Older high gain pickups

[soundmasterg]

Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone knows when they stopped with the 70's style weaker high gain pickups and starting winding them past 10k? Also when did they stop with the seperate top and bottom bobbins and go with the modern black plastic molded bobbins?

I was thinking mid to late 80's was when they started winding them hotter, but don't know for sure....anyone have the skinny?

Thanks!

Greg

[johnallg]

Greg, Ted may have covered that:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=388236&hilit=Anatom ... 75#p531462

[soundmasterg]

Thank you John, he did....I forgot about that article he posted! I got the answer I needed to know.

Greg

[LenMinNJ]

See viewtopic.php?f=33&t=404086

[johnallg]

Thank you John, he did....I forgot about that article he posted! I got the answer I needed to know.

Greg

I'd forgotten also. It took a while to even find the thread finding the right words to put into the search function. There are 6 or 7 IIRC and they used to be stickies. It would be nice to have them stickies again, maybe above the Vibrola forum.

[soundmasterg]

Thank you John, he did....I forgot about that article he posted! I got the answer I needed to know.

Greg

I'd forgotten also. It took a while to even find the thread finding the right words to put into the search function. There are 6 or 7 IIRC and they used to be stickies. It would be nice to have them stickies again, maybe above the Vibrola forum.

I agree with that idea!

I picked up some 6 pole hi gains from 1986...the neck pickup is 7.15k and the bridge is a whopping 17.2k! I plan to back that off a bit. These will go into a 2006 BBR 360/6...I'm aiming for the early to mid 80's REM/Johnny Marr tones, so I think if I back off the bridge pickup to somewhere between 7k and 10k it should be about right...but I will have to experiment with it. I could have unwound the stock pickups but I think the non-molded bobbin ones are superior in a number of respects so I went with those.

Greg

[heinpete]

My original `74 neck PU has 9.6 kOhms! The bridge PU was dead, now asking Sérgio to fix it also for about 10kOhms. Sérgio calling!!! You've got PM!

[soundmasterg]

My original `74 neck PU has 9.6 kOhms! The bridge PU was dead, now asking Sérgio to fix it also for about 10kOhms. Sérgio calling!!! You've got PM!

I can attest that around 10k matches well with the neck pickup in my 360/6. I'm sure that you can make it work fine on yours with some pickup adjustment. To my ears, the older hi gains sound way better than the newer hotter ones!

Greg

[paologregorio]

I'll trade you my 8K bridge hi-gain for the 17.2K hi-gain; I love overwound Rick p/ups in the bridge.

[johnallg]

My original `74 neck PU has 9.6 kOhms! The bridge PU was dead, now asking Sérgio to fix it also for about 10kOhms. Sérgio calling!!! You've got PM!

I can attest that around 10k matches well with the neck pickup in my 360/6. I'm sure that you can make it work fine on yours with some pickup adjustment. To my ears, the older hi gains sound way better than the newer hotter ones!

Greg

My feeling with the bass pickups also.

[soundmasterg]

My original `74 neck PU has 9.6 kOhms! The bridge PU was dead, now asking Sérgio to fix it also for about 10kOhms. Sérgio calling!!! You've got PM!

I can attest that around 10k matches well with the neck pickup in my 360/6. I'm sure that you can make it work fine on yours with some pickup adjustment. To my ears, the older hi gains sound way better than the newer hotter ones!

Greg

My feeling with the bass pickups also.

+1...completely agree here, though I think the newer hi gains match the 1 inch spacing pretty good.

I'll trade you my 8K bridge hi-gain for the 17.2K hi-gain; I love overwound Rick p/ups in the bridge.

Its not 17.2k anymore....thats the one I unwound to around 10k...17.2k was WAY too compressed and dark, even for the bridge position. I was surprised it was wound that hot for an older pickup....it sounds light years better now for my taste.

Greg

[johnallg]

I can attest that around 10k matches well with the neck pickup in my 360/6. I'm sure that you can make it work fine on yours with some pickup adjustment. To my ears, the older hi gains sound way better than the newer hotter ones!

Greg

My feeling with the bass pickups also.

+1...completely agree here, though I think the newer hi gains match the 1 inch spacing pretty good.

Greg

For my ears and taste, the new higains give up too much note delineation/definition that the 8k higains excel at, along with the toasters.

[soundmasterg]

For my ears and taste, the new higains give up too much note delineation/definition that the 8k higains excel at, along with the toasters.

I completely agree....though as I said before, if you're stuck using the hotter hi gains, then the 1" spacing on the basses works better than the 1/2" spacing does, to my ears....on the guitars I can't stand the hotter pickups except for the HB2 humbuckers in my 230....those pickups work for certain things and are pretty bright and hot thanks to a narrow sensing window and the samarium cobalt magnets. I wouldn't be surprised if RIC put the adjustable poles on just to try to get back some of the high end they lost by winding more wire on....but the problem at least with the hi gains is the molded bobbin...it moves the wire out further from the pole pieces when compared to the older style separate flatwork hi gains and that makes the AC resistance go up in relation to the DC resistance and makes the pickups more muddy and less articulate. When I get some time I want to try some toasters with 42 and 43 gauge formvar....more like the 50's ones. I do have a toaster with 9.5k of 43 gauge PE on it....thats as much wire that can fit on the bobbin. Haven't had a chance to try it in anything yet. One of these days....if its too hot I can unwind until it sounds the way I want it to...

greg