@@Delowist Nah he just chose to be a dick. Also he doesn't know what fun is. I'd be super stoked to see how this monstrosity sounds live on a huge rack with a metal zone xd
There are three things I would love to hear with this pickup: - Coil split. If it's this hot as a humbucker, what happens if you only have one coil left? Single coils tend to be brighter than humbuckers, so that might actually solve the resistance issue. - Does it clean up if you roll down the volume? How far can you take this? Is the tone useful in this scenario? - Treble cap to boost highs. A bit of extra brightness wouldn't hurt, so perhaps a capacitor could help with this. Overall, I think this sounded better than I had expected. Yes, it sounds compressed. However, I think it sounded more barky and dynamic than boosting an amp with a Tube Screamer. There is more experimentation to be done. I hope you'll consider making a follow-up video.
@@rx-heaven8934 yeah cuase he's playing distorted open chords. It's gonna sound muddy. Hit it with some power chords or single string riffs it'd sound great
today lots of pickups maker have passive pickups with 20/24/26 k ohms . Such as lace pickups , bareknuckle , bulldog pickups ... but 54K looks insane for me .
I’ve got the Slug in my custom baritone and it absolutely slays. I was really unsure if I made the right choice initially, but after spending about two years with it now I am sold and would absolutely put it in another guitar.
Just an F.Y.I. - while DC resistance for a pickup can help indicate more signal level/output (more DC resistance means more windings of wire for the pickup, which means more of a magnetic field, for the string to pass though, inducting more electrical voltage/signal through the pickup coils). I have a bit of an electronics background (I guess it's why I did most of the electronics related tech stuff for the bands I played in), and would like to point out that there are other factors in pickup output such as pickup magnet strength (though if the magnets are too strong, they will have a tendency to pull on the strings too much, killing string vibration, and in some cases, pull the string out of tune), and pickup height/closeness to the strings. Also, DC resistance can be higher, just because of the wire size of the coils being small (smaller wire typically has a higher electrical resistance). As much of a pain as it is, the only real way to tell what a pickup's output is, to measure the voltage, when a string is plucked, with an oscilloscope, or a voltmeter (preferably an AC voltmeter). I'm not surprised that you noticed a loss of high end for the pickup. With as many windings as it has to give it a 54 kilo-ohms DC resistance, it has very high inductance. The higher the inductance, the more, that higher frequencies are impeded/blocked. It's a tradeoff for mega output pickups. You either go the active route (relatively few windings to preserve the high end, and an internal pre-amp to boost the pickup signal), or wind the living daylights out of a passive pickup, and put up with it being darker sounding.
Excellent points! I wanted to make them but there is no need. One thing maybe: it's easy and cheap to measure the inductance (devices cost about the same as multimeters); it would be interesting to know that.
Bang on. As an electronic and electrical engineer as soon as resistance of the pickup was equated to “power output” my spidey sense tingled. Great that you gave this run down !
if it was wound by machine rather than scatter wound, it would have increased capacitance also, similar effect as putting a tone cap across the output.
If this is supposed to be a heavier version of the Slug, then they should have called it 'The Snail' - BIG missed opportunity here. Guess you could say they were a little /slow/ to the pun.
Looks exactly like the Seymour Duncan Slug. Same magnets and about 6kohm higher than the slug but Seymour was first with the stupidly high output pickup. The slug also has highs and definition.
@@waitin4winter no, if he were a comedian, he’s be banned on all Woke college campuses for fat-shaming snails (who we all know are a marginalized identity group and victims of systemic hate and violence.)
Have you had the pleasure of viewing Mr. Glenn Fricker?? He's my number 1. Science driven experiments and no BS. KDH is solid as well but, He's more of a guitar player who dabbles in "equipment reviews"
@@middaymeds yo bro, I felt the same way when I first gave him a try. I needed a break before I fell for him. That Troll behavior you speak about is just humor. Don't be so easily offended son. You limit yourself.
@@napesdrk1174 You mean the guy who trashed a microphone because he used it backwards and then complained how it sounds? Or is it that guy who complains how everything sounds the same these days, but insists using the same amps and distressor on every record, because people need to have their own sound but when they do, he doesn't like it and would rather use a 5150 because that amp really has a unique sound?
@@napesdrk1174 *INTERNET PSA* I learned a long time ago not to recommend someone from another channel on someone's channel unless someone did it first and even then it's still a dicey conversation to start. Fanboying/gushing about it on someone else's channel is just bad form; assured to get you at the least derision if anyone responds in the first place. But as someone finally told me a long time ago, no one is going to *tell* you but they'll be glad to *teach* you. You see what happened there? I thought it was a teachable moment; I hope you found it a learnable one.
54kOhm is INSANE! But high coil resistance don't necessarily mean high output, it depends on magnet strength as well, so you can have a low resistance high output pickup with really strong magnets, and they sound really cool.
The phrasing "high output" when referring specifically to high resistance (Ohms) is confusing to me... The higher resistance refers to the coil's resistance to the flow of electricity, so how could this result in a higher output to the amp?
@@taylormay9938 It generally means more winds. More winds increases signal strength and inductance to the point of diminishing return i.e. wire far from the magnetized string portion doesn't contribute much to output. Typical Fender SC pickups are actually pretty inefficient in the respect. The bottom half (or so) of the coil doesn't add much. The most efficient pickup coil cross section would be ~1/8" square. Thinner (higher gauge) wire has higher resistance, but thinner wire coils are denser, and can be situated closer to the strongest magnetic section of the string, so the slight loss of output from the increased resistance can be offset by the increased coil efficiency.
Lol, I was hoping it was meant to be a joke. But he has this very shrill vibrato that is way too fast and never in time. There is no feel, some people see others use vibrato and think “oh so I just arbitrarily wiggle the string so fast the listener needs to pop a Dramamine, regardless of the tempo of the song, vibe etc”.
Pinch harmonics always will be shrill and you don't have a lot of time for gentle, wide oscillations with this technique, it's not just vibrato, you catch a string with the pick and say, part of the thumb to make a squeal, which you can then do stuff with. It's a staple '80s metal feature and the only way Zakk Wylde can play anything. I think this guy has particularly good pinch harmonic chops
I lost it at that pinch too lol. That pickup is so hot that the compression of it almost makes it sound like a beast trapped in a cage....But that pinch gives ya an idea of how truly hot this pickup is.😈
I'm morbidly curious what it sounds like in parallel wiring -- that would probably bring back some treble definition and maybe even make it usable for mere mortals. A 1 meg pot with a treble bleed cap should also help, since this seems like the kind of thing you'd want to play with the volume rolled back a bit and then dime back out for solos.
That was my thought, how did it respond to the volume control? Is this just a powerful gain boost at 100%, but the majority of playing can be done at 50-60% on the volume with less treble loss?
I ran a Dimarzio X2N back in the 80s when that was the over the top humbucker. I ran it 4 wire so I could run standard series, parallel, and single. I liked the parallel best, but I have always felt I am the only person in the world that appreciates parallel humbuckers.
Only Bill Lawrence figured out how to get big output with a bright tone. Sadly, it's very easy to make them sound like a box of bees and if you run them you kinda gotta move everything over to them or you'll be spending more time tweaking your amp than playing.
@@craigharrison5406 I have the X2N in 4 guitars, it's my pickup of choice, but I'm not sure I'd call it a bright pickup. It's a very well balanced pickup, which sounds bright compared to almost anything else at that output level (except Bill Lawrence stuff). But the BL stuff is actually bright, brighter than PAF bright.
