Ok....Who can explain Whats inside a pickup, and how it effects its tone??

G

gianniboy

New member
Ive been hearing terms like coils, wire wraps, poles, diff mags etc.

I was wondering how much different parts/components there are inside a pickup and how different components make them sound differently.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Re: Ok....Who can explain Whats inside a pickup, and how it effects its tone??

Simple. Everything changes everything.
 
Re: Ok....Who can explain Whats inside a pickup, and how it effects its tone??

gianniboy said:
Ive been hearing terms like coils, wire wraps, poles, diff mags etc.

I was wondering how much different parts/components there are inside a pickup and how different components make them sound differently.

Thanks
Click to expand...


Well, there's:
  • the bobbin, which is the main part - the big plastic piece
  • the coils, which are the copper wires that are wrapped around the poles and perform the conversion of magnetic field disturbance to electrical impulse
  • the poles, which can be solid flat metal or different types of screws or long skinny metal blades (for the Rail-type pickups)
  • the wires that come from the coils to the guitar's controls
  • the magnet, which when combined with the metal poles and the copper wires generates a magnetic field around the entire pickup
  • the baseplate, which the bobbins and magnet are mounted on

So there's at least 6 physical pieces to the pickup (7 if you count the tape that protects the coils from dust and debris).

Wire wraps are the number of times the copper wire is wrapped around the poles. More = louder, usually.

[SCIENCE!]
Different magnets have different strengths and therefore generate different magnetic fields. The strength of the magnetic field determines both how easily the pickup detects the vibration of the string and how strong of a signal the pickup will convert to electrical impulse.

The number of wire wraps in the coil also affects the output power of the pickup. Fewer wraps means weaker output, more wraps means stronger output since the electrical impulses traveling along the wire "stack up", so to speak. If there's less wire between the Input (string vibration) and the Output (controls/amp, etc) then the signal doesn't stay in the coil long enough to "stack up". The more the signal stacks up, the louder it is.

If you change the magnet, the number of wraps, the thickness of the copper wire, thickness and/or the material of the poles, or the proximity to the strings, you change how the pickup detects string vibration and how it converts that vibration to electrical impulses.
[/SCIENCE!]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top