8 ohms? I'd figure that's out by a few orders of magnitude. Also, weren't Lane's pickups a sidewinder design? That's the impression I got.... SGD Lutherie might have more info.
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About Lane Poor pickups
- Thread starter ModulusMK
- Start date
Sorry ModulusMK, although I'm somewhat of a pickup connoisseur, I don't really know much about pickup design. I thought I read about the LP's use of a sidewinder design somewhere in the past, but I could have that confused with the Q-Tuner design. The Q-Tuners have the two coils sideways, not around the vertical pole pieces like in a normal pickup. On the other point, I would expect the resistance to read somewhere in the thousands of ohms, or three orders of magnitude higher.
10^0 -> 10^3
BTW, this old thread might be somewhat helpful: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=360555
10^0 -> 10^3
BTW, this old thread might be somewhat helpful: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=360555
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
I'm sure he meant 8K (8,000 Ohms).
I've never even seen a Lane Poor in person, but I got a few notes on them (was that from you 12Bass?), and they range from about 7.3K to 8.5K.
And that doesn't tell you anything about the pickup, except it's DC resistance. Unless you know the wire gauge and bobbin size, that can be a wide range of number of turns of wire, since thinner wire has a higher resistance per foot. You can wind a coil with 42AWG and another with the same numbers of turns with 44AWG, and one might be 8K and the other 12K and they will have the same output level, but the one with the thinner wire might sound brighter, because the coil is smaller. But the higher resistance will also give it a more midrangy tone.
A sidewinder is a bumbucker that has both coils laying on their side, facing each other, so they have one common magnetic pole facing the strings. They tend to sound more like single coil pickups since they are sensing the strings at a single narrow aperture, and unlike regular humbuckers, they don't have the effect of the two coils accentuating the lows and mids, while smoothing out the highs. This happens with humbuckers both because they sense a wider section of the strings, and the two coils cancel out some of the upper frequencies.
A few examples of side winders are Q-Tuners, Bill Lawrence L-250 pickups, some T-Bird pickups, The Gibson Ripper, and the infamous Gibson "mudbucker", though that has a truck load of wire wound on it to kill off the top end! (note that the T-Bird and Ripper pickups were designed by Bill Lawrence)
Another important aspect of pickups is the shape of the coil, and the coil's load. Q-Tuners are air coils, since the steel pole pieces are not in the coils, so the coils have a lower inductance. I had always heard that Poors were air coils, but only Lane and Adam know that for sure!
And least we not forget, the type and arrangement of the magnet plays a big part.
So as you can gather from all this, just knowing the DC resistance doesn't help you much. You can stick an 8K PAF guitar pickup on a bass and it wont sound like a LP.
I would expect the resistance to read in the thousands of ohms too, but that with the orders of magnitude confuses me a little. The three orders i suppose it means the thousands, but i don't know what the 8 ohms mean together with the thousands, i guess it's not 8000 ohms, i think it's too much for a pup with low number of turns and low output (if it is like that).
What do you think about this?
Anyway thank you for the info and the link.
What do you think about this?
Anyway thank you for the info and the link.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
It is 8,000 Ohms. Look at Q-Tuners, they are like 14K, but have a very extended top end.
Some pickup designs are somewhat inefficient, like stacked pickups, and require more wire to get a bit more output.
And air coils have lower inductance, so they need more turns, and still might not have a lot of output.
But he could be using fewer turns, and thinner wire. Output level is generally dictated by the number of turns, and not the resistance.
But there are so many variables that anything I say here is a generalization!
Some pickup designs are somewhat inefficient, like stacked pickups, and require more wire to get a bit more output.
And air coils have lower inductance, so they need more turns, and still might not have a lot of output.
But he could be using fewer turns, and thinner wire. Output level is generally dictated by the number of turns, and not the resistance.
But there are so many variables that anything I say here is a generalization!
SGD Lutherie, i know that there is a lot of other info to take in and that you've mentioned, but sure i wont get that info if i ask someone who knows it, so I'm not asking.
You mentioned "A sidewinder is a bumbucker that has both coils laying on their side, facing each other, so they have one common magnetic pole facing the strings. They tend to sound more like single coil pickups since they are sensing the strings at a single narrow aperture" - This "looks" like the sound of the LP MM4 humbucker but not sure. Flea has an humbucker in it's own Fleabass and is close to this in sound (I'm talking about the original LP not the copy with modulus logo, this one sounds more like Bartolini MMX which are not air coils i think)
It's likely that Adam mentioned that LP pups are with low number of turns, you said that they are ranging from 7.3 - 8.5K, so it's very possible that it is used thin wire 44-45, so I need to experiment.
Thanks for the nice explanation SGD Lutherie, I appreciate that!
You mentioned "A sidewinder is a bumbucker that has both coils laying on their side, facing each other, so they have one common magnetic pole facing the strings. They tend to sound more like single coil pickups since they are sensing the strings at a single narrow aperture" - This "looks" like the sound of the LP MM4 humbucker but not sure. Flea has an humbucker in it's own Fleabass and is close to this in sound (I'm talking about the original LP not the copy with modulus logo, this one sounds more like Bartolini MMX which are not air coils i think)
It's likely that Adam mentioned that LP pups are with low number of turns, you said that they are ranging from 7.3 - 8.5K, so it's very possible that it is used thin wire 44-45, so I need to experiment.
Thanks for the nice explanation SGD Lutherie, I appreciate that!
FWIW, I hear some tonal similarities between the LP wide aperture and the Q-Tuner BL humbucker, although the LP has lower output and is more susceptible to EMI. Also, I'd say that the Q-Tuner has more extended highs, while the LP is a bit stronger in the midrange. Personally, I found the LP humbucker a bit too overwhelming in the lower midrange. Some suggest that the Villex pickups are even closer to the LP sound, but with higher output.
