Dylan McKerchie — Electric Guitar Pickups

The Resonant Peak of a Pickup, What is it? and Does it Matter? The Resonant Peak of a guitar pickup is one of these terms that we don't hear quite as often as DC resistance. The interesting thing is, The Resonant Peak is more or less the sum of all the other measurements. What do we Mean?  The DC Resistance tells us how many windings are on the coil based on the wire gauge and bobbin size. The Capacitance of the coil gives us an idea how it will process high frequencies based on the losses that happen within the...

Magnet Pull.... Math Vs Myth.... It is a common argument that the magnets in your pickups pull on the strings and if they are too strong, cause your guitar to go out of tune and kill your sustain https://youtu.be/SMiu3LfNNjc

Series Vs Parallel Switching Usually when multiple pickups are installed in a guitar, they are connected to operate in parallel. This means that the signal passes through the pickup from ground and then on to the tone circuit, volume control, or straight to the pickup selector. Even when two pickups are on at once, you are hearing the sound of them working independently. When you wire two pickups in series, the signal passes through one pickup, straight into another pickup... and then back to the rest of the circuit. When wired correctly, these can be hum cancelling. You can have...

Vintage Vs Modern Pickups... Are "vintage" pickups really better? Are the materials they were made of really different than the materials of today? Wire There is a lot of debate about whether the copper of yesteryear is any different from the wire of today. There has been numerous studies that say that copper is copper, but the die-hards will say that it it different. One thing is for sure, the tolerances were looser in the old days because the lasers used today for measurement were not around. The insulation compounds have changed, although this has less of an effect than...

Vintage Pickups Vs Modern Pickups.... Many times the word "vintage" shows up in the ever elusive quest for tone. What is it that makes people want old stuff so bad? we will talk about the changes in materials and if they affect tone in another post.... Today, we want to understand what questions we should be asking when purchasing pickups. Many people will call a pickup company and say, "I want a vintage spec pickup". What does that mean? What is a "Vintage" Pickup? It is an old pickup.... plain and simple. Usually what people really are requesting is a...