42 ga SILVER magnet wire

[888guitars]

Anyone know where to get silver magnet wire? I want to try it. Heard it was cool stuff?

[big_teee]

Anyone know where to get silver magnet wire? I want to try it. Heard it was cool stuff?

If I were in the market, I would try a seymour duncan zephyr.
T

[belwar]

Anyone know where to get silver magnet wire? I want to try it. Heard it was cool stuff?

It's not a readily available item, particularly at low quantity - plus the cost is astromical. Copper currently trades at about $3/lb, whereas silver currently trades at $458/lb (14.4 troy ounces @ $31.50 troy ounce).

[888guitars]

I Ended up ordering a set of Zepher's for my customer who paid $750 for the set! Whew! They better be great!

[big_teee]

I Ended up ordering a set of Zepher's for my customer who paid $750 for the set! Whew! They better be great!

Whose your Customer?
Mitt Romney?
T

[salvarsan]

Coupla years ago, the matter of silver magnet wire got a good airing.
We discussed cost, resistance, length per pound, and got typically dumbass on it.

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t12469/

[888guitars]

Yup my customer is another one of those "tone hounds". Very rich and cant really play to save his life. Good guy though, I get to play with all of his cool stuff. If you have ever seen the Dan Erliwine pics/video about a refret on old les pauls. That old goldtop is my customers.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Coupla years ago, the matter of silver magnet wire got a good airing.
We discussed cost, resistance, length per pound, and got typically dumbass on it.

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t12469/

Oh, I remember that! So much fun.

[David Schwab]

It's not a readily available item, particularly at low quantity - plus the cost is astromical. Copper currently trades at about $3/lb, whereas silver currently trades at $458/lb (14.4 troy ounces @ $31.50 troy ounce).

Plus, the cost of copper magnet wire is about $17/lb. I don't even want to know what the price of silver magnet wire is.

[Possum]

Some of these tone freaks will buy anything if its supposed to be "cool." Silver is much more conductive than copper so obviously you're going to get a lot brighter tones, maybe more than you actually want. Wiring strat guards with thick fine silver wire used to be popular maybe ten years ago, but too much of a good thing, too many ultra-efficient tweaks and you end up with really hi-fi tones. The reason vintage guitars and pickups sounded so good to us old farts back in yesteryear is because all that wire and amps etc. were total crap, efficiency wise, and far from being hi-fi quality. I think Seymour must have read a popular book that was out just a few years ago, that basically said to offer a super high end ridiculously expensive product for the rich, even if no one ever buys it, just for "marketing" exposure. Solid silver pickup coils sure meets that criteria ;-) So, really what does one pickup coil weigh, half an ounce? So for $750 you get 3 coils that are actually worth about $40 ;-) Pretty damn funny....hey I gotta get some of that wire

[ken]

Silver magnet wire, huh? Now I know what kind of pickups the Lone Ranger would have if he played guitar.

Seriously... since silver's conductivity (ohms per foot) is different from copper, wouldn't that make usual winding recipes useless? Wouldn't you have to use say 44 gauge silver wire to equal the 'ohms per foot' of 42 ga. copper wire?

ken

[copperheadroads]

Silver magnet wire, huh? Now I know what kind of pickups the Lone Ranger would have if he played guitar.

Seriously... since silver's conductivity (ohms per foot) is different from copper, wouldn't that make usual winding recipes useless? Wouldn't you have to use say 44 gauge silver wire to equal the 'ohms per foot' of 42 ga. copper wire?

ken

Yes you would have to throw that little black note book away when using unicorn haiR.........Sorry I mean't silver wire ......

[nicholaspaul]

So for $750 you get 3 coils that are actually worth about $40 ;-) Pretty damn funny....hey I gotta get some of that wire

When Eric Johnson says its the only stuff he uses, I'll think about it. But like you said, the tone people are after is only achievable by reproducing inefficiencies. I'm sure EJ recognizes that too.

[the great waldo]

Will the silver wire work against vampires ?
Cheers

Andrew

Silver magnet wire, huh? Now I know what kind of pickups the Lone Ranger would have if he played guitar.

Seriously... since silver's conductivity (ohms per foot) is different from copper, wouldn't that make usual winding recipes useless? Wouldn't you have to use say 44 gauge silver wire to equal the 'ohms per foot' of 42 ga. copper wire?

ken

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Yes you would have to throw that little black note book away when using unicorn haiR.........Sorry I mean't silver wire ......

Ha!

The point I made in the original thread (and everyone then called me an idiot for it) was that what we've learned about copper and how to get certain sounds would go out of the window, and you wouldn't be able to simply make silver versions of existing pickups and expect it to be better. Much in the same way, you can't just throw a ceramic magnet in an existing design and expect it to be better; it is often times worse. Just slapping silver onto an existing design would be a waste of resources. That's my best guess, anyway. If someone took the time to use it appropriately I'm sure it would sound amazing.

If DCR was the only difference between silver and copper (I doubt it), then it wouldn't be worth while. I have a design where I can get over 5H with about 4 kohm resistance, and that is with 42awg copper.