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Carvin AP-6 anyone?

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  • Carvin AP-6 anyone?

    Hey y'all,

    I'm building a guitar for a friend of mine. Long story short, he's had a long year but still found the time to help me out of my own dire stretches. I told him he had a 6-stringer coming his way. When I asked him about pickups, he said he wanted 'that surf clonk' and asked me about the Carvin AP-6.

    Now, I knew about Joe Maphis but not much more. It seems the old AP6 had a P90-type construction, with ceramic magnets and a low DCR. I found pictures of the bobbin on the Mosrite forum:





    Judging by the pictures and the 3.75 kOhms DCR, it looks like it's either a very loose wind or a thicker wire than AWG 42.
    Ceramic magnets from those days would have been weaker than their modern counterpart, however it's kinda hard to find historical details of what grades were available at a certain time. Today's C5 and C8 are very close in terms of strength, and the latter seems to be a lot easier to find in guitar-friendly dimensions than the former anyway. I don't think the anisotropic C1 is what we're looking at here.

    Does anyone have any info regarding those? My friend does not necessarily want a vintage-correct reproduction, he just wants something that will sound 'in that ball park', in his own terms.

  • #2
    The magnets in the pictures look like rough-cast Alnico - not like ceramics.
    Last edited by Helmholtz; 12-30-2019, 07:23 PM.
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    • #3
      Dang, I vaguely recall starting this thread now, but it must have been a work-swamped week or something, I managed to completely forget about it!

      Rough cast alnico does sound right, at least compared to the modern ceramic magnets I broke off to shorten them.

      The guitar in question is nearing completion!




      My rough calculations using the Coil Estimator say either +- 4800 turns of 42 awg or +- 5700 turns of 41 awg. I gave 40 awg a spin in the estimator but it doesn't seem like it would fit on the bobbin. Since I don't have any #41 at hand, I'll give it a try with #42 and report. I ordered a spool of 41 just in case.

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      • #4
        More turns will result in higher output and lower resonant frequency. There is no relation between output and resistance.
        Last edited by Helmholtz; 02-18-2020, 02:41 PM.
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        • #5
          Indeed. But since I only have a DCR reading to work from, the idea was to determine which wire gauge was the closest, which would in turn determine the 'right' number of turns (ie. 'how long before the technician got bored winding this particular pickup').

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