Handwound Pickups

[FuseG4]

Re: Handwound Pickups

I'm inclined to thing that almost anyone who is hand/scatter-winding pickups professionally is also taking time evaluate ALL aspects of the pickup. They would naturally be concerned with the quality of the whole product if they are willing to spend the time attentively winding it. The magic must be in the hand winding plus the winder's influence on materials, craftsmanship, and design.
I think a machine programmed to vary it's winding pattern to emulate scatter-winding while making a regular production pickup wouldn't make as good of a product as if you took the same pickup specs and hand-picked the materials and took your time putting them together. But i bet the materials would make more of the difference in tone, not the winding.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Handwound Pickups

Not all of them. I had pickups by most boutique makers, in fact still have, and the only outstanding ones for my taste are SD Custom Shop (Ants, 78, Texas Hot and the like) and WCRs. I haven't made up my mind about the Lollars yet.

The boutique makers that I didn't like that much lack that certain extra "life" that the above pickups have, and that is also lacking in regular production pickups.

I can only speculate about the reason, but as a work theory I think that potting style plays a big role. I would also think that some of the aging in Ants affects how the wire sticks together, but that theory doesn't extend to why the WCRs have the same thing going on.

Messing with the magnets also does thing a little more complicated that just "degaussing". I degaussed magnets quite a bit but it doesn't make the sparkle come in.

But the fact that it is much harder to tell A2 from A5 in the better boutique pickups also points to the theory that the magnets aren't just nameless blobs there.

Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to switch magnets between my Ants and my late Seths, that would have been interesting.

 

[b1adefury]

Re: Handwound Pickups

Not all of them. I had pickups by most boutique makers, in fact still have, and the only outstanding ones for my taste are SD Custom Shop (Ants, 78, Texas Hot and the like) and WCRs. I haven't made up my mind about the Lollars yet.

The boutique makers that I didn't like that much lack that certain extra "life" that the above pickups have, and that is also lacking in regular production pickups.

Just out of curiosity, which other boutique pickups have you tried other than the ones you mentioned?

The only boutique pickup I've tried is the Guitarforce Rebel II and it definitely has an extra mojo that the duncans I've tried don't have.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Handwound Pickups

THat's not what would be tested, but it begs the question "how do we define good and bad in terms of pickup tone?" Surely it is a case of chacun-a-son-gout? (prefer a case of Chateau Lafitte meself)

Two ways:

1) Can't stop smiling when I play through it, don't even need to adjust any knobs on guitar or amp. Or to the extent that I do, it's out of curiosity about what else this baby can do -- NOT because, gee, I hope maybe THIS setting will get something worthwhile out of it and convince me I didn't just **** away a hundred bucks.

2) Close to #1 -- It's not 100% my cup of tea but I can easily see how somebody else would dig this pickup, and big time. Gotta contact the winder and see if he can make something custom for me...

The only other option is to just play the above-it-all relativist, in which case, what are any of us doing here? Trust me, when you hear a truly great pickup, even if it's a Category #2 for you (see above), you know it.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Handwound Pickups

Just out of curiosity, which other boutique pickups have you tried other than the ones you mentioned?

The only boutique pickup I've tried is the Guitarforce Rebel II and it definitely has an extra mojo that the duncans I've tried don't have.

I rarely post this list because I will have to trust people not to "abuse" it.

The problem is: for those vendors I liked with the first pickup, I bought more. For those vendors where I didn't like the first pair, I didn't. So that creates an unfair situation for the latter, for all I know I was unlucky enough to try their product that fits me least first.

I have a Fralin 9K regular humbucker, I had a pair of WB 6707 peter Greens (a $550 set of pickups) and I have a Marshallhead, all of which I didn't quite like, the WBs I didn't like at all.

The Lollars, as mentioned (I have a regular Imperial set and a Blonde Strat), I'm on the fence about. They are very mellow, good for "women tones" or whatever you call it. So for now I rank Lollars below SD CS and WCR for my taste, but north of the "worth having" line.

Now, there is one interesting thing: when I made the "ranklist" as above I did not know what these pickups cost new (I bought them used). But afterwards I compared my ranklist to the cost when bought new, and my order of taste was precisely what they cost. With the exception of the WBs of course, but the Fralin is cheaper than the others and the Lollars are cheaper than WCRs. This was before the Marshallhead, I don't know what that one costs.

I have the list somewhere if anybody wants it.

 

[TinMan]

Re: Handwound Pickups

To some its a big deal, to other not at all. I'm kind of in the same league as Jessie Sammler. If you are REALLY choosy...many say that hand wound have increased harmonics and are more individual (mainly because of all the human variables). To me, as long as the tone I get is what I'm looking for, I could care less!

 

[Dave]

Re: Handwound Pickups

The equation of what makes a humbucking p'up sound the way it does is almost as complex as the brain's chemistry itself.

There are some magnetic field interactions (eddy currents mostly) that can't be measured because they don't know how or with which instrument they could be measured.

The best analogy is to compare it with the human body. You can measure almost everything and explain almost every organic function of the body... yet you can't explain why is alive!

Sheesh-I think that's a pale comparison. Who invented the pickup-a man? or a pickup???
LOL-not to start a war here, but we'll never outwit Mother Nature.

But yeah, subtle factors can make an incredible difference and for us, that can deliver a very expressive, sensitive, toneful experience.

Cheers!