Wire it with a parallel switch and you get a 13.5K brighter sounding option. Like a bright sounding DM Superhumbucker. Parallel shifts the bandwidth back up again.
The tone we all like, about a Mustang, is the actual cheap Mustang pickup. It's a Stratocaster pickup, with pole pieces level to the top of the bobbin. That's the sound. The hamburgers where used live to be louder and noisier, but in general, a straight lace Stang was a common item for recording, so much so the Pumpkins only used them for clean in studio, during Siamese Dream. You'll lose that beautiful clean tone, doing buckers in anything. It's becomes a different, much less defined sound, antithetical to a Mustang. However, everyone thinks Cobain put buckers in em and so that's the end. Ask Butch Vig, how it was recorded. Zero Humbuckers, you aren't hearing, what you assume you are.
@@caiusmadison2996 oh yea you are right and I know Cobain used single coils, but I just like the shape of the Mustang lol, it would be funny to put this in one. Not looking for or expecting the classic Stang tone, even tho it’s really nice for sure
I bought one, when it gets here. It is going into a custom strat I built. It has a Fender '64 tele pickup in the bridge, a Fender 57/62 strat in the neck. This will be going into the middle position. It has a 24 inch scale length. I am looking forward to see what it sounds like. If you meant putting it into a "mustang" like the horse thingy well then I can't help on that.
I always found the voicing of a pickup to be more important than the output. Granted you don't want to be running vintage pickups for death metal but I've found some of the best sounding metal pickups can be medium output pickups. The Seymour Duncan Custom is a perfect example. The best sounding super high output pickup I've played is the Dimarzio X2N. Tons of volume and gain but still has a well rounded voicing that doesn't sound too harsh.
I have been putting high output pickups in guitars for years, I finally tried some mid output pickups and I find my leads sound smoother and sweeter. Especially when switching to the neck position. I play a peavey 5150 but don’t use as much gain as it has on tap, so using the lower output pickup and cranking the amp a little more creates a more dynamic/ harmonic distortion- instead of edgy grind.
Interesting pickup. If you still have it in that guitar, why not try using it with a Tube Screamer type pedal - but set it up to cut the signal slightly in order to enable a 'clean' channel. My theory is that with the way a Tube Screamer tends to cut the mids and effectively boost higher frequencies it could be a good match for this pickup. An EQ pedal could be a good alternative as well.
I have two 24k pickups that I used on a metal style guitar. It was a muddy mess. However, based on observations and research, it has its uses. If the hot pickup were lowered on the neck position, it can sustain for a long time. Plus, coil-tap and coil splitting can add tonal versatility as well
Interesting, really highlights how when you increase coil windings, you really create that spike in midrange, with that "aw" sound really poking through. While I prefer the 8k pickup, even for high-gain stuff, this pickup really does serve a purpose. Would be great for black metal. It definitely makes me wonder if there's the need for ultra high output pickups these days. They definitely seemed more relevant with older style amps that really needed coaxed into distortion.
Hi there, great found! Some people uses an overdrive not just to push the amp harder, but, most overdrives has a lo-cut at the first stage, and it makes the sound less fuzzier. More low end before gain staging causes mud on the tone If you try the SD-1 with the ton open, this will roll off the bottom end. If you do not crank up the level and keep the drive all the way down it will clean up the mud and makes it ore usable. OR you can use ONE HPF before hitting the first stage of gain but will never ever get the highs back since they were rolled off at the very beginning, right at the genesis. the maximum DC resistance tolerable to my ears is the 18.30 kΩ I got on my custom made Malagoli Eldorado pickup at my Kirk Hammet. more than that the signal becomes way much muddier. Also Output is not measured by DC resistance. The output level is measured in milivolts instead. Resistance is just consequence of the winding amount. I guess I could never use this in a production situation, they suck highs and for this I could use an equalizer before hiting the drives.
You've just proven Glenn Fricker wrong in this video, by proving that pickups not only affect the output but also DO affect the tone (still not as much as a speaker of mic ofc).
Would be interesting to hear how this 54K pickup sounds in the clean position if you turned the guitar volume down to say 1/3 level. That way the pickup should not be over driving the amp input and should be clean. Then when its lead time just turn the guitar volume up a bit.
I'm an electronics guy, pickup output is not measured in k ohms that is its DC impedance. Output is measured as volts peak to peak into a known load, so to properly compare two pickups you would measure output voltage (peak to peak) for each pickup on an oscilloscope while hitting the strings with the same force. If one pickup makes 1v p/p and the other makes 2v p/p the second pickup has TWICE the output. I bought an original dimarzio X2N super distortion in about 1982 when they came out. It had the big bar magnets. Even for metal playing it was muddy because if the magnets are too strong they pull on the strings influencing the strings. I played it for years but had to run the pickup quite low (away from strings) to reduce the muddiness.
DC Resistance is by no means an indication of "output". This is a widely misunderstood misconception that's perpetuated throughout the industry, and it's been said that it continues to be believed and repeated because it supports a narrative that suits the manufacturers and helps them sell pickups. In any case it is indeed a myth... It could be argued that there is perhaps a *correlation* between DC resistance and output at least in some circumstances, however the situation has become so muddled that the two terms are used interchangeably and in such a context that implies they mean the same thing which they most certainly do not.
I always like how direct and observant your conclusions are. I don't even always agree with you, but I really like your honesty and fairness. Good channel bro
Man I had an x2n in my les Paul back in high school. I preferred the duncan sh-8 invaders tonally but they’re both kinda like having a passive boost in your volume knob. It’s hilarious how much it distorts your signal on full, great if you want that 70s “insane volume boost into vintage amp” type of playing.
@@100DollarHeadache I imagine that plexi is just screaming from all the gain and boost. As god intended of course. Interestingly I like the rat with lower gain settings lately. It’s a good treble booster and overdrive!
@@potatoheadhaoy My Rat is actually a DIY clone, using LEDs for clipping to make it a Turbo. I prefer using it as a dirty boost, I mounted the LEDs externally to see when the pedal is providing clipping, and use this to balance it between guitars.
You can run these through a high pass cap, and add a bass pass resistor to add some bass back.. These also work nice in reverse polarity with the neck pick up, and put a super switch to either the super distortion bridge or the neck on a Gibson type pot blend circuit, so one of the out of phase coils bends into the other in phase coil, and the blend knob works as a nice tone control by using one pickup to cancel the bass frequency from the others.
Getting a proper soldering iron would probably improve your soldering results significantly. Those "gun type" soldering irons are not meant for electronic work.
I'm pretty sure the coils of that pickup are wired in series, it would be very interesting to wire them in parallel. Output would drop by almost half, however you might recover a little bit of the higher frequencies. It's possible the parallel wiring might shift the peak resonance frequency to a higher point. Very interesting for sure.
One thing that I'd like to know is whether they are using just the one coil or tapping both coils when you make use of the additional wire coming out of the pickup. If they're actually shorting out both of the two coils (giving you a more reasonable output to enable cleans with the option of going harder for distortion sounds but still retaining the hum cancellation in both modes) I can see it being a really cool idea. Kind of like having a passive booster in the guitar like the new Yamaha Revstars have, except that they do it with a small step up transformer instead of it being part of the pickup design. I think it sounds pretty good but it's definitely not very versatile without the coil tap/split feature.
It's always difficult to compare pups - it's never just the resistance, it's also the type magnets and wire gauges that determine the actual output level. But most high output pickups use ceramic magnets, and since 43gauge is more or less the industry standard, the easier measurable resistance in kOhms has become synonymous with level of output.
