Looking for resistance of SH-1b coils (rewinding)

T

Tone-Analyst

New member
I picked up a dead Duncan SH-1b and it's the crew coil that read nothing. After unwinding about 200 turns I finally get a reading at 3.8k. Yes I gently sanded the enamel coating every ~20 turns to take readings. I had to dip it in boiling water to loosen the wax cause it was stuck many times. Now I'm debating if I should also unwind the slug coil and make a neck model, or add some winding back to that screw coil.

My dillema is I forgot to count exactly how many turns I undid and from what I read, the 100-150 ohm difference is important to the pickup sound. 2 perfectly equal bobbins will cancel hum very well, but also more good high freqs. A little difference is good. Now does anyone have readings for a 59B of each coils? Just wondering if the screw coil is higher or lower originally.

I saw the analysis on guitar nuts for a neck model but can't find anything on the bridge. Thx
 
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you can send it to Duncan for repair and they will surely make it correct

or

you can use it as is, and think of it as a "custom wound signature" pickup
 
There's going to be some variance in resistance due to temperature differences, but Ohm's law tells us that for resistors in series:

Rtotal = R1 + R2

In this case we're talking about the '59 model (SH1) which is wound with the same value coils - so R2 is the same as R1

Rtotal = R1 + R1

The SD website lists the SH-1b as being 8.13 k so we get:

8.13 k = 2 * R1

R1 therefore equals 8.13/2 . . . so we know that each coil should measure roughly 4.065 k.
 
Yep, both 59s use a symmetrical wind.

However there's one idea the OP has wrong, I believe: that a symmetrical wind provides more highs. It does not.
Matched coils will give the best possible hum reduction, and are widely regarded as giving a slightly sweeter sound.
But slight coil offset normally opens up the highs a bit rather than decreasing them, and often is credited with an 'airier' character.
 
my 59b is 8.1k if i remember correctly so each coil would be right around 4k. i dont know how many turns are on a 59b coil, but old paf spec was 5000. if you only pulled off 200 turns, i wouldnt worry about it. wire it up and play the guitar.
 
^ this, you're applying a "dual resonance " customization to the pickup, it's nice :D

BTW I made exactly the same with a Paf Pro, it works like a charm, if the mismatch is not that high as in this case, no worry at all, it could possibly sound even better
 
I think you need the turn count and tension. Winding to resistance won't work like you think. Duncan doesn't do that.
 
If you swapped my 59B with one that had 200 winds removed from one coil and didn't tell me, I probably wouldn't notice.

If you told me you saved a broken pickup from the dumpster, I would be impressed.

If you told me you saved a broken pickup from the dumpster and then threw it away without even trying it because of something you read on the internet, I would be confused.
 
If the coils measure respectively 3.8k for the unwound / repaired one and a bit more than 4k for the original one as supposed by SH1 specs, their mismatching puts them between the small offset of Burstbuckers and the greater difference noticed in Fralin "Unbuckers"...

As mentioned, it should make the pickup a bit "airier", that's all. I'd play it as it is if it was mine.
 
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