How much current do Pickups generate?

[Guitar Toad]

Vintage wound single coils like the SSL-1's, APS-2's, Surfers or Texas Hot?
And Humbuckers like the APH-1's, '59's, JB's?

Is the current from the guitar on the order of 2-20 mV?

 

[bryvincent]

Re: How much current do Pickups generate?

Go to the dimarzio website. their specs include the voltage output. this should give you an idea. their PAF Classic HB bridge is around 210mV. their X2N measures 510mV.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: How much current do Pickups generate?

mV are a measure of Potential Voltage. Current is measured in amps (or milliamps). Regardless, the output of a pickup is very small, we use high input impedance amps and pedals to minimize pickup current output and loading of the pickups.

 

[bryvincent]

Re: How much current do Pickups generate?

wait a minute. Current is not measured in volts(or millivolts). I'm not sure but maybe you can calculate the current by ohms law V= I x R

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: How much current do Pickups generate?

Oops. I meant mA not mV. So the output on the Dimarzio site is milliAmps? Their true single coils showed from 110 to 200. I'll assume their mA since they didn't include the units. They would get some serious marks off for that on an engineering exam. Shame on them.

 

[Artie]

Re: How much current do Pickups generate?

A pickup generates voltage, or pressure. Current is drawn out depending on the load. A clock radio and a microwave oven both plug into the same outlet and recieve 120 volts AC. They draw vastly different amounts of current. Volts x amps = watts, thus one is 2 watts,and one is 1600 watts.

The few Duncan pups I measured way back when generated around 250mv to 350mv. That was with my strumming, of course. So, a 350mv pulse, into a 500k pot, would draw around 700nA's. Thats .0007ma. Very small.

But I think you meant millivolts. There's no real need to talk of current in a guitar circuit. (Or voltage, for that matter.)

Artie

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: How much current do Pickups generate?

I found some information on this topic, if anyone is interested. Pickup Signal
What kind of signal does a gee-tar pickup generate?