Two amendments. First, high-output pickups aren't "pushing the power tubes"; they are hitting the first preamp stage. Second, the loss of high-end information is due to capacitance (like in a really long instrument cable), not resistance.
The loss of treble is actually a product of both resistance and capacitance in the pickup, the more turns on a pickup, and thinner insulating layer, generally the more capacitance. and the thinner the wire (to allow more turns in the same size), the higher the resistance, which together with the capacitance forms a low pass filter, filters out treble. And it's also the reason often older pickups that use plain enamel wire have more treble than newer pickups with poly wire, the plain enamel insulation layer is thicker so the capacitance is lower, less treble loss.
Yeah, I'm a metal guy, and I actually hate overwound humbuckers (or humbuckers in general.) I only use low output single coils. WAY more tone. Just listen to Yngwie Malmsteen's tone.
@@saftovooey4569 These pickups would have been great to have 40+ years ago - certainly with old Marshalls & likewise amps, but it's just too much now... Can't get the wood sound with them now!
@@cornfilledscreamer614 oh ya. I plugged into a marshall origin 50 and single coils couldn't get anything out the amp without a pedal. But put some strong humbuckers through it and it sounds awesome.
6:53 High frequencies are filtered out with inductivity (L) of the coil(s). Reactive resistance or impedance of coils is calculated by formula Ra(coil)= 2*Pi*f*L. High the frequencies are more suppressed than low frequencies. While more L means more filtering for the same frequency.
I use to run a Dimarzio X2N in the neck, and it was BEAUTIFUL. Paired with a SH1B (essentially dimebags but with a Dimarzio instead of a bill Lawrence) was incredibly together
The high end lose is from the increased coil inductance from more windings not resistance. Series inductance is like parallel capacitance like a tone control with a cap.
It would be an absolutely terrible doom pickup. Hot pickups are dogshit for low tunings when they're 11k, nevermind 54k. Tune this to drop A and it's going to sound like you've got a mattress in front if your amp
Good point about how a pickup with relatively high DC resistance in the neck position can produce a smooth, Tube Screamer always on lead sound. Steve Morse in fact uses one in this similar vein, with his signature Dimarzio DP205 having 21kΩ DCR. Stating the obvious, the huge DC resistance in this 54kΩ seems to have removed the twanginess while boosting the mids when directly compared to the 8kΩ pickup.
54kOhm is DC RESISTANCE! It's not the same thing as output level, which is normally measured in volts. They correlate in pickups if other parameters (particularly wire gauge) stay constant. But high resistance alone is not indicator of high output. It may be result of thinner wire being used in the pickup, which would hurt the output level.
This video is inadvertantly a GREAT example of the difference the pickup choice can make to a guitar. Have to say, I do love the sheer growl of that pickup.
@@allanallan4791 as is obviously shown in this video loooool. not saying the other factors aren;t in play but come on, you saying with a different mic placement and the speaker he could have gotten cleans out of that one?
I want the coil tap!! Also super interested in what it sounds like into a line level input. Also very interested to see what is sounds like into an amp with low preamp gain. An amp where the V1 tube is a unity gain 12au7. Also should be 60w power output or 120w to get the full effect
As a general rule passive boosts will drain highs. A high roll off is inevitable. Actives or peds are a better choice if you need to preserve the high end.
A great experiment for this pickup would be to swap out the 500k volume pot...for a 1 meg... or "zero point" potentiometer. 250k pots (that help tame single coils), darken the sound of a humbucker. 500k pots let more highs thru, so humbuckers are not too dark and compressed. A 1 meg pot lets even more highs thru...and might really let this pickup breathe and sound great. A "zero point" pot can essentially make the resistance of the pot disappear (when in the zero position), ...as if there is no pot...and the pickup is wired straight to the output jack.
DC resistance isn't a direct measurement of output. It's an indication of *inductance* which one of the two parameters that are actually important, but it's only valid for identical construction and identical wire gauge. Inductance also increases with coil area and the amount and magnetic permeability of core material. Inductance is also a measure of the cut-off frequency of the pickup, they're intrinsically low-pass. The series resistance of a pickup is insignificant in the circuit. Read up on parallel LCR filters for more information, the R value here is the parallel sum of your volume pot and the input resistance of your amplifier, and C is the capacitance of your guitar cable. It probably dwarfs that of the pickup at around 500pF. That pickup is crazy hot though.
I like a single coil neck sound for leads and cleans. If I had this pickup I would use it as the bridge pickup when I switch to rhythm to act as a booster, it may sound good.
Interesting. I think your spot on in that the high impedance of the pick-up is contributing to cutting off the higher frequencies for the same reason using a 200 foot line between amp and guitar will do the same thing. This can perhaps be EQ'd if nothing else... I guess its all in your aim. I started building acoustic stringed instruments in my retirement which led to building pick-ups, pre-amps and power amps. I would not be happy with the signal hitting the rails of the pre-amp and distorting as it seemed to be doing in the test because I like a clean and flat response and if an emphasis then in the mid-range. But presumably you can always build or buy or adjust a pre-amp that the pick-up's signal can swing between without hitting the rails leading to clipping. Sure was louder for sure, but if you looked at the peak to peak voltage on a scope of the pick-up by itself and compared it to its 8K cousin the difference would be substantial and since op-amps which are the heart of pre-amps only care about voltage difference between the signal and virtual ground with current not mattering its bound to be louder at any gain setting and whether its worth it is a matter of aim and what its being supplied to.
a pickup resistance/impedance doesnt necesarily mean higher output, if you have less windings with different stronger magnets or winding material , or lower gauge wire may lead to a much hotter pickup. Impedance alone is only really a window into how its working for diagnostics , the higher resistance statement has always been a myth. It does indicate higher output but with all the other componets I mentioned above you can have a lower resistance with a higher output. Try adding wire to a pickup to add resistance to a known pickup. Youlll likely get less gain, also may change the frequency response and pull on the strings....
I'm surprised it had the clarity and as much highs as it did. Definitely not for everyone but I can see some folks in some styles experimenting and making it work. Great video.
I can still see this pickup getting hotter, just replace the ceramic magnet for a same sized neodymium magnet, I bet even at half thickness is already pushing the output even further beyond. This guitar needs a 1meg vol pot to allow more highs to pass through, this plus the neodymium magnet, you'd create so much tone that you could start a black hole on earth.
I have a Strat with a Bill Lawrence L500XL, which is an extremely high output. I have compared it to Super Distortions and it blows them away. I currently have it in a 3 humbucker pickup Strat in the neck position, and found the extreme high output pickups sound great in the neck, more so than the bridge as I find them simply too much for anything but extreme metal in the bridge, or require too much retuning the amp controls to allow for the extreme output of the bridge compared to the neck.
I've had a Dimarzio Steve's Special humbucker from the early 2000s. It's a very hot pickup, 17k Ohms. I also have a Seymour Duncan humbucker and a pickup from a Fender Jaguar in the same guitar. I get a good range of sounds from it. It's a Squier Affinity series guitar body and has it's quirks as far as intonation but it's pretty good.
kiloOhms are not a measurement unit of output, it's just the coils DC resistance. For example filtertron pickups are usually half the resistance of a traditional humbucker, yet they give the same output. If you really want to measure the output of a pickup, you should set up a constantly moving steel thing and measure the voltage output on a scope.
It really needs a 1meg pot, and a series/parallel switch - in parallel, it would still be hum cancelling, and same output as a reasonably hot modern humbucker. Also probably needs a treble pass a La a strat..
