Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Greg, the treble loss is NOT due to increased wire resistance alone

I didn't say that it was....I said this:

The biggest change resulting from more wire is that high frequencies have a harder time getting through the pickup due to more resistance, so the pickup will have a more mid-range tone with more power. Of course the inductance and AC resistance and capacitance change too, but most people can't measure that and don't know anything about it.

So clearly more wire will give you a treble loss, but since everything is related to each other in a pickup, other things are affected too, like inductance, and this changes the sound and the output level. Most people only know how to measure the DC resistance so that is the number they most associate with. If you have a meter to measure inductance accurately like RIC does (and I do), then you can see some very interesting changes depending on the wire used, the amount of wire used, the type of pickup, the type of magnet, the amount and composition of metal in the pickup, etc.

As far as the magnetism, the strength of the magnets, or the gauss level, is not affected by the wire around the magnets. The output of the pickup is however greatly affected by the amount of wire on the bobbin, especially with how much wire is within the magnetic field. The closer the wire is to the center of the magnetic field, the more sensitive the pickup, so if you use smaller and smaller wire to where it wraps a tighter coil, then that coil will be more sensitive than if you use large wire with most of the coil being farther away from the magnets.

I still maintain the dc resistance affects all frequencies the same and it is the impedance change that rolls the highs. A pickup with wire the size RIC uses (#44) with more windings has more output because with more windings in the magnetic gap there is more voltage induced in the coil, thus more output. It also has more inductance that pass more low frequencies than high, and more capacitance that in a coil passes less high frequencies due to interwinding influences. Thus a combination that has less treble output.

I am refuting this statement of yours: "The biggest change resulting from more wire is that high frequencies have a harder time getting through the pickup due to more resistance," Misleading, as all frequencies are impeded by dc resistance equally.

Hi John,

I had a typo on that post. I meant to say that high frequencies have a harder time getting through more wire on the coil due to the higher inductance that the extra wire creates, but that most people can only measure the DC resistance, so they equate the more power and less highs character with a higher DC resistance. They're related, as are most things in pickup design anyway.

Thanks for pointing out the error.

Greg

Greg, I wanted to make sure I had it right in my head, and also since others are reading and trying to learn, that we are giving correct info.