Single coil Pickups GLASSY SOUND problem!!!!

[colmax]

Hello everyone!

I'm trying to make Single coil pickups Fender strar style...

I did everything according to instructions But my pickups is not good... sound that I get is very Glassy...and not very pleasant to the ear...

Magnet rod A5
Wire AWG42 Enameled Copper Magnet Wire

Around 8000 winding

DC resistance around 6K

CW N-UP neck and bridge
CCW S-UP middle

placed in wax.

Potentiometer V 250 K - T+T 250K
tone capacitor 100n


What is my mistake????????








Thanks

[big_teee]

What do the bobbins measure between the flats.
I do 11mm, or .435". Yours look pretty tall.
If the bridge pickup is too bright, try putting more wire on it.
Also you have a lot of bevel on the magnets.
Normally you just do a slight bevel to aid assembly.
T

[Richard]

Your pictures look nice though.

[Peter Naglitsch]

Can you measure the magnets strength? Personally I wouldn't bevel the magnets that much either, but it shouldn't get you as much problems as you describe...

[John Kolbeck]

With the larger bevel and taller pole piece height, you might be compelled to set the pickups further away from the strings than you would otherwise.

[big_teee]

Another observation.
For 8000 turns of wire, the bobbins look to not be near full?
That's why I commented on the bobbin height earlier.
If the height checks out ok, you can fatten them up with less TPL.
On Single coil pickups, there is plenty of room to scatter wind.
That will make the coils larger in diameter, and fatten up the sound.
Also be sure to tape your coils before winding, to avoid any shorts from magnets to magnet wire.
T

[Jim Darr]

Colmax,

I agree with the other observations. Coils seem a little too tall and magnets might be taller than normal. The bevel shouldn't account for what you are experiencing.

I would try adding another 600 turns, bringing your total to 8600ish. From the pics the extra turns should fit.

Make sure you are counting turns accurately...this could make a big difference if you really have less the 8000 turns on there now and possibly could account for your "Glassy" sound. Remember "Glassy" means different things to different people. I interpret it, in this situation from your post, as kind of thin and sterile sounding, but you may mean something else entirely.

Also, try more scatter. And you might want to degauss the magnets about 10-20% off full charge.

Hope this helps.

[John_H]

tone capacitor 100n
What is my mistake????????

Try an .047mf

[rjb]

Remember "Glassy" means different things to different people.

I have no idea what "glassy" means, but I thought "vintage glassy Strat sound" meant "good".

[Jim Darr]

Try an .047mf

Didn't catch the 100n in the original post. A one-hundred nano-Farad capacitor should be marked as 0.1...meaning 0.1uF.

Try a .022mf or take the 100n out of the circuit and see if that helps.

Nice catch John_H

[big_teee]

I run the .1uf (100nan) disk Cap on all my strats.
That gives the old strat sound, just a little darker tone.
The .047uf works good also, so try them both.
If the bridge pickup isn't hooked up with the tone mod, it will really be bright, especially with only 8000 turns.
I think he is saying glassy, maybe meaning too bright?
But, if he doesn't come back we'll never know?
T

[Mike Sulzer]

Try an .047mf

Presumably "too glassy" means with the tone on 10. The value of the capacitor is not an issue on 10.

[big_teee]

Why not Mike?
The cap is always there, just the resistance is different.
With a 250k pot, it's not that much, now if you have a no load pot on 10 then the cap wouldn't matter.
Switch in different value of caps, on 10 and you will here a difference.
On 1-10 on the bridge pickup, it won't be different with stock wiring, because the cap is not in the circuit.
That brings up another question, I wonder if the pots and caps are wired correctly?
I have some local players that use 1meg pots for tone, because it has a greater roll off.
T

[rjb]

Question for OP: What is your counter, and how do you trigger the input?
I agree that the coils look overly tall and possibly underwound.

I know this is heresy, but might a "quick fix" of lowering resonant freqs by soldering small value capacitors across the pickup leads work?
Say start with 1000pF for the bridge, 470pF for middle, 220pF for neck, adjust by ear & taste.

[Mike Sulzer]

Why not Mike?
The cap is always there, just the resistance is different.
With a 250k pot, it's not that much, now if you have a no load pot on 10 then the cap wouldn't matter.
Switch in different values, on 10 and you will here a difference.
On 1-10 on the bridge pickup, it won't be different with stock wiring, because the cap is not in the circuit.
That brings up another question, I wonder if the pots and caps are wired correctly?
T

Because the impedances of the capacitors (for all those "standard" values and other similar ones) at the frequencies we hear as "high" when we listen to an electric guitar are small compared to the value of the resistance of the tone pot. At these frequencies with the tone on 10, the series combination of the tone pot and the capacitor is just about the same as the tone pot alone. When you use a no load tone pot, the effect you hear when you go into the "no load" position is from disconnecting the resistance. (The tone pot loads the pickup-cable resonant circuit, cutting out highs, as does the volume control, and as does the 1 M amp input impedance does to a lesser degree.) When you tun down the tone control from 10, what you hear is the effect of the lowering value of the resistance. The value of the capacitor only matters when you get closer to zero and the value of the resistor is smaller.

How do I know?

1. computing the effect.

2. measuring the effect.

3. listening to the effect.

All three things tell me that it is the resistance that does it when the pot is on 10, and when all those three things agree, it is very likely that it is right.