What you measure is the resistance of the coils, not really related to the output signal you will get. For instance, a bad solder, oxydation, could add a few kOhms serie resistance to your coil, and that obviously would not add more signal. Here we just assume the higher the resistance, the higher number of turns you have in the coil and in most cases it will be true.
What's the point in using resistance as metric here? Number of turns / magnet strength is what matters the most afaik. You can surely deduce that a high resistance also means more windings, but it is also influenced by the alloy used
If there's a contest on for "hottest pickup", it'll probably be pretty easy to get one of the hundreds of pickup makers to do a one-off with an even smaller wire gauge. 100k ought to be easily achievable, though it does require increasingly careful winding as the wire gets thinner.
I thought the L500-XL I had wound by Bill Lawrence before he passed was a hot pickup, but this completely eclipses it! I actually find that unless I'm using it for a guitar with overdrive or distortion, its not really usable or versatile at all. You can't get a decent clean tone off it without it continuing to break up. I've read about wiring a resistor across the hot lead of the pickup, but then you're talking about a compromise in tone for that, whether its wired to a push-pull as a tonal option.
For more high output options Dimarzio X2N pickups are massive at 13k->20k depending on the model, but none top the X2N-B at 37k! She’s yours on the used market for around $100
It's really interesting because my immediate thought was that it was muddy but that isn't quite right. It's more of a muffled sound than anything else, almost like you're hearing an ordinary pickup through a blanket.
I’ve always wanted to try mounting one of these (or a slug or w/e) under a blank pickguard on a strat, I think it’s just about the only pickup that could Work for that
13.6K Alnico 5 is the hottest Humbucker pickup I have and I don't think I need anything hotter than this. I drive a 1973 WEM Dominator MKII amplifier, I once hated this amp but now it is the only tube amp I have left and refuse to sell it, I now love this amp!
I assume you tried adjusting the pickup heighth as I feel like this pickup mounted flush with the pickguard would be awesome for an HSS Strat using the single coils for cleans and the crazy rails for metal mania as it is a little dark which is perfect for a Strat without a tone knob on the bridge as a darker pickup is what i like on the bridge pf a Strat but think with it lowered flush with the pickguard would be much more useful & probably closer in volume to rail type single coils at normal heighth as I prefer rail single coils to regular single coils to get rid of hum and add a bit more punch but I think this pickup is awesome as long as you have other pickups to carry the clean tone and use this pickup to bring down the house with its metal capability
54 kohm is a bit much lol. My Schecter Reaper FRS Decimator bridge pickup is over 18 kohms. The Sustainiac can be added if I need any more. It's great for hard rock/metal leads and can clean up enough for crunch/overdrive blues sounds. It is noticeably darker than my other pickups that range from 6.5 to 12 kohms. My alnico V singles at 7.4 kohms and PAF humbuckers at around 9 kohms are my favorites because they respond with the best sensitivity in regard to pick attack imo. Clean to crunch without adjusting any volume. Pedals for more if needed.
I think it sounded really cool for leads but not great for chords. I don't use humbuckers that are over 15 or 16k now, because the way you have to wind them at that point either loses too much high end or adds too much midrange. The way you have to look at humbuckers is like they are a double single coil. One coil is going to have half the output and the other coil is going to have half. So if you have a 12k humbucker it's really just the sound of two 6k single coils sitting next to eachother just in a different form of bobbin/pole pieces.
If you can have a switch setting that just uses one pickup, that should get you a lot closer to clean. I guess a 5 way switch would be perfect with one pickup, both pickups, the other pickup, and two different reverse phase settings.
So it’s a Boss Metal Zone in pickup form 😅
Now, imagine that slamming through an actual Metal Zone.
I like how he blends in with the background wall, with that jacket
@@CharlieMoney777 ?
@@Delowist Nah he just chose to be a dick. Also he doesn't know what fun is. I'd be super stoked to see how this monstrosity sounds live on a huge rack with a metal zone xd
@@CharlieMoney777 Someone really hates their job at Guitar Center. 😂
There are three things I would love to hear with this pickup:
- Coil split. If it's this hot as a humbucker, what happens if you only have one coil left? Single coils tend to be brighter than humbuckers, so that might actually solve the resistance issue.
- Does it clean up if you roll down the volume? How far can you take this? Is the tone useful in this scenario?
- Treble cap to boost highs. A bit of extra brightness wouldn't hurt, so perhaps a capacitor could help with this.
Overall, I think this sounded better than I had expected. Yes, it sounds compressed. However, I think it sounded more barky and dynamic than boosting an amp with a Tube Screamer. There is more experimentation to be done. I hope you'll consider making a follow-up video.
likely the increased capacitance from huge windings will effect the tone, unless it was scatter wound
That very first "clean" setting on the 54k sounded amazing!
No
Really? All I'm hearing is mud.
It sounded objectively fucking awful, what's wrong with you.
@@rx-heaven8934 yeah cuase he's playing distorted open chords. It's gonna sound muddy. Hit it with some power chords or single string riffs it'd sound great
@@rx-heaven8934 likely that tiny terror causing the mud.
It’s so hot it picks up the notes you think about playing
more like its so hot you can't hear the detail man
🤩
I wanna see it pulling the strings to it... Like can you go out of tune cuz the pull of the magnet?
Like a delay pedal that has negative delay time?
@@Tonks143Great! So I can play sloppy
I almost bought a Seymour Duncan Slug (48k DCR) but went with a more "normal" Jupiter rail pickup instead. 54k is even more insane!
@Skratch Rapture it's nasty and I love it haha
I've wanted to check the Slug out for so long. I just fear of it being way muddy
today lots of pickups maker have passive pickups with 20/24/26 k ohms . Such as lace pickups , bareknuckle , bulldog pickups ... but 54K looks insane for me .
The slug is amazing, i play it in a baritone and it slays
I’ve got the Slug in my custom baritone and it absolutely slays. I was really unsure if I made the right choice initially, but after spending about two years with it now I am sold and would absolutely put it in another guitar.
Just an F.Y.I. - while DC resistance for a pickup can help indicate more signal level/output (more DC resistance means more windings of wire for the pickup, which means more of a magnetic field, for the string to pass though, inducting more electrical voltage/signal through the pickup coils). I have a bit of an electronics background (I guess it's why I did most of the electronics related tech stuff for the bands I played in), and would like to point out that there are other factors in pickup output such as pickup magnet strength (though if the magnets are too strong, they will have a tendency to pull on the strings too much, killing string vibration, and in some cases, pull the string out of tune), and pickup height/closeness to the strings. Also, DC resistance can be higher, just because of the wire size of the coils being small (smaller wire typically has a higher electrical resistance). As much of a pain as it is, the only real way to tell what a pickup's output is, to measure the voltage, when a string is plucked, with an oscilloscope, or a voltmeter (preferably an AC voltmeter).
I'm not surprised that you noticed a loss of high end for the pickup. With as many windings as it has to give it a 54 kilo-ohms DC resistance, it has very high inductance. The higher the inductance, the more, that higher frequencies are impeded/blocked. It's a tradeoff for mega output pickups. You either go the active route (relatively few windings to preserve the high end, and an internal pre-amp to boost the pickup signal), or wind the living daylights out of a passive pickup, and put up with it being darker sounding.
Excellent points! I wanted to make them but there is no need.
One thing maybe: it's easy and cheap to measure the inductance (devices cost about the same as multimeters); it would be interesting to know that.
Bang on. As an electronic and electrical engineer as soon as resistance of the pickup was equated to “power output” my spidey sense tingled. Great that you gave this run down !
if it was wound by machine rather than scatter wound, it would have increased capacitance also, similar effect as putting a tone cap across the output.
