Combining Wire Types

[Brian W.]

I was wondering about the pluses /minuses of pig-tailing some 42G heavy build Formvar onto 42G plain enamel. I'm sure lots of people have done this........

[big_teee]

That is fine for experimenting, and finishing out your test pickup.
I personally wouldn't sell anything like that.
Sand the ends before twisting together, solder the connection.
Then you could put fingernail polish lacquer on the trimmed soldered connection.
Let the lacquer dry before winding over it.
T

[Brian W.]

Thanx big__teee

Would combining those two thicknesses of 42G wire affect the overall "sound" of the pickup? The pickup was originally wound to 6K with plain enamel and then clipped to 4K. Since I don't have any more plain enamel wire I just thought of putting 2K [or so] heavy Formvar wire to bring the coil back up to the 6K range. I'm curious as to what this does to the pickup's characteristics. None of these pickups I'm winding are for sale.....merely for personal experimentation.

[big_teee]

That will be fine.
I try those kind of things often.
Don't know for what guitar, or for what pickup position?
If for a strat, I like 5.6-5.85K for a neck pickup.
a little more for middle and close to full coil for bridge.
If you have a turns counter go by turns count, if not use the DCR, the best you can.
GL,
T

[Brian W.]

Ooops...... it's a Strat pickup! Probably bridge position. Alnico 5 mags. I don't have a turn counter and have been winding the Formvar until no more wire would fit on the coil. This gives me a good solid 7K that I can trim back if need be. I'm wondering if the coil is being wound tight enough, though.

[StarryNight]

Ooops...... it's a Strat pickup! Probably bridge position. Alnico 5 mags. I don't have a turn counter and have been winding the Formvar until no more wire would fit on the coil. This gives me a good solid 7K that I can trim back if need be. I'm wondering if the coil is being wound tight enough, though.

The only way you’re going to find out any degree of difference is if you wind it and compare it to a another pickup wound completely with the same wire under lab-like conditions. Technically there is a difference. You may be adding slightly more capacitance with a thicker coating. In real world situations where the environment is constantly changing, I don’t think i would notice a difference but maybe someone else would.

[Helmholtz]

You may be adding slightly more capacitance with a thicker coating.

A thicker coating as well as a loosely or scatter wound coil typically results in lower capacitance because of increased distance between the turns. But such differences (maybe 50pf) are typically small compared to the total wiring capacitance including the guitar cable and amp input capacitance.

[StarryNight]

A thicker coating as well as a loosely or scatter wound coil typically results in lower capacitance because of increased distance between the turns. But such differences (maybe 50pf) are typically small compared to the total wiring capacitance including the guitar cable and amp input capacitance.

Sorry, I got my thinking on capacitance reversed. Thanks for the correction!

[Brian W.]

I basically compare the sound of pickups with each other in the same guitar [in this case a Strat]. Balancing the output and tone of a bridge position Strat pickup with the middle and neck position is the challenge. I really can't be bothered with recreating the "exact" vintage specs of 50 year old pickups. I have owned and played hundreds of old guitars from the 40's , 50's, 60's, and 70's and at some point woke up to the fact that some sounded and played great.....but most were rubbish.
A lot of times the way a guitar will sound really depends on the temperature and humidity on that particular day.