What does an overwound pickup do?

Two things happen to the tone when we overwind a pickup: the midrange becomes more pronounced, and the sound becomes darker. I like to equate this to sounding ‘thicker’ or as Lindy likes to call it, ‘beefier. Conversely, when we underwind a pickup, the midrange gets scooped, emphasizing the top-end of the pickup.

Why do pickups go microphonic?

Usually the root cause of a microphonic pickups is that the internal coils are loose, and are vibrating within the pickup’s magnetic field, causing electrons to flow uncontrollably, and this create very unmusical sounds. When potting a pickup, I first melt up a mess of wax – a combination of paraffin wax and beeswax.

How is a pickup wound?

An electric guitar pickup consists of a black bobbin with six magnetic bars inserted, and a material such as enameled wire wound around the magnets. Six magnets are used to better pick up the sound from the six stings. Magnets are inserted into the bobbin, then wound with enamel wire.

What happens if your pickups are too high?

Setting Pickup Height Too High: Setting your pickup height too high will cause your magnets to push and pull your strings out of tune. Here’s a quick way to tell if this is happening to you: play the Low E string at a high fret (15th fret is a good one to start at). You might hear a “warbling” sound.

Can you add windings to a pickup?

Sorry the simple answer is yes you can join the wire. put a piece of tape on the coil join the wire put it on the tape put another piece on top and wind away …. I’ve repaired pick ups this way when I had to, more than once.

Are microphonic pickups good?

If you’re a lover of real vintage guitars, your chances of having a microphonic pickup are extremely high. However, the tone of these old tried and true pickups can be way better sounding to you than anything made later that was “fixed” by potting the pickups before installing them into an instrument.

Do hand wound pickups sound better?

What is the difference in tone between a machine wound pick up and a human – or the difference between two humans? There is no difference between “hand wound” or “machine wound”. It’s all marketing nonsense. All of those famous 50’s and 60’s Gibson PAF’s were machine wound.

What problem can you have if you position a pickup too close to the strings?

It’s possible for your pickups to be too close to your strings. In extreme cases, the pole pieces will touch the strings and prevent notes from ringing out. But even if they are not physically touching, the magnetic pull from the pickups can give you intonation problems and “warbly” tones (see audio example below).

Is it worth winding your own pickups?

nope, not worth it. It’ll cost you more to the parts and equipment required to wind your own pickup than a pickup will cost and chances are: your first pickup won’t sound that great. Fact: Bears eat beats.

What’s the difference between an overwound and an underwound pickup?

An overwound pickup has relatively more windings of copper wire around those pole pieces—anywhere from 2% to 5% more wire—than a standard, stock pickup. An underwound pickup has fewer windings, in about the same proportion. Here’s how it translates to sound: Overwound pickups are “hot.”

What happens to the sound when you overwind a pickup?

Two things happen to the tone when we overwind a pickup: the midrange becomes more pronounced, and the sound becomes darker. I like to equate this to sounding ‘thicker’ or as Lindy likes to call it, ‘beefier.’

How does the number of turns of wire affect the pickup?

The number of turns of coil wire will dictate the voltage created – how ‘hot’ the pickup is. So, in essence, the more turns of wire will generate more voltage and a stronger signal. Generally speaking, more turns of wire will create a louder pickup, and fewer turns of wire will equate to a weaker pickup.

What happens when you overwind a Fralin pickup?

The design of the pickup has a major impact on the tone. Overwinding a pickup from 6K to 7K will increase the output as well as shape the tone. However, certain pickup designs use a lot of coil wire – for instance, our Hum Cancelling P90 Neck has a resistance reading of 15.6K – that’s a lot of copper wire in that coil!