DC Resistance

[LtKojak]

Re: DC Resistance

The amount of misinformation and misconceptions contained so far in this thread boggles the mind...

Thank you, Internet! :smack:

 

[AlexR]

Re: DC Resistance

true. i find a high DCR pickup has more versatility with the guitar volume. you can get so many tones out of the volume with a good high DCR pickup. more sensitive and dynamic.

Surely you mean the other way around - lower output gives more dynamics. The higher you go with output, the more it will sound thicker and more compressed no matter what you do.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: DC Resistance

My favorite way to generalize the dc resistance significance is to equate it to RPM's in your car.

Are the RPM's indicative of how fast you're going? It depends on what gear you're in. 1st gear? Not very fast. Changing wire gauge is kind of like shifting gears. A JB is thinner wire than a Jazz. If you took a JB and unwound it until it reads 8k like a Jazz, it would be much quieter and weaker than the Jazz, kind of like starting a car off the line in 4th gear. Each "gear" or wire gauge has a usable range, and when you get too far outside that range, things happen that we don't usually like. Such as thin, anemic sound and output of an underwound pickup, or the congested, garbled sound of an overwound pickup.

That's why often people looking for a sound that's "in between" two pickups can never find it by looking for pickups whose DCR is "in between" the two. Adding more wire always comes at a price. And having to go up a wire gauge to fit more on the bobbin has an even greater price. Anyone here ever looked at the Screamin Demon and thought "on paper it looks like its between a 59 and a Custom 5"? Anyone who's owned all 3 knows the Demon is nothing like either of those two. Everything is a balancing act.

That's the art of it. You know you're going to screw up the high end of a certain pickup if you add 400 turns, so you change something else. It's like squeezing a balloon. You can pinch here and there, but something pops up elsewhere.

 

[LonePhantom]

Re: DC Resistance

not at all. if you want compression, use a dimarzio.

true. i find a high DCR pickup has more versatility with the guitar volume. you can get so many tones out of the volume with a good high DCR pickup. more sensitive and dynamic.

WRONG! You've got it back to front, which makes me wonder what you are listening to.... Lower resistance pickups have more dynamic range, less compression if you will. High resistance winds have less dynamic range, or more compressed sounds if you will.

Saying if you want compression you want a DiMarzio is ridiculous. They have just as much of a range of pickups with varying resistance measurements as Seymour Duncan.

 

[dominus]

Re: DC Resistance

You're talking to someone that gets pickups directly from the manufacturers for testing purposes. I think he knows what he's talking about.

 

[jon the art guy]

Re: DC Resistance

The answer, OP, is that none of the numbers you encounter won't matter one bit. Truth is that the tonal variances in pickups vary in the brand of soap they're carved out of. The heavy metal pickups are Lava or Gojo, JBs are Irish Spring; you get the idea.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

[LonePhantom]

Re: DC Resistance

..which goes to show you have no idea about tone. i'd ask you about the pot resistances you've used with different pickups if i had more respect for your opinion about tone. i assume that's beyond your experience, nor would i care about your under-developed appreciation for good tone. FWIW i play though cranked up marshalls, both MV and non-MV. pickup sensitivity, compression and dynamics are part of my breakfast.

that's the problem with the internet. there are a bunch of turds with the apples that spoil it for everyone.

the smaller the dogs the more annoying the bark. try switching to a 100W plexi at 7 instead of your open back combo and then come back and talk about this.

Wow, sensitive much? You play through cranked up Marshalls, that clearly makes you so much better qualified than anyone else.

Maybe those cranked up Marshalls have done some damage to your ears...

 

[AlexR]

Re: DC Resistance

..which goes to show you have no idea about tone. i'd ask you about the pot resistances you've used with different pickups if i had more respect for your opinion about tone. i assume that's beyond your experience, nor would i care about your under-developed appreciation for good tone. FWIW i play though cranked up marshalls, both MV and non-MV. pickup sensitivity, compression and dynamics are part of my breakfast.

that's the problem with the internet. there are a bunch of turds with the apples that spoil it for everyone.

the smaller the dogs the more annoying the bark. try switching to a 100W plexi at 7 instead of your open back combo and then come back and talk about this.

Give it a rest, you're part of the problem here, not the solution.

 

[hermetico]

Re: DC Resistance

The resistance value of a pickup is an almost useless figure to know. Everything it tells you about a pickup is extremely "rough." It can roughly tell you how much wire has been used to make the pickup...however, that will vary depending on the wire gauge, as skinnier wire has more resistance per unit of length. How much wire has been used in a pickup can roughly tell you how many turns of wire have been placed in the pickup...however, that will vary depending on the wire gauge and the bobbin dimensions. Number of turns can roughly tell you what a pickup's e.q. might sound like...however, that will vary depending on the dimensions of the completed coils. E.g. exactly 5000 turns each on three different types of bobbins will sound three different ways. Then there is the strength of the magnets used...and where they are placed in order to make the coil...and whether they are pole-piece magnets, blade magnets, or under-slung magnets using slugs and/or pole-piece screws to direct the magnetic field.

If all other things were equal, resistance would help you roughly compare the basic tone and rough output of two pickups...however, all other things are rarely equal between two different models of pickups...and output is never as simple as across-the-board power. It's always frequency-specific. So, as you can see, using resistance to determine a pickup's tone will almost always steer you wrong.

IME, the most telling specification about how a pickup will actually sound is inductance. Once you know that, you not only know the rough tone of the pickup, and the rough output, but you can also figure out how it will interact with your particular wiring setup (i.e. pots and caps). I.e., you can design a tone circuit that works best with that pickup, instead of using a bunch of trial and error, like we have to do most of the time when figuring out what pots and caps to use to achieve a certain sound.

The one thing that resistance value is actually good for is basic troubleshooting. If you know what the resistance spec is, you can quickly and easily measure resistance as a way to test for internal problems with a pickup.

^^^^
+++1
Resonance peak and resonance frequency are the most useful parameters to me.
That tells you about around what frequency the pickup peaks and how high.
Output is even very relative, you can always lower the pickup and reduce the overall loudness.

I think Dimarzio is providing output values in voltage and, that's clearly a better parameter to evaluate pickups' output.
Honestly, I think there is a single way to know what a certain pickup is: to load it in your axe and to test it (and, many things could change if you install it in other axes, later)

 

[CTN]

Re: DC Resistance

FWIW i play though cranked up marshalls, both MV and non-MV. pickup sensitivity, compression and dynamics are part of my breakfast.

try switching to a 100W plexi at 7 instead of your open back combo and then come back and talk about this.

that's the problem with the internet. there are a bunch of turds with the apples that spoil it for everyone.