output measurement

[Achiles]

How to or what do you use to measure pickup output?

[Joe Gwinn]

How to or what do you use to measure pickup output?

An audience.

More to the point, what are you trying to accomplish?

[David Schwab]

An audience.

More to the point, what are you trying to accomplish?

[Possum]

....

I put my tongue across the hot and ground on the guitar cable and strum really hard. If it tastes like lemonade its medium hot, if I get no reaction its underwound, if it burns a hole in my tongue and my eyeballs melt, its too hot

[Achiles]

I?m talking about this:
http://web.archive.org/web/199905052...t/pik_test.htm

[unparalleled]

How to or what do you use to measure pickup output?

Best way is with an Oscilloscope. Output will vary according to how hard strings are struck and magnetic properties of strings used.

[Possum]

...

Thats a pretty funny device :-)
Seriously though, now that my eyeballs are back in my head, if you wanted to do it scientifically you would use a drive coil placed over the pickup and use a precise volume of white or pink noise into the pickup the measure the voltage coming out of the pickup. You would have to use the exact same voltage and volume going into the drive coil every time and then write down all your output voltage readings for every pickup tested. Results are kind of use though, high output pickups aren't popular right now and have limited uses.....

[David King]

I think you may need to go beyond pink and white noise to get useful measurements. A frequency sweep via a real string that's excited via an electro-magnetic driver and tuned up via a servo drive on the tuner key.

[Possum]

...

Well the point is that there ISN'T a useful measurement. If there was all the pickup makers would be using some kind of standard. the only use for even doing this kind of thing would to be to compare RELATIVE measurements of different pickups. So all you can do is say ON MY MACHINE this pickup is hotter than say a Duncan Analblaster X. So I don' think it matters a whole lot what you run through it, sure it would be bass note heavy/mid heavy if you're measuring a point in the string where vibrations are maximum, maybe. But in general just a frequency spectrum would be enough to see what input voltage versus output voltage would be, after all output is based mostly on numbers of turns and how strong the magnet is. I don't think it would be worth any time messing with this kind of thing unless you want to do what Duncan does with a color chart of relative outputs on his pickups only. I don't make any real hot pickups and only two that would be considered lower outputs so for what I do output strengths on a chart would just be kind of pointless eye candy :-) I still think the Bartolini string picker is funny :-) I bet you can only play one song on it, and then what gauge is that string and what is it tuned to? Not very scientific there...

[David King]

Yeah, I think it's pretty hopeless since people can't even remember what they've heard 5 seconds after it's over. How does a particular pickup make you feel? that's probably more relevant.

[Possum]

...

Yeah, feel is everything. Its really too bad the way Seymour does his samples, every pickup sounds exactly the same :-) How do you tell what a pickup will do with a few lightly strummed notes or chords, you can't. If I was his marketing guy I'd tear that whole thing apart and start over. His marketing guy is out of touch anyway, their ads are really old school ad agency stuff that doesn't work in today's marketplace. I pitched Seymour once and found out later his ad guy has been there a loooong time, in my art director/designer career I've seen alot of these entrenched types who don't have any "fire" anymore and do businesses more damage than good. Kinda sad. I sure am glad to be out of that plastic business, 30 some odd years was enough for me :-} DiMarzio really has his design and marketing stuff together but Duncan's products are way better...

[SkinnyWire]

How to or what do you use to measure pickup output?

The "plucker" in the picture should give you good "relative" measurements like a Gauss meter gives you good, but "relative" measurements. In other words, the measurements I get with my Gauss meter are somewhat peculiar to the probe type, the jig I have setup for repeatability, calibration, etc., and likely will not be identical to what another person gets with their Gauss meter. By working to minimize procedural variations I can baseline with my own meter and get relative measurements from which to gauge things for design and discussion.

There's obviously a lot that goes into the resultant output of a pickup, but when you're doing a lot of custom work it's handy to be able to speak at least in relative terms with a customer. Something like this with an oscilloscope might be handy for baselining your line of pickups. I'd be interested in your results with any method you might choose.