Zhangliqun
Questionologist
Wound a couple more pickups over the weekend and hit paydirt!
BUT BEFORE any details on that, I used the guts (flatwork + mags) of the Fat 50's so they are technically re-winds. Either I'm not good at charging magnets or (more likely) the Stew Mac magnets are just poor quality. No matter what wind I put on the Stew Mac kit, it came out sounding dark and weak, and I had charged those mags with the two neodymium boride mags extensively to where they had the same if not more magnetic pull than the Fat 50's mags (I compared with how hard it was to pull screw driver tip off magnets). These mags make Alnico 2 sound sharp and harsh by comparison -- and they're supposed to be Alnico 5's!
Anyway, these were the 42/43's I said I was going to try late last week. I wound them up to about 5.5k each with #42 wire and the rest of the way with #43.
Why not all #43, you ask? This would make for a more narrow coil at the same spec which would result in less mids and lows. (I had wound a 9.5k coil on the Fat 50's frame earlier with all #43 and there was plenty of room left on the coil for more wire -- and it sounded bright and cold. The bite was there but no sweetness or warmth at all.) Winding it part way with #42 guarantees the coil will be plenty full and therefore wide enough. Filling a coil all the way up with #43 wire would give you a pickup that's way too hot (probably 14-15k) with no chime or air in the tone.
I took another winder's advice and instead of my usual super-scatter "ball of yarn" approach, I wound it neat and tight but "wiggled" the wire during the winding for a slight scatter every 800 to 1,000 turns or so.
Long story short, I ended up with a neck pickup at 9.1k with a tap at 7.7k and a bridge pu at 10.8k with a tap at 7.4k. I put them in my Strat with a push/pull pot to tap both pickups. In tap mode they both have a great "vintage hot" tone -- plenty of air and chime but some real warmth to the mids and lows. Very classic but with just enough heat to give you plenty of attitude if you push it. In full-on mode, the neck pickup sounds very SRV and the bridge pickup is pure humbucker sledgehammer, though both still have a lot more air than you would think, especially after (see below) finally changing the strings.
At first I thought of maybe taking a few turns off the bridge because it was a tiny bit dark (hey, it's almost 11k!) but the strings were WAY overdue to be changed -- so I replaced them. The bridge pu now sounds much clearer with more air so I will probably leave it as is, especially since it very properly smashes the front end of my Maxon Overdrive for some righteous hardcore crunch that seems to bring out the best of that maple fingerboard's upper mids, even on lower gain settings. Some of this chime will go away in the next few days as the strings break in so I'll re-evaluate at that time, but chances are it's staying as is.
For further point of reference, my Strat is strung pretty heavy -- 11.5 through 52 and tuned to E-flat. (Yes, they do make 11.5's...)
BUT BEFORE any details on that, I used the guts (flatwork + mags) of the Fat 50's so they are technically re-winds. Either I'm not good at charging magnets or (more likely) the Stew Mac magnets are just poor quality. No matter what wind I put on the Stew Mac kit, it came out sounding dark and weak, and I had charged those mags with the two neodymium boride mags extensively to where they had the same if not more magnetic pull than the Fat 50's mags (I compared with how hard it was to pull screw driver tip off magnets). These mags make Alnico 2 sound sharp and harsh by comparison -- and they're supposed to be Alnico 5's!
Anyway, these were the 42/43's I said I was going to try late last week. I wound them up to about 5.5k each with #42 wire and the rest of the way with #43.
Why not all #43, you ask? This would make for a more narrow coil at the same spec which would result in less mids and lows. (I had wound a 9.5k coil on the Fat 50's frame earlier with all #43 and there was plenty of room left on the coil for more wire -- and it sounded bright and cold. The bite was there but no sweetness or warmth at all.) Winding it part way with #42 guarantees the coil will be plenty full and therefore wide enough. Filling a coil all the way up with #43 wire would give you a pickup that's way too hot (probably 14-15k) with no chime or air in the tone.
I took another winder's advice and instead of my usual super-scatter "ball of yarn" approach, I wound it neat and tight but "wiggled" the wire during the winding for a slight scatter every 800 to 1,000 turns or so.
Long story short, I ended up with a neck pickup at 9.1k with a tap at 7.7k and a bridge pu at 10.8k with a tap at 7.4k. I put them in my Strat with a push/pull pot to tap both pickups. In tap mode they both have a great "vintage hot" tone -- plenty of air and chime but some real warmth to the mids and lows. Very classic but with just enough heat to give you plenty of attitude if you push it. In full-on mode, the neck pickup sounds very SRV and the bridge pickup is pure humbucker sledgehammer, though both still have a lot more air than you would think, especially after (see below) finally changing the strings.
At first I thought of maybe taking a few turns off the bridge because it was a tiny bit dark (hey, it's almost 11k!) but the strings were WAY overdue to be changed -- so I replaced them. The bridge pu now sounds much clearer with more air so I will probably leave it as is, especially since it very properly smashes the front end of my Maxon Overdrive for some righteous hardcore crunch that seems to bring out the best of that maple fingerboard's upper mids, even on lower gain settings. Some of this chime will go away in the next few days as the strings break in so I'll re-evaluate at that time, but chances are it's staying as is.
For further point of reference, my Strat is strung pretty heavy -- 11.5 through 52 and tuned to E-flat. (Yes, they do make 11.5's...)
