Specs on EVH wolfgang pickups

[David Schwab]

To me looking at that pic it looks like the original Wolfgang pickup, and not the new spec one launched in January.

I see it's now listed as a "Peavey Wolfgang Pickup" at the forum. I could have sworn it said EVH. Maybe Clint was reading this post and changed it. Maybe I was wrong...

Hi Clint!

[kevinT]

Eddie does have his own branded stuff under the EVH name.

his frankenstrat pickup

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.c...ned?sku=580301

[PAF-Boy]

There was a thread some time ago with a lot of info on the original early Van Halen pickups.

I am making my E H Pickup to the specs I found on a forum posted by a owner of one of Ed´s heavy modified guitars and my ears:

Slug coil wound hotter than the screw coil. 4,4 K / 4,6 K with Plain Enamel and Alnico 2 magnet.

Looking at the pics of regular Frankenstrat pickup I see it is not wound with PE.
But the pickups I saw in the Frankenstrat were wound with PE and had a long PAF magnet.All parts were aged alike the limited EVH Frankenstrat pickup.
Is it worth the 399 ?

I heard rumors that Will B is making them.Right or wrong who cares.

[Achiles]

There are a lot of info at
http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/s...&highlight=EVH

[David Schwab]

Strangely enough, I just got a Peavey Wolfgang in for a setup today.

I was surprised that both pickups read the same.

[Possum]

..

This EVH stuff is funny, his most famous pickup was just a PAF he rewound by hand, its just a PAF, thats all it is. The "mojo" came from Eddie's talent and fingers. He didn't play with high gain, his pickup wasn't 16K. Real simple, but players would rather believe complicated myths than the facts I guess.

[paulyy]

This EVH stuff is funny, his most famous pickup was just a PAF he rewound by hand, its just a PAF, thats all it is. The "mojo" came from Eddie's talent and fingers. He didn't play with high gain, his pickup wasn't 16K. Real simple, but players would rather believe complicated myths than the facts I guess.

Funny. I know I'm the one who posted this but It reminds me of the hipe of SRV's pickups in his number one strat. Everybody thought or most people thought, including me, that Stevies pickups were hot. Whitch I think they were wound alittle bit hot but not over bored like most people think. I tryed all kinds of hot pickups but they all sound nothing close. I had a set of fender 57/62 pickups laying around and whitch read 5.5 to 5.9,tryed them out along with a 1mfd tone cap and cts 250 pots. Wow, what a difference. I Had the stevie tone I wanted. To bad I cant play like Stevie.

[David Schwab]

This EVH stuff is funny, his most famous pickup was just a PAF he rewound by hand, its just a PAF, thats all it is. The "mojo" came from Eddie's talent and fingers. He didn't play with high gain, his pickup wasn't 16K. Real simple, but players would rather believe complicated myths than the facts I guess.

Yeah, and a lot of the recordings were made with an Ibanez Explorer with the stock pickups, and later he had a Duncan '59 in his Kramer.

[paulyy]

Aww yes. The ibanez explorer. That was a big part of his sound too until he destroyed it. He has had alot of nice guitars that he ended up destroying to get what he wanted out of a guitar.

[David Schwab]

Yeah, he took a chain saw to the Ibanez! He said it didn't sound the same after that.

I just finished the setup on the Peavey.

The pickups are much better sounding than I expected. I figured they'd sound like Super Distortions, but they don't. They aren't as ceramic sounding as I expected, you know, that hard percussive thing. The neck pickup is mounted with the screws toward the bridge.

The pickup selector is backwards compared to Les Pauls and similar guitars.

The neck is like a 2X4, but is quite comfortable.

[RedHouse]

...Either way it's basically a DiMarzio SDHB!...

My impression exactly (re: that pic) specially the cone/pyramid shaped wind where the base has more wire than the top, many of the old DiMarzio SDHB/DS's I have rewound were that shape.

[David Schwab]

My impression exactly (re: that pic) specially the cone/pyramid shaped wind where the base has more wire than the top, many of the old DiMarzio SDHB/DS's I have rewound were that shape.

They aren't as hard sounding as SDHB and they clean up nicely when you turn the volume down. But they are very similar. The magnet is a bit smaller in the Peavey pickup, and of course the poles are different.

[Possum]

....

the cone shaped coil isn't on purpose, its the result of having the coil winder setup wrong, the traverse is hitting one end of the bobbin more than the other, all machine winders do this and other shapes as well if not attended too. The typical shapes you'll get are cone shape (pyramid), hour glass, bulge in the middle, all the result of how the traverse is set.

[RedHouse]

the cone shaped coil isn't on purpose, its the result of having the coil winder setup wrong, the traverse is hitting one end of the bobbin more than the other, all machine winders do this and other shapes as well if not attended too. The typical shapes you'll get are cone shape (pyramid), hour glass, bulge in the middle, all the result of how the traverse is set.

(jeez dude, was that reply for real?)

No kidding? DOH! we must tell Larry he's set up all wrong! I'll have to remember that when I set up my coil winder...oh that's right...I did.

Just to re-cap, like 30 years before Possum wound his first coil, Larry (like him, or hate him) was sweeping the aftermarket with his pickups. Thanks for the insight Steve, I wish I had known back in 78 when I bought my first SDHB, I'd have saved us all some embarassment and just waited for you to come along and set me straight.

(just being sarcastic, it's a personality flaw I've enjoyed/suffered over the years, move along now, there's nothing to see here...)

[Possum]

....

Any big pickup maker winds thousands of pickups in a week, no one is going to watch each individual coil being wound. I doubt seriously if you look at that same model you are going to find all them wound the same way, if there was any big "secret" about coil shapes Larry would have patented it long ago. If you look at vintage PAFs all of those coil shapes I mentioned can be found in their short few years they were made. I have had all those coil shapes appear on my own machine winder that I built, the coil shapes are just dependent on how the traverse is set, anyone who use an automated winder knows this, Lollar talks about it in his book. There's really no negligible effect on tone how the coil shape is, probably so small most couldn't hear it. I experimented with those shapes done on purpose and basically its not even a measurable difference if any. Winding pickups on huge multiple coil winders its a chore to make sure every coil is set up right, so you will see variations in coil shapes on mass produced products....