tele pickups....43 AWG vs 42?

[gimmieinfo]

Any time you hear winders answer the question about whether 42 and 43 sound different they often seem to say there are other factors and think with all else being equal theres no difference. And that 43 is used usually to get more output on a coil form where 42 wouldn't fit. Of course thats true, but what i am curious about is what about when all else that CAN be the same is? In other words, supposedly you can find the output in a 10.5k 43 AWG pickup that would match a 42 by multiplying the DCR by .77. So with a 10.5k/43 you would multiply 10.5 times .77 and get 8.08k. So a 10.5k 43 should have the same output level as 42 AWG at 8.08 assuming the magnets and wire type. (if wire type even matters noticably) And they should ten sound the same according to some winders.

But while i don't have a lot experience with comparing pickups that are the same except for gauge and wound to where they should be the same output, the times i have i seem to notice a difference. They seem brighter and different in other ways i can't put my finger on. The brightness i guess is due to the fact it takes less winds with 43 to get the same output and therefore you should see less capacitance. In any case i think it DOES sound different and i was wondering what others think.

 

[elelpe]

I don't have the experience either. But I'm not sure it's about the gauges. To me it's more about the winds. If you want to get rid some brightness from 42 AWG, you need to go closer to 9k/go pass 8.5k (personally I like A5 magnet to balance the mids out). Below 8k with 42 AWG and A5, you're still in shrillness territory. I also have 10.5k 43 AWG with A5, and the brightness is somewhat still acceptable to me. In my Esquire tele, I have Dimarzio Pre-B1 (14k with A5, not sure what the AWG is). Great pickup.

 

[jeremy]

everyone hears thing differently. to me, 8k of #42 is anything but shrill. but i use 6.5k and 6k a5 pups in the bridge of a strat.

 

[gimmieinfo]

everyone hears thing differently. to me, 8k of #42 is anything but shrill. but i use 6.5k and 6k a5 pups in the bridge of a strat.

Whats really strange to me is the way a pickup will sometimes change radically after some play time. I have noticed this often and of course it;s not the pickup changing but your ears getting used to it. But the most radical case of this happened to me recently. I had a 6.2k tele bridge pickup wound with 43 and flat A5 magnets and i replaced it with a van zandt, actually tried 2 VZ's...both 7.5k of 43 but one with flat A5's and the other with staggered and beveled A5s. The latter was really bright and i sent it back and got the flat magnet version. It too was really bright but a bit better. But both were much brighter then the original 6.2k/A5/43 i had in it. Whats that about? It should have been considerably brighter then both VZs but the opposite was true. In any case i left the second VZ in it and ordered a very different bootstrap, in fact the spec i talked about in this thread. But that won't be here for a month so i left the flat pole VZ in it and within a day it didn't sound overly bright at all ! I mean, nothing like at first. And no, it wasn't because i tweaked the amp because i set that back to where it was before the VZ's. It's just bizarre because it went from super bright to the point i was so sure i had to remove it that i ordered another pickup. Then a day later i don't find it overly bright and in fact am digging it ! Never had my ears change that much or that quick. But now i'm worried i'm not hearing the truth and others will hear the same ear splitting treble i did at first !