Pickup tech Q's

[Scatterwound]

I have some pickup tech questions. Sorry if they have been asked before

1) When "Soldering one side of a capacitor to the hot terminal of a pickup and the other to ground" what exactly is meant by the 'hot terminal'? Is that a pin on a pot where one of the pickup wire goes? Specifically for SD what colour wire is that? Or am I missing the point?

2) Are bar magnets available for sale if one wants to customize a pickup? Are there different lengths for Fender/Gibson spaced pickups? Is there a sure visual way of confirming the type of pickup? Where can these mags be purchased?

Thanks in advance!

SW

[ArtieToo]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

In a guitar, everything that connects to the "sleeve" of the guitar jack, is called "ground". Everything else is "hot". Usually, the sleeve will, in fact, lead to the ground of the amp, which will connect to the ground of your house, thus, the designation "ground".

You could also look at it as the "active", or "signal" side of the circuit.

Here's a good place to get magnets:

http://www.ampge.com/

Hope this helps.

[Kent S.]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

I have some pickup tech questions. Sorry if they have been asked before

1) When "Soldering one side of a capacitor to the hot terminal of a pickup and the other to ground" what exactly is meant by the 'hot terminal'? Is that a pin on a pot where one of the pickup wire goes? Specifically for SD what colour wire is that? Or am I missing the point?

Even though Artie answered this,... first the question is too vague, hot is what gets routed out of the guitar in one form or another, it is *literally* on one side of a pup's coil(s) while the cold, or signal common is on the other, that side goes to ground: However when it doesn't, it is termed *pup cold*, it wouldn't be called ground then, because that would only add confusion at times. The hot on SD pup is *normally* the black. It sounds like what you are describing is connection of a tone control to either the volume pot, or hot of the outputjack (a case where say two pups run each to a volume control, then to a switch, then comes the tone control), or juat a small cap value directly to ground from the pups hot wire (or just signal hot in general), again it's way to vague. A pup wouldn't have a hot *terminal* unless it was connected to a switch and or pot. See *hot* can be referenced to a couple of different places within the circuit.
But a pup does have a hot wire, really it's just positive phase versus negative phase as to what side gets used, again normally it's the black wire for SD HBs,stacks, and side by sides and the white wire for SD SCs and tapped SCs.
Can't really say on the magnets, there are a couple of places that sell them though.

[Scatterwound]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

Thanks for the replies...I guess I should have been more specific? I got this question from the Q & As....See here.....

http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/seymours_q_and_a_5.shtml#291

[Scatterwound]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

Thanks for the replies...I guess I should have been more specific? I got this question from the Q & As....See here.....#291

http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/seymours_q_and_a_5.shtml#291

[ArtieToo]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

Ah . . . in that case, on a humbucker, green is ground, black is hot.
On a single-coil, black is ground, white is hot.

However, since the cap isn't polarized, it doesn't matter which you use for "hot" and which for "ground". Just put the cap across balck and green for the HB, black and white for the SC.

[Kent S.]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

Oh, okay, they're talking about just running a small cap to ground directly from the pup or any other *hot* place along the signal line to help eat up extra highs before you tone control comes into play, say if your bridge was just to bright, you could run it (cap) from the pup's black to ground. or if the whole guiatr was too bright you could run it (cap) from the *hot* lug on the volume control (CW lug for right handed players) to ground.

[Scatterwound]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

Ok...I am starting to understand this now....So if I were to connect a Cap to one pickup (hot to ground) which of the following statements is correct?

A. The higher the microfarad value of the cap the more treble will be rolled off and the pickup will be less bright

OR

B. The higher the microfarad value of the cap the less treble will be rolled off and the pickup will remain bright

OR

C. ????

[Kent S.]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

When used in this application ... Option A ..., the higher ( read *larger* ) the value of capacitance the more highs you will shunt to ground (lose) when used from signal to ground.
Watch the greater than, less than signs :
1,000pF (1nF) > 500pF ... 1,000pF would bleed more highs off than 500pF;
5,000pF (5nF ) < .01uF (10nF) ... 5nF would bleed off less highs than .01uF;
.047uF > .022uf ... .047uF would bleed off more highs than .022uF.

[Scatterwound]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

Ok. Thanks Kent. I will note that down....I am experimenting with a 'home-made' guitar that I will be trying this out on. A few posts above you mentioned a CW lug for rightys...What did you mean by CW?

Thanks!

[Kent S.]

Re: Pickup tech Q's

CW = Clockwise, CCW = Counter-Clockwise, W = Wiper, the wiper contacts the CW lug when the knob is turned completely Clockwise when viewed from the knob end (10). That's for a right handed person. A lefty would be still be the same CW and CCW, but their CCW would be the hot, and their CW would be the cold. The CW is also called the hot terminal (or lug), the CCW the cold terminal (or lug), and the wiper is just the wiper terminal (or lug). It's the one in the middle on the type of pots that we use. For a lefty the CW and CCW are still the same lugs, but their CCW is the hot lug, and their CW is the cold lug, since there 10 is in the opposite direction as a right handed persons.
Right handers turn the knob in a clockwise direction from 0~10; left handed people turn the knob in a counter clockwise direction from 0~10.