If this is supposed to be a heavier version of the Slug, then they should have called it 'The Snail' - BIG missed opportunity here. Guess you could say they were a little /slow/ to the pun.
Looks exactly like the Seymour Duncan Slug. Same magnets and about 6kohm higher than the slug but Seymour was first with the stupidly high output pickup. The slug also has highs and definition.
I hope you’re not a comedian
@@waitin4winter no, if he were a comedian, he’s be banned on all Woke college campuses for fat-shaming snails (who we all know are a marginalized identity group and victims of systemic hate and violence.)
I'd love to hear this in a bass.
Talk about hitting the 'brown note'... 😂
The cab's speakers wouldn't love it...
similar thing happened with Gibson basses, the 60's EB- basses had a massive sidewinder humbucker, 30k ohms!
The sidewinders have very weak magnets tho so the output is not as ridiculous as the DCR would suggest
@@xdoctorblindx what does that have to do with anything? My speakers don't care what pickup I'm using.
Honestly I would love more videos like this. Your reviews always seem better than others in my opinion
Have you had the pleasure of viewing Mr. Glenn Fricker?? He's my number 1. Science driven experiments and no BS. KDH is solid as well but, He's more of a guitar player who dabbles in "equipment reviews"
@@napesdrk1174 lol glenn is a hotheaded troll who disguised paid promotion as reviews for years until he got called out
@@middaymeds yo bro, I felt the same way when I first gave him a try. I needed a break before I fell for him. That Troll behavior you speak about is just humor. Don't be so easily offended son. You limit yourself.
@@napesdrk1174 You mean the guy who trashed a microphone because he used it backwards and then complained how it sounds? Or is it that guy who complains how everything sounds the same these days, but insists using the same amps and distressor on every record, because people need to have their own sound but when they do, he doesn't like it and would rather use a 5150 because that amp really has a unique sound?
@@napesdrk1174
*INTERNET PSA*
I learned a long time ago not to recommend someone from another channel on someone's channel unless someone did it first and even then it's still a dicey conversation to start.
Fanboying/gushing about it on someone else's channel is just bad form; assured to get you at the least derision if anyone responds in the first place. But as someone finally told me a long time ago, no one is going to *tell* you but they'll be glad to *teach* you.
You see what happened there? I thought it was a teachable moment; I hope you found it a learnable one.
That's an insane amount of output.
*chevy chase "I LIKE IT" face dot jpeg*
@@russellzauner O/T SPAM!
But it certainly sounds like they could have / should have used a wire with less resistance, while keeping it just as overwound.
@@Traumglanz LOL! Talk about oxymoron!
Having the option for such insanity is cool. I'd be interested to hear it through amps known for their clean tones and less prone to breakup.
54kOhm is INSANE! But high coil resistance don't necessarily mean high output, it depends on magnet strength as well, so you can have a low resistance high output pickup with really strong magnets, and they sound really cool.
The phrasing "high output" when referring specifically to high resistance (Ohms) is confusing to me... The higher resistance refers to the coil's resistance to the flow of electricity, so how could this result in a higher output to the amp?
@@taylormay9938 think of it as a rail gun, but in reverse (sorry for my bad English)
@@taylormay9938 means there is more wire for the string to create eddy currents into (I think, not quite sure).
@@taylormay9938 It generally means more winds. More winds increases signal strength and inductance to the point of diminishing return i.e. wire far from the magnetized string portion doesn't contribute much to output. Typical Fender SC pickups are actually pretty inefficient in the respect. The bottom half (or so) of the coil doesn't add much. The most efficient pickup coil cross section would be ~1/8" square. Thinner (higher gauge) wire has higher resistance, but thinner wire coils are denser, and can be situated closer to the strongest magnetic section of the string, so the slight loss of output from the increased resistance can be offset by the increased coil efficiency.
@@taylormay9938I am also confused. I thought a lower output impedance would result in more signal to the load/amp input.
Clicked on this video expecting a sexy pickup…and I wasn’t disappointed.
Would be interesting to hear how that pickup would sound with different pots, 250k 500k 1meg ect.
Yeah I'd love to see this! Your reviews are top notch!
Probably needs a 1 meg pot just to regain some of the highs.
@@psykoklown874 Or even a bright cap across the pot.
It won't make any difference this hot.
Yea, would you need a really high mf cap to do anything to the tone? idk lol
That pinch harmonic around 8:10 had me rolling, wow 👍🤣
Lol, I was hoping it was meant to be a joke. But he has this very shrill vibrato that is way too fast and never in time. There is no feel, some people see others use vibrato and think “oh so I just arbitrarily wiggle the string so fast the listener needs to pop a Dramamine, regardless of the tempo of the song, vibe etc”.
Pinch harmonics always will be shrill and you don't have a lot of time for gentle, wide oscillations with this technique, it's not just vibrato, you catch a string with the pick and say, part of the thumb to make a squeal, which you can then do stuff with. It's a staple '80s metal feature and the only way Zakk Wylde can play anything. I think this guy has particularly good pinch harmonic chops
I lost it at that pinch too lol. That pickup is so hot that the compression of it almost makes it sound like a beast trapped in a cage....But that pinch gives ya an idea of how truly hot this pickup is.😈
@@charleshumbles6285well said. I agree.
@@hydorah I was speaking of his vibrato in general from what I've seen on his videos. Not pinch harmonics exclusively.
I'm morbidly curious what it sounds like in parallel wiring -- that would probably bring back some treble definition and maybe even make it usable for mere mortals. A 1 meg pot with a treble bleed cap should also help, since this seems like the kind of thing you'd want to play with the volume rolled back a bit and then dime back out for solos.
That was my thought, how did it respond to the volume control? Is this just a powerful gain boost at 100%, but the majority of playing can be done at 50-60% on the volume with less treble loss?
I ran a Dimarzio X2N back in the 80s when that was the over the top humbucker. I ran it 4 wire so I could run standard series, parallel, and single. I liked the parallel best, but I have always felt I am the only person in the world that appreciates parallel humbuckers.
@@eilliwwasniahc parallel has nicer tones
The HOTTER you get, usually the darker the pick up! That much circuit resistance will shift the resonant peak downwards!
Only Bill Lawrence figured out how to get big output with a bright tone. Sadly, it's very easy to make them sound like a box of bees and if you run them you kinda gotta move everything over to them or you'll be spending more time tweaking your amp than playing.
@@arthurreid6108 so you are saying I shouldn't play a box of bees? Weird...
Well, inductance and capacitance. But still generally right.
@@arthurreid6108 Dimarzio X2N is a very high output and it sounds really bright.
@@craigharrison5406 I have the X2N in 4 guitars, it's my pickup of choice, but I'm not sure I'd call it a bright pickup. It's a very well balanced pickup, which sounds bright compared to almost anything else at that output level (except Bill Lawrence stuff). But the BL stuff is actually bright, brighter than PAF bright.
Wire it with a parallel switch and you get a 13.5K brighter sounding option. Like a bright sounding DM Superhumbucker. Parallel shifts the bandwidth back up again.
That sounds super grungy, I love it! Could be great for some sludge/stoner stuff. I wanna put this in a Mustang lol
The tone we all like, about a Mustang, is the actual cheap Mustang pickup. It's a Stratocaster pickup, with pole pieces level to the top of the bobbin. That's the sound. The hamburgers where used live to be louder and noisier, but in general, a straight lace Stang was a common item for recording, so much so the Pumpkins only used them for clean in studio, during Siamese Dream. You'll lose that beautiful clean tone, doing buckers in anything. It's becomes a different, much less defined sound, antithetical to a Mustang. However, everyone thinks Cobain put buckers in em and so that's the end. Ask Butch Vig, how it was recorded. Zero Humbuckers, you aren't hearing, what you assume you are.
