Are your pickups a good match? Probably... if they guitar came from the manufacturer that way. What if you are just starting to build your own guitars...or maybe just do major modifications to the ones you have. It is human nature to want to 'make something your own'. Heck, that's why bumper stickers exist. We have all heard about impedence... basically, the opposition something has to electronic current (to simplify). There is also the term resistance... which is sometimes used also... but's let's not get into electronics 101. People use a multimeter to measure this. If both pickups (let's say two humbuckers) are relatively equal in DC resistance, then like two partners where each one is no more crazy than the other, it will be an equal relationship (as far as your ears are concerned). There is currently (as of this entry) a set of original Gibson PAF pickups on EBay, listed as having readings of 7.87 and 7.97... this would match the requirement of two pickups being 'closely matched'.. So what if they are not close? One pickup will then dominate... sort of like in a bad relationship. A few more points to consider; What if we were dealing with one single coil with a reading of 6 kohms, and a humbucker with a reading of 12 kohms? (If your brain is starting to hurt, stop reading now). The usual way to wire pickups is in parallel... so under those conditions, the 6K pickup will dominate. You could modify the wiring to make them all get along though. Modify it to a split coil situation with the humbucker... then they will all match in readings. You can also adjust pickup heights... and get either more or less signal from each pickup. Also... bear in mind that the string signal is weaker near the bridge and is in a higher range, so various pickup arrangements and changes could be made here too, either by you or your guitar tech. To make things sound the way you want lots of adjustments could be made. (Thanks to a guy or gal named purplehaze at rackcreations.com for this info... since I needed to learn it too, and you don't see this discussed much on-line).
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Good Match?
Are your pickups a good match? Probably... if they guitar came from the manufacturer that way. What if you are just starting to build your own guitars...or maybe just do major modifications to the ones you have. It is human nature to want to 'make something your own'. Heck, that's why bumper stickers exist. We have all heard about impedence... basically, the opposition something has to electronic current (to simplify). There is also the term resistance... which is sometimes used also... but's let's not get into electronics 101. People use a multimeter to measure this. If both pickups (let's say two humbuckers) are relatively equal in DC resistance, then like two partners where each one is no more crazy than the other, it will be an equal relationship (as far as your ears are concerned). There is currently (as of this entry) a set of original Gibson PAF pickups on EBay, listed as having readings of 7.87 and 7.97... this would match the requirement of two pickups being 'closely matched'.. So what if they are not close? One pickup will then dominate... sort of like in a bad relationship. A few more points to consider; What if we were dealing with one single coil with a reading of 6 kohms, and a humbucker with a reading of 12 kohms? (If your brain is starting to hurt, stop reading now). The usual way to wire pickups is in parallel... so under those conditions, the 6K pickup will dominate. You could modify the wiring to make them all get along though. Modify it to a split coil situation with the humbucker... then they will all match in readings. You can also adjust pickup heights... and get either more or less signal from each pickup. Also... bear in mind that the string signal is weaker near the bridge and is in a higher range, so various pickup arrangements and changes could be made here too, either by you or your guitar tech. To make things sound the way you want lots of adjustments could be made. (Thanks to a guy or gal named purplehaze at rackcreations.com for this info... since I needed to learn it too, and you don't see this discussed much on-line).
