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Author
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Topic: Difference in Guitar and Steel Guitar Pickups:
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Gene H. Brown
Member From: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
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posted 24 January 2006 08:45 PM
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Just wondering if anyone out there in steel guitarland could answer a question for me that I've often wondered about.
Does anyone know what most Six String Electric Guitar pickups are wound at compared to Pedal Steel Guitar pickups?
Are they wound heavier or lighter, generally more ohms or less ohms? Just curious, and thanks!
Gene------------------
If You Keep Pickin That Thing, It'll Never Heal!
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Jim Bob Sedgwick
Member From: Clinton, Missouri USA
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posted 24 January 2006 09:59 PM
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Very few guitar pickups are wound to DC
Resistance over 8000 Ohms. Fender stock pickups were wound to about 4.5 to 5K ohms. I am sure there are exceptions to the rule however. Steel pickups are usually wound from about 16000 ohms and on up. Hope this answers your question.[This message was edited by Jim Bob Sedgwick on 24 January 2006 at 10:00 PM.] |
David Mason
Member From: Cambridge, MD, USA
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posted 25 January 2006 04:43 AM
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I think the most powerful, "super-distortion" type six-string humbuckers go up to about 11 or 11.5K. Modern steel pickups are wound around 16K - 20K, but some of the older, single coil pickups were down around the 10K, 11K range, and you can get custom pickups wound or tapped to those specs. This becomes pretty important if you're trying to drive a tube amp or effect boxes built for standard guitars, because a 20K signal will pretty much freak them out. It's easy enough to attenuate the signal from a steel pickup with an added box, like a compressor turned down or a six-band equalizer stompbox set to cut signal rather than boost it, but of course, every added stage of gain adds noise and some more of that delightful tin-can transistorized tone. |
Ben Jones
Member From: Washington, USA
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posted 25 January 2006 08:24 AM
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so for people who play fender twins (or other tube guitar amps), do they need to do as you suggested and put a compressor or eq cut on there? Ive noticed I get a distorted type of sound when I pick hard on my PSG going thru a Musicman guitar amp with 2x10 speakers even at low volumes withn no gain...the high end sounds brittle and peircing...I am also working without a volume pedal at the moment (its in the mail)...are most PSG pickups meant to be backed off from full volume I'm guessing? thats probably adding to the unpleasant sound I am getting? |
Dave Mudgett
Member From: Central Pennsylvania, USA
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posted 25 January 2006 09:59 AM
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There is a lot more to pickup design than the number of winds and DC resistance. The magnet has many variables: material, strength, and its geometry relative to other components. Traditional pickups use an iron load - polepieces or blade. Bill Lawrence is a major innovator here, and some of his pickups used reduced or no load to give the pickup more clarity even with higher DC resistance. There is the way the pickup is wound - stairstepped coils vs. scatter-wound, which affects the coil capacitance. There is the issue of wire gauge. Smaller gauge wire changes winding density, capacitance, and DC resistance per wind. These things are also affected by the insulation material on the wire. The width of the coil (front-to-back) affects the magnetic sensing window. The parameter space for pickup design has a lot of dimensions.That said, most "normal" steel pickups are wound to a higher DC resistance than most "normal" guitar pickups - say 16KOhm to over 20 KOhm. Old Fender steels are an exception, and seem to be typically wound in the vicinity of 8 KOhm (plus or minus), with a narrow sensing window. Typical "old-style" Fender Tele/Strat pickups are wound to 6-7 KOhms, again with a narrow sensing window. Typical "old-style" Gibson humbuckers are wound to about 7.8 KOhms, with a wider sensing window. Those all use alnico magnets. Distortion-shred pickups go up from there, I've seen some as high as 15-17 KOhms. The magnet materials vary a lot - different strengths of alnico vs various ceramic magnets produce major differences in tone. I think this level of complexity makes it very hard to make sweeping and simple statements about the tone of various pickups. I think guys like Seymour Duncan and Bill Lawrence have done a lot in the guitar pickup world to help players understand what affects guitar pickup tone so they can shape their own tone with aftermarket pickups. Aside from Bill, I haven't seen as much discussion on the whys and wherefors of steel pickup design. Maybe the info is out there, but I haven't seen it. I treat most steel pickups much more like a "black box", to be empirically studied, using mainly my ears and, to some extent, the crude DC resistance variable. In other words, mostly trial and error, after gleaning bits and pieces of info here and there. | |
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