What is mV

[Nite_Maresz_25]

I see it whenever people are talking about a pickup's output, and I have no idea what the **** it is.
thanks
alex

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: What is mV

milivolts.

 

[Nite_Maresz_25]

Re: What is mV

and a deffinition would be???

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: What is mV

1/1000th of a volt.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: What is mV

In the case of a pickup, it would be the amount of "juice" a pickup produces.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: What is mV

Although, as with everything to do with electricity, you have to consider volts in conjunction with current, or the amount of flow.

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: What is mV

1/1000 of a volt. Its used to make everything easier to read/write/say.

instead of saying the pickup has 0.005 volts its easier to say it has 5 mv or instead of 5000 volts its 5kv.

see?

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: What is mV

Technically, it's the electrical potential caused by the current induced in the pickup when a string is plucked. The difference in voltage between the hot leg of the pickup and ground. It, more correctly than the resistance, is the output of the pickup.

Think of it as pressure in a water system. Say you've got 30 psi (or voltage, in an electrical system) that you're using to pump water through a hose. The size and length of the hose (resistance, Ohms) combined with the pressure determine how fast the water comes out of the hose (current, in an electrical system).

The only problem is that in the case of guitar pickups, the voltage changes depending on several different factors. You and I could generate much different voltages with the same pickups, depending on how we played.

 

[Nite_Maresz_25]

Re: What is mV

what would be the aprox. mV of a hot humbucker? of a vintage or PAF type 'bucker?

 

[greendy123]

Re: What is mV

I would probably from 300 mV and up for hot humbuckers and around 200 mV for vintage or paf. This is just from what I analyzed from the dimarzio specs, but duncans should be pretty similar.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: What is mV

Does anyone ever take a mV measurement of their pups? What would that tell you?

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: What is mV

Does anyone ever take a mV measurement of their pups? What would that tell you?

Several manufacturers list a mV of their pups, and you could measure them yourself, but it wouldn't tell you much unless you excited the pup the same way the factory did. Your pick attack, string size, and other factors are all going to effect your reading. But if you want to do it, make sure your mulitmeter is set to measure AC voltage. DC voltage would be totally worthless.

I'd be interested to see how the various manufacturers perform their tests, and if they're performed in such a way that you could compare them across brands.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: What is mV

Several manufacturers list a mV of their pups, and you could measure them yourself, but it wouldn't tell you much unless you excited the pup the same way the factory did. Your pick attack, string size, and other factors are all going to effect your reading. But if you want to do it, make sure your mulitmeter is set to measure AC voltage. DC voltage would be totally worthless.

I'd be interested to see how the various manufacturers perform their tests, and if they're performed in such a way that you could compare them across brands.

Would you ever try to fine tune pup heights based off the determined mV? Perhaps just for fun? Would you call that fun?

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: What is mV

Would you ever try to fine tune pup heights based off the determined mV? Perhaps just for fun? Would you call that fun?

I'd call it fun, but I'm an electrical engineer, a.k.a. nerd. I guess if you had a machine set up where you were reproducing the experiment exactly the same each time, you could use that to fine tune things...IF you knew what you were looking for.

Are you saying something like test a PAF and then replace it with some other pup and adjust height and things until you got a match? If you kept everything else the same, I guess that would work. Of course, changing the height on a PAF would change the sound, so you'd be back to where you started.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: What is mV

I'd call it fun, but I'm an electrical engineer, a.k.a. nerd. I guess if you had a machine set up where you were reproducing the experiment exactly the same each time, you could use that to fine tune things...IF you knew what you were looking for.

Are you saying something like test a PAF and then replace it with some other pup and adjust height and things until you got a match? If you kept everything else the same, I guess that would work. Of course, changing the height on a PAF would change the sound, so you'd be back to where you started.

I posted a question about fine tuning pup heights based on the mV awhile back. Those that responded laughed and said just use your ears. They are a better guage since it's tone we're after more than output performance.

But, I still wonder about trying it some time just to see how much the pup output responds as the pup moves closer/farther from the strings.

Do you think pup output is inversely proportional to the pup to string distance? I think it would be a fun experiment. But, it likely wouldn't improve tone. The ear would certainly superior for tone.

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: What is mV

I posted a question about fine tuning pup heights based on the mV awhile back. Those that responded laughed and said just use your ears. They are a better guage since it's tone we're after more than output performance.

But, I still wonder about trying it some time just to see how much the pup output responds as the pup moves closer/farther from the strings.

Do you think pup output is inversely proportional to the pup to string distance? I think it would be a fun experiment. But, it likely wouldn't improve tone. The ear would certainly superior for tone.

Agreed. It would definitely be a neat experiment, but you're exactly right - the ear is best. Mostly because "perfect" tone to you is probably not "perfect" tone to me.