Jump to content

How do you measure the output of pickups


The Beatles27

Recommended Posts

  • Members

 

pickups aren't rated for output, rather, they are typically rated for their winding's resistance (resistance generally varies with output, but output isn't dependent upon resistance). if you want to measure that, you can do it easily with a DMM.

 

 

Thats true, output would be measured in mv, and would vary depending on it's adjusted height, strings, magnet strength and a few other factors. I think he just wanted to know how to measure resistance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

so basicly i take the ends of the multimeter and connect them to the ends of a cable?

Yeah. That will give you the resistance. You set it to ohms. The higher the resistance the more the output. Usually anyway. But not always. It can sometimes tell you whether a pickup will be bright or dark. But then again this isn't always true.

 

digital%20multimeter.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Yeah. That will give you the resistance. You set it to ohms. The higher the resistance the more the output. Usually anyway. But not always. It can sometimes tell you whether a pickup will be bright or dark. But then again this isn't always true.


digital%20multimeter.jpg

 

well im just curious what the neck pickup in my sheraton is like> When i broke my stock pup doin the peter green mod, the local M&P was nice enough to give me a random pup they had laying around, and it sounds pretty good, though a bit crunchy, so im curious about the output

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I just used this method to measure the pickups in my 2004 MIM Strat. The parts list has the bridge and neck as the same part number and the middle is a different part number.

 

I got..

 

 

 

Neck 6.89K

 

Middle 6.93K

 

Bridge 6.85K

 

 

I think they would all round out to 6.9K. So, the middle must be a RW/RP being a different part number?

 

I can't find any similar resistance sets of PUs. So, I'm wondering, does the pot and cap introduce any resistance measuring the wound resistance of a pickup through the guitar cable this way in circuit?

 

FYI, if it matters, I have upgraded the 2004 MIM Strat pots and cap. I went from a .022 to a .047 cap too when I swapped them out.

 

Thanks for the heads up and a cool thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Yeah. That will give you the resistance. You set it to ohms. The higher the resistance the more the output. Usually anyway. But not always. It can sometimes tell you whether a pickup will be bright or dark. But then again this isn't always true.


 

 

So the use of the resistance numbers by almost all the pickup makers... this is pseudo science... used by marketing people to trick people?

 

Cool.

 

M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

This is another one of those useless manufacturing buzzwords that means absolutely nothing. Measuring the DC resistance will tell you near nothing about a pickups output is or the tone of it.

 

Bill Lawrence (who has been making pickups since the beginning) basically said that the DC resistance tells you about as much about a pickup as the shoe size of the guy winding it does.

 

Not trying to be condescending, but I hate when misinformation becomes the standard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
So the use of the resistance numbers by almost all the pickup makers... this is pseudo science... used by marketing people to trick people?


No. Not at all. There's so many variables. There's magnet strengths. Number of magnets. Some pickups have one magnet, others have three or more. There's the diameter of the wire used. Number of turns of wire. I find the resistance is an important specification to consider when choosing a pickup. For example a higher resistance pickup will tend to be bassier sounding because higher resistances tend to impede trebles. Another example, a DiMarzio super distortion has a resistance of 13.68K and a PAF will have a resistance of about 8.6K. Which one has the most output? But there's more going on than just the resistance. The super distortion also has a powerful ceramic magnet. Whereas the PAF has an alnico magnet. So there's all kinds of things at work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

This is another one of those useless manufacturing buzzwords that means absolutely nothing. Measuring the DC resistance will tell you near nothing about a pickups output is or the tone of it.


Bill Lawrence (who has been making pickups since the beginning) basically said that the DC resistance tells you about as much about a pickup as the shoe size of the guy winding it does.


Not trying to be condescending, but I hate when misinformation becomes the standard.

 

 

But it helps manufactures to make more consistent pickups. After they know what magnets to use, what gauge of wire to use, etc., they can then put the proper amount of wire on the bobbins. And then trim it to the desired resistance of that particular pickup and they're done. Some pickup makers like to count the turns. But most believe that it is the resistance that is the best way to measure the amount of wire to use. Making pickups is sort of like following a recipe. For example the more two coils resemble each other in a humbucking pickup the quieter that pickup will be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

So the use of the resistance numbers by almost all the pickup makers... this is pseudo science... used by marketing people to trick people?


Cool.


M

 

 

Correct.

 

All it measures is the resistance of the coil. It totally disregards the magnet strength and size. It also changes depending on the wire gauge used for the coil. The numbers are practically useless unless comparing very similar pickups. That's why you can easily find pickups with a resistance of 10K ohms that are higher output than ones measuring 30K ohms.

 

A pickups true output is in votlage, but there is no industry standard to measure voltage, the few companies who supply voltage information can't be compared and contrasted with each other because they all measure it differently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Bill Lawrence (who has been making pickups since the beginning) basically said that the DC resistance tells you about as much about a pickup as the shoe size of the guy winding it does.

 

 

 

DC resistance (Rdc) tells you as much about a pickup's tone and output as the shoe size tells you about a person's intelligence!

 

 

I think it's also helpful to include the full intent of what BL's point is:

 

 

Tone and output mainly depend on the relation between inductance, magnetic strength and the efficiency of the pickup, as well as the relation between the inductance of the pickup and the capacitance of the cable.

 

http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/Pickupology/output_sonic_evaluation.htm

 

Marketing? sure...DC resisitance is easy to measure and it's like attaching a MPG rating to how a car drives...doesn't give you a true indication of a given pickup's tone. What is does provide is one quantifiable parameter of marginal value to compare amount of wire on the pickup which loosely can be related to a factor in one pickup being "hotter" than another.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I think it's also helpful to include the full intent of what BL's point is:





Marketing? sure...DC resisitance is easy to measure and it's like attaching a MPG rating to how a car drives...doesn't give you a true indication of a given pickup's tone. What is does provide is one quantifiable parameter of marginal value to compare amount of wire on the pickup which loosely can be related to a factor in one pickup being "hotter" than another.

Yeah, I read my original post about 5 times trying to remember what his exact statement was and figured that was the jist of it. Just glad that I said 'basically' instead of directly quoting him.

 

I originally included a bit about inductance, resonance, etc, but figured that it would be too long and I'd come off as an even bigger know it all. Plus there is plenty that I don't know about pickup winding; nothing worse than just copying and pasting {censored} from a website to act like a fricking expert. I do know enough about electronics to understand what BL is saying though and he's absolutely right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...