Duncan mV output chart - Perpetual Burn vs 59

[freefrog]

Pickup output is meaningless to measure scientifically. To be scientific enough to have any meaning, you would have to run pink noise through the pickup, and display the output as a graph. This is how they do it with speakers.

Applying this method to passive magnetic transducers mainly helps to visualize their resonant peak. But as the resonant frequency is beyond any fundamental note in most cases, it can't be correlated to output level in a reliable way. That's precisely why we use different methods here (peak voltage measurements for output and various kind of polyphonic or mono swept signals for electrically induced resonant peaks, among other tests).

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I don't think measuring output is meaningless, but some of those values they obtained are just plain confusing.

It would be cool if they had some simpler numeric values like, say, a '59B is a 5, a JB is 7, and a Custom is 7.5-ish, a Distortion is 9, and a Black Winter is 10. Just something arbitrary like that would help out tons. Then again, I'm sure that would be prone to controversy as well.

I know I'm the minority here, but I'm a number freak. My job is pretty much geometry. Output is super important to me because I set my digital modeler and plugins a certain way for one pickup's output, and I like to have the ability to plug different stuff in without having to majorly readjust input and/or gain levels. And if I do, I kinda like to know by how much. But that's just me.

 

[80's_Thrash_Metal]

I measure them all by how easily they pick squeal....