using extech with pickups loaded

[Rosewood]

I have a lot of guitars come through my shop and will sometimes just hook the extech up to the jack and measure. Volumes and tone wide open but still loaded. I figured the readings would be off but ball park. Should pickups be tested loaded since that's where they will be used anyway?

[Joe Gwinn]

I have a lot of guitars come through my shop and will sometimes just hook the extech up to the jack and measure. Volumes and tone wide open but still loaded. I figured the readings would be off but ball park. Should pickups be tested loaded since that's where they will be used anyway?

Depends. What are you trying to accomplish?

[Rosewood]

Depends. What are you trying to accomplish?

Just comparing pickups in guitars that sound good to my ear. Obviously the guitar has a lot to do with it. Just a quick and dirty way for a reading without desoldering.

[Joe Gwinn]

Depends. What are you trying to accomplish?

Just comparing pickups in guitars that sound good to my ear. Obviously the guitar has a lot to do with it. Just a quick and dirty way for a reading without desoldering.

Hard to say if measuring without disassembly will prove useful or not from the theory, but there is no harm in just trying it. Keep lots of notes as you go.

[Mike Sulzer]

With the volume and tone control on 10, you are looking at the pickup coil with a high impedance in parallel. The impedance of the coil is much lower at 120 Hz, and so if you measure L at 120 Hz you will get a good reading. If you do it at 1000 Hz it could be different from eddy current effects as well as a bit more error from the controls, and so in any case, the inductance of the coil is best measured at 120 Hz.