@@caiusmadison2996 oh yea you are right and I know Cobain used single coils, but I just like the shape of the Mustang lol, it would be funny to put this in one. Not looking for or expecting the classic Stang tone, even tho it’s really nice for sure
@@caiusmadison2996 >hamburgers
I bought one, when it gets here. It is going into a custom strat I built. It has a Fender '64 tele pickup in the bridge, a Fender 57/62 strat in the neck. This will be going into the middle position. It has a 24 inch scale length. I am looking forward to see what it sounds like. If you meant putting it into a "mustang" like the horse thingy well then I can't help on that.
I always found the voicing of a pickup to be more important than the output. Granted you don't want to be running vintage pickups for death metal but I've found some of the best sounding metal pickups can be medium output pickups. The Seymour Duncan Custom is a perfect example. The best sounding super high output pickup I've played is the Dimarzio X2N. Tons of volume and gain but still has a well rounded voicing that doesn't sound too harsh.
I have been putting high output pickups in guitars for years, I finally tried some mid output pickups and I find my leads sound smoother and sweeter. Especially when switching to the neck position. I play a peavey 5150 but don’t use as much gain as it has on tap, so using the lower output pickup and cranking the amp a little more creates a more dynamic/ harmonic distortion- instead of edgy grind.
"you don't want to be running vintage pickups for death metal" HA! That's exactly what I do. Low output single coils.
Honestly, with a treble boost, this might be a killer pickup; more natural and classic distortion, rather than having to use a pedal.
Aside from having such a significant difference in power, I think it looks much cooler in that purple guitar as well.
Interesting pickup. If you still have it in that guitar, why not try using it with a Tube Screamer type pedal - but set it up to cut the signal slightly in order to enable a 'clean' channel. My theory is that with the way a Tube Screamer tends to cut the mids and effectively boost higher frequencies it could be a good match for this pickup. An EQ pedal could be a good alternative as well.
I have two 24k pickups that I used on a metal style guitar. It was a muddy mess. However, based on observations and research, it has its uses. If the hot pickup were lowered on the neck position, it can sustain for a long time. Plus, coil-tap and coil splitting can add tonal versatility as well
Interesting, really highlights how when you increase coil windings, you really create that spike in midrange, with that "aw" sound really poking through. While I prefer the 8k pickup, even for high-gain stuff, this pickup really does serve a purpose. Would be great for black metal. It definitely makes me wonder if there's the need for ultra high output pickups these days. They definitely seemed more relevant with older style amps that really needed coaxed into distortion.
Hi there, great found! Some people uses an overdrive not just to push the amp harder, but, most overdrives has a lo-cut at the first stage, and it makes the sound less fuzzier. More low end before gain staging causes mud on the tone If you try the SD-1 with the ton open, this will roll off the bottom end. If you do not crank up the level and keep the drive all the way down it will clean up the mud and makes it ore usable. OR you can use ONE HPF before hitting the first stage of gain but will never ever get the highs back since they were rolled off at the very beginning, right at the genesis. the maximum DC resistance tolerable to my ears is the 18.30 kΩ I got on my custom made Malagoli Eldorado pickup at my Kirk Hammet. more than that the signal becomes way much muddier. Also Output is not measured by DC resistance. The output level is measured in milivolts instead. Resistance is just consequence of the winding amount. I guess I could never use this in a production situation, they suck highs and for this I could use an equalizer before hiting the drives.
You've just proven Glenn Fricker wrong in this video, by proving that pickups not only affect the output but also DO affect the tone (still not as much as a speaker of mic ofc).
Well, tbf Glenn said that more distortion makes the sublte differences of tone irrelevant, and he wasn't wrong about that.
Would be interesting to hear how this 54K pickup sounds in the clean position if you turned the guitar volume down to say 1/3 level. That way the pickup should not be over driving the amp input and should be clean. Then when its lead time just turn the guitar volume up a bit.
Interesting.
A 1 Meg volume pot boosts the highs and the gain too so maybe if you do that and roll the volume pot down to around 4 it could work.
It dont boost its a resistor.
I'm an electronics guy, pickup output is not measured in k ohms that is its DC impedance.
Output is measured as volts peak to peak into a known load, so to properly compare two pickups you would measure output voltage (peak to peak) for each pickup on an oscilloscope while hitting the strings with the same force. If one pickup makes 1v p/p and the other makes 2v p/p the second pickup has TWICE the output.
I bought an original dimarzio X2N super distortion in about 1982 when they came out. It had the big bar magnets. Even for metal playing it was muddy because if the magnets are too strong they pull on the strings influencing the strings. I played it for years but had to run the pickup quite low (away from strings) to reduce the muddiness.
DC Resistance is by no means an indication of "output". This is a widely misunderstood misconception that's perpetuated throughout the industry, and it's been said that it continues to be believed and repeated because it supports a narrative that suits the manufacturers and helps them sell pickups. In any case it is indeed a myth... It could be argued that there is perhaps a *correlation* between DC resistance and output at least in some circumstances, however the situation has become so muddled that the two terms are used interchangeably and in such a context that implies they mean the same thing which they most certainly do not.
I always like how direct and observant your conclusions are. I don't even always agree with you, but I really like your honesty and fairness. Good channel bro
Man I had an x2n in my les Paul back in high school. I preferred the duncan sh-8 invaders tonally but they’re both kinda like having a passive boost in your volume knob.
It’s hilarious how much it distorts your signal on full, great if you want that 70s “insane volume boost into vintage amp” type of playing.
I put an X2N in my Les Paul and love it. In series, it's the kick my Rat and Plexi need to give me metal. Split, it's a passable Strat bridge sound.
@@100DollarHeadache I imagine that plexi is just screaming from all the gain and boost. As god intended of course.
Interestingly I like the rat with lower gain settings lately. It’s a good treble booster and overdrive!
@@potatoheadhaoy My Rat is actually a DIY clone, using LEDs for clipping to make it a Turbo. I prefer using it as a dirty boost, I mounted the LEDs externally to see when the pedal is providing clipping, and use this to balance it between guitars.
You can run these through a high pass cap, and add a bass pass resistor to add some bass back.. These also work nice in reverse polarity with the neck pick up, and put a super switch to either the super distortion bridge or the neck on a Gibson type pot blend circuit, so one of the out of phase coils bends into the other in phase coil, and the blend knob works as a nice tone control by using one pickup to cancel the bass frequency from the others.
I don't really follow any guitar-tube channels but I am always excited for new KDH!
Getting a proper soldering iron would probably improve your soldering results significantly. Those "gun type" soldering irons are not meant for electronic work.
That clean sound blows my mind, wow
I'm pretty sure the coils of that pickup are wired in series, it would be very interesting to wire them in parallel.
Output would drop by almost half, however you might recover a little bit of the higher frequencies. It's possible the parallel wiring might shift the peak resonance frequency to a higher point.
Very interesting for sure.
I wonder what it sounds like through a maxed out HM-2 Chainsaw tone.
Say goodbye to your ears cause that thing would sound like a tv-static with the volume turned up to 11
Why not show the comparison of signal amplitude instead of DC resistance?
imagine how crazy it would be if there were four double hotrails on a guitar
😂😂😂
Its been done. I don't remember the exact guitar, but Nigel from Spinal Tap had something like that made by Music Man.
those are called quad rails, kramer and some others already have those
One thing that I'd like to know is whether they are using just the one coil or tapping both coils when you make use of the additional wire coming out of the pickup.
