Do 80's Guitars Sound Different? Is is the wiring?

gingerly · Post by **gingerly** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:30 am

Once I get her polished up and ready to go I will, Bob...

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:46 am

some of the 80s toasters and high gains had more coils which made the resistance higher which makes them sound fatter ...

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:22 am

Just a simple thing like changing the tension of the wire that you wind the pickup with will change the sound of it quite a bit, and will also make a DC resistance reading completely different between two pickups wound with different tension. The 80's guitars could have had a different tension when the pickups were wound, and I'm sure the 60's and 70's ones are all over the map.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:40 am

I played a '79 360 that was incredible trebly, and I would describe as having a lot of "smack", as Paul put it. Is it simply the pickups of the era, or the capacitor?

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:36 pm

Both.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:03 pm

Thanks Sergio. Gonna have to start looking for some old higains!

karl_teten · Post by **karl_teten** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:09 pm

My old 80's group had several RICs. The one we all agreed sounded the best was my '84 Jetglo 370WB.

We had a '87 Jetglo 360 that didn't have the sparkle like the '84 370WB had. We also had a '88 1997RM with overwound toasters that sounded like mud compared to the other two RICs.

Those old style Hi-Gains rock!

BobKat · Post by **BobKat** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:48 am

Indeed they do. Best pickups RIC ever made IMHO.

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 3:41 am

Damn right!

walker · Post by **walker** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:14 am

Hey Sérg -

In your experience, what are the general sound characteristics of pickups wound with light tension vs high tension?

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:03 pm

Well, believe it or not I'm not 100% sure, as I prefer to wind my pickups with moderately high tension. Light tension winding tends to yield a "spongy", less sensitive coil, particularly if you use heavier (e.g. 42, 40) wire gauges or lighter gauges (44, 46) having a heavier coating.

walker · Post by **walker** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 2:14 pm

Interesting. Can that analysis be broken down into terms of sound, like: less treble, more treble, sharp attack, soft attack... or is it that simple?

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 7:52 am

I have two friends (Dave Stephens of SD Pickups) (Wolfe of Wolfetone Pickups) who started out winding everything tight, and then changed over the years to a medium tension, but still scatterwound. I'm not sure what the sound difference is per se although I'll ask and post what I find out, but if you wind too tight, there is the danger of the coil shorting out internally, and you can also stretch the wire a bit. I think that you get a little more high end with a medium tension as opposed to a tight tension, but I don't know from first hand experience.