screw or slug coil for lower wind?

[gimmieinfo]

I wanna unwind one of the coils in my neck pickup to get rid of some of the mud when using clean to edge tones. It;s a 7.2k A2 pickup. I have read that unbalanced coil will give a pickup more clarity/brightness. No need for warnings, i've unwound many pickups so i know all the possible issues and how to get around them. But i have never tried unbalancing a HB. So assuming the coils are pretty much balanced in stock form, the questions are 1-which coil would be best to unwinds and 2- assuming they are 3.6k each (1/2 of 7.2k) what would you take it down to in order to rectify the mud as much as possible without going too far to where it ruins the hotter tones i use it for. Please lets not get into pole and p/u height, treble bleeds, bass cut caps, 50s wiring, parallel coils, tweaking the amp for the neck and using tone rolled of to compensate for the bridge etc etc. I've tried everything and have decades of experience and i know that at this point i'm probably gonna need a different pickup, but i'd like to try this before i start throwing money away again.

 

[Clint 55]

Well mini humbuckers are in the 6k range? They function well. Are balanced nicely with adequate bass but treble focus. Maybe take + .2 off one coil to get the series hb into the 6k range.

For which coil to unwind, I don't think it matters as much as the bridge. I'd shoot it out there that it might be rounder with the slug unwound and the screw hotter, and cluckier with the screw unwound and slug hotter.

 

[Teleplayer]

I have used unbalanced wind pickups from bare knuckle and lollar. Both makers typically wind the screw coil with slightly higher resistance figure.

For the neck pickup that I like best, the imbalance is 135 ohms. In that case the screw coil reads 3.766k, and slug coil 3.631k.

I have read that bare knuckle use different size bobbins for screw coil and slug coil in vintage style humbuckers, so the geometry of the coil may be different even when the bobbins are wound equally.

 

[gimmieinfo]

I have used unbalanced wind pickups from bare knuckle and lollar. Both makers typically wind the screw coil with slightly higher resistance figure.

For the neck pickup that I like best, the imbalance is 135 ohms. In that case the screw coil reads 3.766k, and slug coil 3.631k.

I have read that bare knuckle use different size bobbins for screw coil and slug coil in vintage style humbuckers, so the geometry of the coil may be different even when the bobbins are wound equally.

Thanks for that. I would have thought that was withing the range of what would be considered balanced but i will check mine. Never did yet but i will right now. Thanks

 

[freefrog]

+1 about stronger screw coil in this case...

 

[GuitarDoc]

So, you've got a 7.2k pup that's muddy. At first that seems unlikely but anything is possible.
It's got an A2 magnet. Have you tried changing it to, say, A5?
And you've tried lowering it and raising the pole screws and that didn't help?
Also, have you actually tried it in parallel? And that didn't give it more "clarity/brightness"? If you want to go back and forth between the series and parallel tone, just put in a p/p pot.
Making the coils unbalanced by 20% might help it or might permanently ruin the tone that you DO like about the pup. (That's a lot of wire to unwrap. Sure seems like there are some easier and safer and more reversible options).