If they're actually shorting out both of the two coils (giving you a more reasonable output to enable cleans with the option of going harder for distortion sounds but still retaining the hum cancellation in both modes) I can see it being a really cool idea.
Kind of like having a passive booster in the guitar like the new Yamaha Revstars have, except that they do it with a small step up transformer instead of it being part of the pickup design.
I think it sounds pretty good but it's definitely not very versatile without the coil tap/split feature.
When did people stop measuring the mV of output to describe the OUTPUT? This is a huge pet peeve of mine.
It's always difficult to compare pups - it's never just the resistance, it's also the type magnets and wire gauges that determine the actual output level.
But most high output pickups use ceramic magnets, and since 43gauge is more or less the industry standard, the easier measurable resistance in kOhms has become synonymous with level of output.
Two amendments. First, high-output pickups aren't "pushing the power tubes"; they are hitting the first preamp stage. Second, the loss of high-end information is due to capacitance (like in a really long instrument cable), not resistance.
Not a fan of that pick up at all but I have got their "Old Timer Hair Spray" bridge pickup for a super strat and that is fantastic!
It was definitely worth my time checking this out.
Thanks for sharing.
It's not for me but I'm all in favour for innovation and testing stuff out.
I love to hear it tested with downtuned chugs.
looser strings might not vibrate as much due to the magnetic field, lol
@@masterofreality230heavier gauge strings counteract that.
The loss of treble is actually a product of both resistance and capacitance in the pickup, the more turns on a pickup, and thinner insulating layer, generally the more capacitance. and the thinner the wire (to allow more turns in the same size), the higher the resistance, which together with the capacitance forms a low pass filter, filters out treble.
And it's also the reason often older pickups that use plain enamel wire have more treble than newer pickups with poly wire, the plain enamel insulation layer is thicker so the capacitance is lower, less treble loss.
Im finding that I like lower output pickups so you can have some versatility with the tone vs a hot pickup that just pushes all the time.
Exactly. With today's high gain amps, it's pretty silly to have a high output pup. Weaker is better nowadays!
Yeah, I'm a metal guy, and I actually hate overwound humbuckers (or humbuckers in general.) I only use low output single coils. WAY more tone. Just listen to Yngwie Malmsteen's tone.
@@saftovooey4569 These pickups would have been great to have 40+ years ago - certainly with old Marshalls & likewise amps, but it's just too much now... Can't get the wood sound with them now!
@@cornfilledscreamer614 oh ya. I plugged into a marshall origin 50 and single coils couldn't get anything out the amp without a pedal. But put some strong humbuckers through it and it sounds awesome.
6:53 High frequencies are filtered out with inductivity (L) of the coil(s). Reactive resistance or impedance of coils is calculated by formula Ra(coil)= 2*Pi*f*L. High the frequencies are more suppressed than low frequencies. While more L means more filtering for the same frequency.
I'm getting ready to wind my own humbuckers and was worried about 14k being too much 😆
R you Japanese?
I use to run a Dimarzio X2N in the neck, and it was BEAUTIFUL. Paired with a SH1B (essentially dimebags but with a Dimarzio instead of a bill Lawrence) was incredibly together
I would like to hear this in a high gain amp.
The high end lose is from the increased coil inductance from more windings not resistance. Series inductance is like parallel capacitance like a tone control with a cap.
This would be interesting for doom metal. Also, maybe they could use a neodymium magnet to make up for the loss highs?
Idk man that pickup would make any fuzz pedal shit bricks.
@@Eliphas_Elric you wouldn't need fuzz pedals :p
It would be an absolutely terrible doom pickup. Hot pickups are dogshit for low tunings when they're 11k, nevermind 54k. Tune this to drop A and it's going to sound like you've got a mattress in front if your amp
@@DrRepper Facts.
If yall haven't check the Dimarzio Fortitude. I know Gojira ain't doom but Joe's sig pickup dooms.
Good point about how a pickup with relatively high DC resistance in the neck position can produce a smooth, Tube Screamer always on lead sound.
Steve Morse in fact uses one in this similar vein, with his signature Dimarzio DP205 having 21kΩ DCR.
Stating the obvious, the huge DC resistance in this 54kΩ seems to have removed the twanginess while boosting the mids when directly compared to the 8kΩ pickup.
Kinda disappointing that you didn’t do a legit metal tone to see what this would be like.
Yeah, I was kinda confused by that.
54kOhm is DC RESISTANCE! It's not the same thing as output level, which is normally measured in volts. They correlate in pickups if other parameters (particularly wire gauge) stay constant. But high resistance alone is not indicator of high output. It may be result of thinner wire being used in the pickup, which would hurt the output level.
This video is inadvertantly a GREAT example of the difference the pickup choice can make to a guitar. Have to say, I do love the sheer growl of that pickup.
This is extreme example
@@Marta1Buck definitely, it shows the level of difference possible because of that.
Pickups don't change your tones as much as the speaker and mic placement do.
@@allanallan4791 fully agree with you, I just think it is fascinating to hear the difference they do make via such disparately designed pickups.
@@allanallan4791 as is obviously shown in this video loooool. not saying the other factors aren;t in play but come on, you saying with a different mic placement and the speaker he could have gotten cleans out of that one?
I want the coil tap!! Also super interested in what it sounds like into a line level input. Also very interested to see what is sounds like into an amp with low preamp gain. An amp where the V1 tube is a unity gain 12au7. Also should be 60w power output or 120w to get the full effect
"Гражданская оборона" moment
Get yourselves "Поносные Звучания" for a low low price of several hundred of a perfectly nice guitar and overkill p-ups
As a general rule passive boosts will drain highs. A high roll off is inevitable. Actives or peds are a better choice if you need to preserve the high end.
first
36th
@@KDH first comment 🙄
@@sixstringtv1 54Ω
A great experiment for this pickup would be to swap out the 500k volume pot...for a 1 meg... or "zero point" potentiometer.
250k pots (that help tame single coils), darken the sound of a humbucker. 500k pots let more highs thru, so humbuckers are not too dark and compressed. A 1 meg pot lets even more highs thru...and might really let this pickup breathe and sound great. A "zero point" pot can essentially make the resistance of the pot disappear (when in the zero position), ...as if there is no pot...and the pickup is wired straight to the output jack.
DC resistance isn't a direct measurement of output. It's an indication of *inductance* which one of the two parameters that are actually important, but it's only valid for identical construction and identical wire gauge. Inductance also increases with coil area and the amount and magnetic permeability of core material.
Inductance is also a measure of the cut-off frequency of the pickup, they're intrinsically low-pass.
The series resistance of a pickup is insignificant in the circuit. Read up on parallel LCR filters for more information, the R value here is the parallel sum of your volume pot and the input resistance of your amplifier, and C is the capacitance of your guitar cable. It probably dwarfs that of the pickup at around 500pF.
That pickup is crazy hot though.
I like a single coil neck sound for leads and cleans. If I had this pickup I would use it as the bridge pickup when I switch to rhythm to act as a booster, it may sound good.
Interesting.
I think your spot on in that the high impedance of the pick-up is contributing to cutting off the higher frequencies for the same reason using a 200 foot line between amp and guitar will do the same thing. This can perhaps be EQ'd if nothing else...
