I've been looking at replacement pups for my p-bass, and a couple of the manufacturers (Hanson, for instance) give the option of overwinding a pickup by 5%, 10%, or 15%. What is the benefit of overwinding pickups?
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Overwinding pickups?
- Thread starter officesubmarine
- Start date
and lows...
The low mid's bump you get from overwinding is not a benefit at all in my book ... the bump tends to mask the real lows and hi's and can get real boomy. My suspicion is that folks with combos dig that sound as it makes the combo sound big. If your rig is reasonably neutral, it ain't great.
Generally you lose tonal balance and in return get "hot spots" in the frequency response which room to room can be a real issue.
The low mid's bump you get from overwinding is not a benefit at all in my book ... the bump tends to mask the real lows and hi's and can get real boomy. My suspicion is that folks with combos dig that sound as it makes the combo sound big. If your rig is reasonably neutral, it ain't great.
Generally you lose tonal balance and in return get "hot spots" in the frequency response which room to room can be a real issue.
I agree with this.
Overwound pickups aren't great. I prefer low-output pickups, personally.
- Aug 5, 2005
- 7,243
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- Endorsing Artist: J.C. Basses
Like anything, they have their place. Nothing like a hot, overwound pickup overdriving a vintage tube rig.
That being said, I usually fall into the non-overwound pickup category, relying on preamps and internal buffers (like EMG's active pickups) to provide the output level that I want.
That being said, I usually fall into the non-overwound pickup category, relying on preamps and internal buffers (like EMG's active pickups) to provide the output level that I want.
Overwinding can also help if you are trying to match outputs with another kind of pickup like an MM+J or P+J setup. But for a standard P pickup I too favor the balanced sound of a lower output pickup.
