Are they Gibson Classic '57?

[David Schwab]

Do Gibson Burstbuckers have a maple spacer?

The old patent label pickups I had used mahogany spacers. I still have one of the spacers.

[RedHouse]

Do Gibson Burstbuckers have a maple spacer?

Pepe aka Lt. Kojak
Milano, Italy

All three of the Burstbuckers on my bench do have a maple (or light colored hardwood) spacer under the stud coil.

[LtKojak]

All three of the Burstbuckers on my bench do have a maple (or light colored hardwood) spacer under the stud coil.

Dammit! So I can't be sure of the p'ups I've got.

So I have no other choice but to install'em in a guitar and try'em out! I give up...

Anyway, I'd like to personally thank each and every one of the people that participated in this thread.

Yours very truly,

Pepe aka Lt. Kojak
Milano, Italy

[valvulado]

The temperature coefficient of copper is well known, so one can correct resistances made at any reasonable temperature back to 25 C (77 F) fairly easily.

The temperature coefficient of pure copper is 0.004041 per degree centigrade. Copper wire will be close to this value.

The equation is R = Rref(1+0.004041(T-Tref)).

The temperatures 15 and 25 C are used above, so let's make an example from them:

Assume that the DC resistance of a pickup is 10,000 ohms at 25 C. What will the same pickup be at 15 C?

R15=10000(1+0.004041(15-25))= 9,596 ohms.

Funny, I never thought about that before...
That would explain to some extent why your guitar sounds fantastic one day and like crap on the other (not accounting for hearing fatigue etc.).
An alteration of the DC Resistance of the Coil (while maintaining its inductance) will have an influence on the low-pass, created by the DC Resistance of the coil and the capacitance of the guitar cable... thus changing the sound of the guitar!

[Joe Gwinn]

Funny, I never thought about that before...
That would explain to some extent why your guitar sounds fantastic one day and like crap on the other (not accounting for hearing fatigue etc.).
An alteration of the DC Resistance of the Coil (while maintaining its inductance) will have an influence on the low-pass, created by the DC Resistance of the coil and the capacitance of the guitar cable... thus changing the sound of the guitar!

A more likely explanation involves the alcohol content of the blood?

[RedHouse]

Funny ...explain to some extent why your guitar sounds fantastic one day and like crap on the other ...

Not funny to me, in fact sound changes from night-to-night has been an "issue" worth discussion (in my perspective) for years. I've always been of the opinion that my hearing couldn't have changed that much, must be something else going on. Now that I wind, and know the difference in DCR -vs- temp I can see it might have some explanation. Temp might very well be the "factor".

I'm reminded of the Madison Square Zeppelin concerts from the SRTS film, the song: Rock-n-Roll. and the first 3/4 of the "filmed version" (which we know was heavily edited by JP) sounds just fantastic, very "hot" sound almost JCM800'ish from a Plexi kind of setup...then...about 3/4 through the song (after the solo) it's like JP does some kind of edit, and you hear the "other" sound in there, the sound you more often associate with JP's Bridge+Neck sound. Which isn't bad, just way different. I wonder if these are from two different nights with different ambient temperatures, or perhaps voltage differences (amp). Personally I like the first 3/4 sound, it just rocks me right.