Pickup Too Quiet

[Ed Nine]

Hello all! New here, so i hope i came to the right place.

I just wound my first single coil pickup and when i put it on my Ibanez between the 2 humbuckers already on the guitar the volume level of my single coil is about 60-70% of the humbuckers. Too quiet.

It did have a single coil in that position before and i wired it in the same.
Does anyone have any idea why the low volume level?
I did 8000 turns with 42 AWG wire
reverse wound/south up
and measured it at 6.4 k ohms

[big_teee]

Welcome:
Single coils are not as loud as most Humbuckers.
The Humbucker has 2 coils in Series and has 2 magnet pole sensing areas.
Try moving the humbuckers down away from the strings, and move the Single Coil Pickup up Toward the strings some.
T

[rhgwynn]

Try 10000 winds of 43awg; single build poly or enamel. Don't scatter too much; keep it neat.

[Ed Nine]

Welcome:
Single coils are not as loud as most Humbuckers.
The Humbucker has 2 coils in Series and has 2 magnet pole sensing areas.
Try moving the humbuckers down away from the strings, and move the Single Coil Pickup up Toward the strings some.
T

Thanks for that :-) As brilliant as it was simple. Should have thought of that myself really :-)
I did try this and it helped quite alot.

[Ed Nine]

Try 10000 winds of 43awg; single build poly or enamel. Don't scatter too much; keep it neat.

I thought next time i will try more winds. Probably 10000. I might stick to the 42 awg though as i want a more stratty sound and i think 43 awg is mostly for tele pickups.

i was thinking maybe the next one will be north up/ normal wound as i get quite alot of feedback from this first one i made.

[big_teee]

I thought next time i will try more winds. Probably 10000. I might stick to the 42 awg though as i want a more stratty sound and i think 43 awg is mostly for tele pickups.

i was thinking maybe the next one will be north up/ normal wound as i get quite alot of feedback from this first one i made.

Not sure what you mean about changing it to north up for feedback.
The problem with H/S/H.
Each humbucker alone is hum canceling.
When you play the middle single coil with each humbucker you will not have hum canceling because of 3 coils being played at once.
If in position 2 and 4, you split the humbucker and have the split coil and middle coil RWRP, then you will have hum canceling.
So just turning the middle polarity by itself will not fix the hum issue in pos. 2 & 4.
T

[Ed Nine]

Ok. Thanks Big T! That will save me alot of hassle for nothing then :-)
I was thinking it was the same priciple as with three single coils like on a fender. 5 way switch.

[rhgwynn]

I thought next time i will try more winds. Probably 10000. I might stick to the 42 awg though as i want a more stratty sound and i think 43 awg is mostly for tele pickups.

i was thinking maybe the next one will be north up/ normal wound as i get quite alot of feedback from this first one i made.

10000 winds of heavy 42 will only get you to 8k (appx) unless you wind extra tight (tension) but you likely will not be able to fit that much unless you make the bobbin taller. The same number of winds in 43awg will get you at least to 10k. I will also say - don't develop preconceived notions about this wire or that wire. It won't make your strat sound like a tele; I promise. Many strat pickups are wound with 43awg. I have two pickups in my strat right now that are wound to 10k and 13k; it definitely still sounds like a strat.

[big_teee]

Ed another thing to check is to make sure your rod magnets are fully charged.
A5 magnets fully charged and 42 Single build wire at about 10,000 turns should do fine.
If you get hotter than that you lose the vintage Sound IMO.
Here is the Coil Estimator we all use, shared by a forum member Salvarsan.
http://www.salvarsan.org/pickups/Coil_Estimator.html
You can experiment with it, and you will see that 10,000 turns of 42 single, will get you to around 7-7.2k ohms.
That should be about right.
Good Luck,
T

[Ed Nine]

Cheers T! Very useful.