put thousand dollard in a PAF pickup on E-bay just to have a vintage part without beeing sure to sound like he wants to sound?

Thanks a lot to everybody here that have answered to my question,i'm going to wait my wire,to wind my coils ,to play Whole Lotta Love and if i'm a lucky man to be proud by my work! Inventions are always accidents !!A good sounding vintage or repro PAF seems to be one more

Peace for all!

[soundmasterg]

Page used a Tele and a SUpro amp on the first two albums and part of the third. He started using the LP and Marshall on the third and used those for much of the rest of Zep's things, although towards the end he began to use a Strat. The Supro amp is very important to that early sound and you just won't get there with a Marshall.