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Re: Insulation tonal differences?

5/7/2006 1:04 AM
moocow	Re: Insulation tonal differences? I agree that inductance is a part of how a pickup sounds. But if you are changing inductance as well as capacitance and hear a change in sound, you don't know for sure which is responsible for the change. I claim that even significant changes in winding capacitance alone will be inaudible. If you are changing inductance as well, then of course your pickups will sound different. But the discussion so far addresses winding capacitance only, and this is not a contributor to the sound of the pickup. I should add that I do not claim to know why scatter winding, potting, insulation thickness, etc. changes the sound of the pickup. I have some ideas but I don't have enough conficence (repeatable evidence) in my ideas to discuss them. At this point, all I feel comfortable with saying is that it has to do with how the signal is physically generated within the pickup, not how the impedance of the pickup affects the frequency response of this signal after it has been generated within the pickup. Give me some capacitance numbers and I can prove it to you. Hopefully, you didn't arrive at the peak voltage frequency by using the driving coil method. This gives a reading that is at least 25% low, indicating more pickup capacitance than is actually there. I'd still be interested in the variation in resonant frequency you see for a change in capacitance only. Inductance and # turns must be the same or else the change in sound could be due to those factors, not the capacitance alone.

5/7/2006 1:04 AM

moocow

Re: Insulation tonal differences?

I agree that inductance is a part of how a pickup sounds. But if you are changing inductance as well as capacitance and hear a change in sound, you don't know for sure which is responsible for the change. I claim that even significant changes in winding capacitance alone will be inaudible. If you are changing inductance as well, then of course your pickups will sound different. But the discussion so far addresses winding capacitance only, and this is not a contributor to the sound of the pickup.

I should add that I do not claim to know why scatter winding, potting, insulation thickness, etc. changes the sound of the pickup. I have some ideas but I don't have enough conficence (repeatable evidence) in my ideas to discuss them. At this point, all I feel comfortable with saying is that it has to do with how the signal is physically generated within the pickup, not how the impedance of the pickup affects the frequency response of this signal after it has been generated within the pickup.

Give me some capacitance numbers and I can prove it to you. Hopefully, you didn't arrive at the peak voltage frequency by using the driving coil method. This gives a reading that is at least 25% low, indicating more pickup capacitance than is actually there. I'd still be interested in the variation in resonant frequency you see for a change in capacitance only. Inductance and # turns must be the same or else the change in sound could be due to those factors, not the capacitance alone.

Replies:

Mick What does a capacitor do? and also ... -- 5/7/2006 2:22 AM
Joe Gwinn On 5/7/2006 7:04 AM, moocow said: -- 5/7/2006 8:09 AM
SK You may be correct in that capacita... -- 5/7/2006 4:45 PM