I guess its all in your aim. I started building acoustic stringed instruments in my retirement which led to building pick-ups, pre-amps and power amps. I would not be happy with the signal hitting the rails of the pre-amp and distorting as it seemed to be doing in the test because I like a clean and flat response and if an emphasis then in the mid-range. But presumably you can always build or buy or adjust a pre-amp that the pick-up's signal can swing between without hitting the rails leading to clipping.
Sure was louder for sure, but if you looked at the peak to peak voltage on a scope of the pick-up by itself and compared it to its 8K cousin the difference would be substantial and since op-amps which are the heart of pre-amps only care about voltage difference between the signal and virtual ground with current not mattering its bound to be louder at any gain setting and whether its worth it is a matter of aim and what its being supplied to.
a pickup resistance/impedance doesnt necesarily mean higher output, if you have less windings with different stronger magnets or winding material , or lower gauge wire may lead to a much hotter pickup. Impedance alone is only really a window into how its working for diagnostics , the higher resistance statement has always been a myth. It does indicate higher output but with all the other componets I mentioned above you can have a lower resistance with a higher output. Try adding wire to a pickup to add resistance to a known pickup. Youlll likely get less gain, also may change the frequency response and pull on the strings....
I'd like to hear this with a 1 meg pot to see if it will let more of the highs through.
The problem with that kind of winding and magnetization is that it will actually act as a dampening brake on the strings, knocking down the sustain.
I'm surprised it had the clarity and as much highs as it did. Definitely not for everyone but I can see some folks in some styles experimenting and making it work.
Great video.
ohms isn't a 1 - 1 for output exactly, but yes, it's very hot.
I can still see this pickup getting hotter, just replace the ceramic magnet for a same sized neodymium magnet, I bet even at half thickness is already pushing the output even further beyond.
This guitar needs a 1meg vol pot to allow more highs to pass through, this plus the neodymium magnet, you'd create so much tone that you could start a black hole on earth.
I am impressed. How Clear the high Gain Sounds.
I have a Strat with a Bill Lawrence L500XL, which is an extremely high output. I have compared it to Super Distortions and it blows them away. I currently have it in a 3 humbucker pickup Strat in the neck position, and found the extreme high output pickups sound great in the neck, more so than the bridge as I find them simply too much for anything but extreme metal in the bridge, or require too much retuning the amp controls to allow for the extreme output of the bridge compared to the neck.
Interesting video. It looks like the neck alignment of your purple Strat there could use a little adjustment.
I've had a Dimarzio Steve's Special humbucker from the early 2000s. It's a very hot pickup, 17k Ohms. I also have a Seymour Duncan humbucker and a pickup from a Fender Jaguar in the same guitar. I get a good range of sounds from it. It's a Squier Affinity series guitar body and has it's quirks as far as intonation but it's pretty good.
Wonder what that equates to a superD's 425mV output
kiloOhms are not a measurement unit of output, it's just the coils DC resistance. For example filtertron pickups are usually half the resistance of a traditional humbucker, yet they give the same output. If you really want to measure the output of a pickup, you should set up a constantly moving steel thing and measure the voltage output on a scope.
Thanks for the idea. I'll order the same one for 8 strings.
The high E-string on that guitar, is it even playable at 20th fret? Seems the bridge is not accurately enough aligned with the neck or vice versa.
It really needs a 1meg pot, and a series/parallel switch - in parallel, it would still be hum cancelling, and same output as a reasonably hot modern humbucker.
Also probably needs a treble pass a La a strat..
What you measure is the resistance of the coils, not really related to the output signal you will get. For instance, a bad solder, oxydation, could add a few kOhms serie resistance to your coil, and that obviously would not add more signal. Here we just assume the higher the resistance, the higher number of turns you have in the coil and in most cases it will be true.
What's the point in using resistance as metric here? Number of turns / magnet strength is what matters the most afaik. You can surely deduce that a high resistance also means more windings, but it is also influenced by the alloy used
If there's a contest on for "hottest pickup", it'll probably be pretty easy to get one of the hundreds of pickup makers to do a one-off with an even smaller wire gauge. 100k ought to be easily achievable, though it does require increasingly careful winding as the wire gets thinner.
I thought the L500-XL I had wound by Bill Lawrence before he passed was a hot pickup, but this completely eclipses it!
I actually find that unless I'm using it for a guitar with overdrive or distortion, its not really usable or versatile at all. You can't get a decent clean tone off it without it continuing to break up. I've read about wiring a resistor across the hot lead of the pickup, but then you're talking about a compromise in tone for that, whether its wired to a push-pull as a tonal option.
Maybe experiment further by adding a King Tone switch (classic) on the lower tone pot on a Fender? Retains the highs even when volume is lowered.
For more high output options Dimarzio X2N pickups are massive at 13k->20k depending on the model, but none top the X2N-B at 37k! She’s yours on the used market for around $100
X2N is insane, had to get a new audio interface due to clipping
shhh...nobody is supposed to know
It's really interesting because my immediate thought was that it was muddy but that isn't quite right. It's more of a muffled sound than anything else, almost like you're hearing an ordinary pickup through a blanket.
I’ve always wanted to try mounting one of these (or a slug or w/e) under a blank pickguard on a strat, I think it’s just about the only pickup that could Work for that
13.6K Alnico 5 is the hottest Humbucker pickup I have and I don't think I need anything hotter than this. I drive a 1973 WEM Dominator MKII amplifier, I once hated this amp but now it is the only tube amp I have left and refuse to sell it, I now love this amp!
Glenn deserves this in his HB replacement guitar. Soley for his opinions on headstocks.
I assume you tried adjusting the pickup heighth as I feel like this pickup mounted flush with the pickguard would be awesome for an HSS Strat using the single coils for cleans and the crazy rails for metal mania as it is a little dark which is perfect for a Strat without a tone knob on the bridge as a darker pickup is what i like on the bridge pf a Strat but think with it lowered flush with the pickguard would be much more useful & probably closer in volume to rail type single coils at normal heighth as I prefer rail single coils to regular single coils to get rid of hum and add a bit more punch but I think this pickup is awesome as long as you have other pickups to carry the clean tone and use this pickup to bring down the house with its metal capability
54 kohm is a bit much lol. My Schecter Reaper FRS Decimator bridge pickup is over 18 kohms. The Sustainiac can be added if I need any more. It's great for hard rock/metal leads and can clean up enough for crunch/overdrive blues sounds. It is noticeably darker than my other pickups that range from 6.5 to 12 kohms. My alnico V singles at 7.4 kohms and PAF humbuckers at around 9 kohms are my favorites because they respond with the best sensitivity in regard to pick attack imo. Clean to crunch without adjusting any volume. Pedals for more if needed.
I think it sounded really cool for leads but not great for chords. I don't use humbuckers that are over 15 or 16k now, because the way you have to wind them at that point either loses too much high end or adds too much midrange. The way you have to look at humbuckers is like they are a double single coil. One coil is going to have half the output and the other coil is going to have half. So if you have a 12k humbucker it's really just the sound of two 6k single coils sitting next to eachother just in a different form of bobbin/pole pieces.
If you can have a switch setting that just uses one pickup, that should get you a lot closer to clean.
I guess a 5 way switch would be perfect with one pickup, both pickups, the other pickup, and two different reverse phase settings.
I would be interested to know how clean you cold get that pickup if you rolled the volume knob back a bit...or a lot.
I curious if you should have changed the pot / volume switch to higher ohm resistance try that and make another video . I honestly like it
Cool as hell. Sounded great especially on "clean".
So that's the resistance. What is the inductance, i.e. henries? It is actually inductance that determines output usually. Resistance is more indirect.