Platinum wire

[BellBottomBlues]

Anyone here ever have pickups that are wound with platinum wire?

My p-bass might be in new need of a pickup, and I'm looking for a replacement.

My dad told me he had Dan Armstrong (I think it was) rewind most of his guitar pickups with platinum wire, and the pickup on his Hagstrom bass.

Supposedly it gives the pickup a really "hot" sound.

Can anyone else confirm this? My dad still has the guitars, minus that hagstrom and they all sound pretty good.

[62bass]

I've never heard of anyone using real platinum wire for a pickup, but I suppose it could be done if wire made from platinum is available in fine enough guages. I don't know if there'll be any difference in sound, particularly with a bass pickup, but it sure would be expensive. There are a lot of feet of wire in a high impedance pickup.

I wouldn't want to pay for it myself, but I suppose there are guys who would, even if there's no improvement in sound.

To me, a P bass, if it's a good one, has a unique sound that just sounds right and I wouldn't want to make any drastic changes to it. Upgrading from the stock pickup to say, a SD Quarter Pounder is not drastic, in that it doesn't drastically alter the character of the sound. Playing with a band in a live situation nobody will hear the difference.

[BellBottomBlues]

it'll make it sound a lot brighter

[BellBottomBlues]

bump

[Templar]

Nah, precious-metal pickups are totally out of vogue.

Get your pickups wound with nickel/iron wire, extracted from meteorites.

[GlennW]

Is this for your '58 P-bass?

If it is, yesterday you said, "It is the pickup unfortunately, so I'm going to take A9X's idea and just get a new pickguard and install everything onto that one and leave the original be."

If you don't want to do that, send it to Jason Lollar or Lindy Fralin and ask them to put it back like it was. Keep the receipt so you'll have documentation to prove who fixed it should you ever want to sell it.

If platinum wire had anything great to offer don't you think the rewinders would offer it as an option (unless there's so little demand for it they don't want to stock it)?

[ibz]

The platinum content in the alloy to make the wire would be so low that there likely wouldn't be any difference of one vs. other.

Go look up prices of pure platinum you'll see why wire made that way would be looney and impractical to use for this application cost wise.

[Akami]

Originally Posted by ibz

The platinum content in the alloy to make the wire would be so low that there likely wouldn't be any difference of one vs. other.

Go look up prices of pure platinum you'll see why wire made that way would be looney and impractical to use for this application cost wise.

Can't figure out what you mean.

In you first statement there would be little platinum, followed by a statement suggesting there is pure platinum wire available.

Usually platinum will be 95% pure and pulls down into wire quite nicely, at least for the guages that jewelers use.

Anyway I have to concur that cost would be prohibitive and if someone wants to go with a precious metal wire that silver should do just fine.

[Shoewreck]

Platinum has very high resistance - about 10 times more than copper. There's nothing good about it - you'll lose highs and will get more thermal noises. For your money, of course. The only good thing about platinum is corrosion resistance, but it isn't an issue if your pickup is sealed with epoxy. Gold plated leads will already be an overkill. Copper is one of the best conductors and silver is just a little bit better.

[BellBottomBlues]

why did they put platinum wire in pickups in the first place?

[Searcy]

I’m not aware of anyone that ever did. Sorry, but I think your Pops might be spicing up the story a little. I know someone would have to pay a lot of money to convince me to keep rolls of platinum wire on the shelf in hopes it would be used someday.

[danomite64]

I'm winding my pickups with uranium for a real 'rad' tone.

[Bass Mule]

Originally Posted by danomite64

I'm winding my pickups with uranium for a real 'rad' tone.

lol

[ibz]

Originally Posted by Akami

Can't figure out what you mean.

In you first statement there would be little platinum, followed by a statement suggesting there is pure platinum wire available.

Usually platinum will be 95% pure and pulls down into wire quite nicely, at least for the guages that jewelers use.

Anyway I have to concur that cost would be prohibitive and if someone wants to go with a precious metal wire that silver should do just fine.

Yeah, my first statement was a hodgepodge of thoughts that doesn't make sense.

Anyways I did mean to say that platinum wire can be near pure, but it would be of nearly impractical use to do so, ex. silver be better.

[BassoP]

People are now stealing catalytic converters for the platinum in them because it is so valuable. I bought my wife a platinum wedding band and it was 3x the price of a similar gold one. I can't imagine using the stuff for wiring a pickup.