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Vintage threads from the first ten years
Aged wire?
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 8/31/2002 1:49 AM |
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Dick |
Aged wire? Hello guys, I was recently reading a report about vitange pickups, which stated that it is not the fact that the magnet has aged circa 30 years (they dont really loose strength?) but that the wire itself has aged which conributes to the pickup's tone I was wondering your thoughts on the matter |
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| 8/31/2002 3:49 AM |
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| SK |
well, the magnet manufacturers claim a remarkably low degaussing over a LONG time (I'm thinking it was something like 1/10th of 1% over 100yrs...) Given that information, and the noticible fact that the older insulation types get brittle over time tells me it's more in the insulation. Also, there was some issues with the older potting method (laquer dip) in which potting usually was incomplete, and possibly even incompatable with the wire insulation (It doesn't LOOK like laquer to me on most pickups, more like shellac) I've noticed on older pickups the potting breaking down to the point of being inconsequential (often they seem unpotted except for telltale signs on the bobbins themselves and at the eyelets), the coil loosens up after this(over time), and the pickup becomes a bit darker sounding. I believe the breakdown of the potting and the loosening of the coil is mostly what is heard in "vintage pickups" (or loosening due to being unpotted). Doesn't really happen with wax unless the wax is melted out (car trunks maybe...) but wax is a "duller" potting medium than some others(not to say it's bad, I use it..) |
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| 8/31/2002 4:16 AM |
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| Dr Strangelove |
SK wrote:
When the coil becomes looser, wouldn't that also make it more microphonic? This is a kind of harmonic sweetener at low volume levels but microphonics can get out of control at the higher amplification levels. As the wire insulation breaks down, it becomes less of an insulator; the high frequencies are the most noticeable thing to decline. -drh -- | |
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| 8/31/2002 4:09 PM |
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| SK |
When it reaches that degree of looseness, yes it becomes "microphonic"; but generally it will only loosen to the extent of how tight it was originally wound(yes it CAN get even looser with fatigue etc). Potting doesn't make it "tighter" as such, potting just immobilizes the windings to varying degrees. This is why epoxy potted pickups sound harsher/sterile to me (JMO, and mostly speculation on that point). |
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| 8/31/2002 4:36 PM |
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| Dr Strangelove |
SK wrote:
Yah. The Carvin and EMG pickups are epoxy-potted and while technically good, don't sound as good as they might. This is just opinion/preference, but I think is little microphonics add a nice touch to the sound at the expense of making the pickup more of a handful at high volume. A more "sterile" sounding pickup may be exactly what's called for when there's a 100 watt stack behind the guitar. -drh -- | |
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| 8/31/2002 5:07 PM |
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| Jason Lollar |
I sell alot of unpotted P-90's, alot of people want that, it does make a subtle difference in overall tone which is not so subtle when you start getting oscillations then you can hear a definate funk in the tone which is hard to describe. They have to be wound tight or they are unmanagable. They also dont work great for amps with cascading channels. I make clavinet pickups, doing a batch right now for clavinet.com. These are extremly low impedance and are heavily preamped. Were talking about 300 turns of wire so its boosted up alot. When I was designing these I found out alot about potting because it was such an issue. I used several different compounds and each one affected the tone and feedback level. Harder potting materials increased feedback and gave a more brittle sound like breaking glass. Of course these were exaggerated results. |
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| 9/1/2002 8:29 AM |
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| Dick |
Hi Is a Marshall JCM 900 with EL43's (100w) a cascading gain amp? Dick |
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