diy hybrid pickup

[Tomer.N.T]

Im planning on winding the pickups for an upcoming project by myself and I want to make a humbucker that will have one coil like MM pickup and one like J pickup (like Delano's hybrid)
I want it to sound as close as it can to MM pickup when wired parallel (I read that MM pickups are wired parallel) and as close as it can to a vintage J pickup when wired as single.

Is it possible? and if it is, how do I do that?

Thanks in advance

 

[Triad]

Well... Jazz singles are usually made with 8 small AlNiCo5 poles and a taller bobin while the MM (the actual ones) have Ceramic bar under steel poles. The older ones had tall AlNiCo5 magnets if I remember correctly. It can be done in so many ways...

 

[Tomer.N.T]

I will use AlNiCo5 on the MM but I read that the old ones had a total (both coils together) resistance of 1200-2400 ohm and the J pups have 7000-9000 ohm

I'm afraid that the MM coil won't have enough output

 

[Triad]

It was made to work with an active preamp so... I guess you should adjust the number of turns to make it strong enough.
I don't really see a big advantage with this layout, though. I guess with two different bobins you get a different cancellation and the taller bobin will have a brighter sound but... don't know. I guess you should try to make a prototype and see if you like it, no other way. The Delano is probably Ceramic? No idea.

 

[Tedward]

Interesting idea...the EBMM coil is shorter than the J coil as Triad said. Shorter coils have more bass than tall coils.
The pre 1978 EBMM coil is wound to around 2400 ohms and both coils wired parallel will give a reading of 1200 ohms and the later ones were wound to 3900 ohms and parallel read 1950 ohms.

The J is taller and will have more windings and have a higher resistance as you said and be louder than the MM. With this combination I honestly don't think you will get either sound. But, that's not say that it wont work. You will diffidently have a different sound.

I believe both the MM and J are wound with 42 gauge wire.

You could try winding both coils to the same resistance with different magnets and see what happens. You will use a lot of wire.

I started playing around with winding my own pickups a few months ago. I have been making humbuckers with bar magnets and one with 3/8" Alnico 5 slugs. Each one has it's own unique sound.

Maybe David of SGD can chime in on this.

Tedward

 

[Tomer.N.T]

In addition i'm trying to understand how wire a "coil tap/parallel/parallel with low cut" switch for that pickup

I drew something but I don't sure it's right

 

[SGD Lutherie]

Well... Jazz singles are usually made with 8 small AlNiCo5 poles and a taller bobin while the MM (the actual ones) have Ceramic bar under steel poles. The older ones had tall AlNiCo5 magnets if I remember correctly. It can be done in so many ways...

No, the real MM pickups have alnico poles. There are variations with ceramic and even neo magnets and steel poles.

 

[Nev375]

Im planning on winding the pickups for an upcoming project by myself and I want to make a humbucker that will have one coil like MM pickup and one like J pickup (like Delano's hybrid)
I want it to sound as close as it can to MM pickup when wired parallel (I read that MM pickups are wired parallel) and as close as it can to a vintage J pickup when wired as single.

Is it possible? and if it is, how do I do that?

Thanks in advance

If Delano is already doing this, why don't you just buy one of theirs?

This is pretty advanced pickup design here... trying to combine an active humbucker with a passive single coil.

 

[MPU]

If Delano is already doing this, why don't you just buy one of theirs?

This is pretty advanced pickup design here... trying to combine an active humbucker with a passive single coil.

MM is passive as well as Jazz pickup. If you have an active blend there's no problem mixing two different kind of pickups.

 

[SGD Lutherie]

I want it to sound as close as it can to MM pickup when wired parallel (I read that MM pickups are wired parallel) and as close as it can to a vintage J pickup when wired as single.

Is it possible? and if it is, how do I do that?

The short answer is no, at least without getting a little more complicated.

MM and Jazz pickups are wound differently. A Jazz pickup had between 8 and 9 thousand turns on wire on it. One coil from a MM has about 4450 turns.

So to make it work like a humbucker, both coils need to be a closer match that that, and putting those two in series would sound like mud.

To really do it the right way, you would tap the J coil.

Tapping means you wind up to a certain number of turns, and then take a tap out (take the end of the magnet wire and connected it to an eyelet or hookup lead, and then continue winding to the full amount.

So when you want the MM sound, you use the two smaller coils. When you want the J side soloed, you switch to the full coil.

I do't think anyone makes a pickup like that on the market. But it's not that hard to do.