Technical Glossary

Magnets

Ceramics vs Alnico

When I read that ceramic magnets sound harsh and alnico magnets sound sweet, I ask myself, " Who the hell preaches such nonsense?" There are harsh-sounding pickups with alnico magnets and sweet-sounding pickups with ceramic magnets and vice-versa! A magnet by itself has no sound, and as a part of a pickup, the magnet is simply the source to provide the magnetic field for the strings. The important factor is the design of a magnetic circuit which establishes what magnet to use.

Though ceramic magnets cost less than alnico magnets of equal size, a well-designed magnetic circuit using ceramic magnets costs much more than the six Alnico 5 magnets of a traditional single coil pickup!

Aging

Before the introduction of alnico magnets in 1935, permanent magnets were not quite that permanent. During a certain time, they lost a good amount of magnetism till they finally reached a stable condition. The process to accelerate this decay was called in the industry, "magnetic aging." In modern science, it is called "stabilizing." Since the ‘50's, we use Alnico 5 magnets which lose, under normal conditions, less then half a percent per 100 years.

How do we achieve normal conditions?

Alnico magnets are shipped by the manufacturer in a non-magnetized condition and will not be magnetized until a pickup is completed.

How to maintain normal conditions?

After magnetization, avoid any close contact with other pickups or magnets facing either north to north or south to south with their magnetic poles. Don't ever throw pickups random in a drawer; you may either use a keeper on each side of the magnetic poles or carefully place them with the north facing the south pole of the other magnet. ( For tele players, remember that the iron backplate of a traditional tele pickup functions as a keeper which increases the stability of the magnets.)

Once pickups are in a guitar, there is very little to worry about. That your pickups lose some of their magnetism when you lean your guitar against an amp is nothing but a fairy tale. Or, that pickups lose some of their magnetism when you drop them on a concrete floor is just another fairy tale -- alnicos and ferrites will break before they have any measurable losses. Magnets are sensitive to heat, but so is your guitar. However, heat can be a severe problem when an Alnico 5 magnet is exposed to temperatures above 1000 F, approaching its Curie temperature of 1634 F. At these temperatures, Alnico 5 undergoes structural changes and cannot be re-magnetized. Why do I mention this? Because it happens quite often, when someone doesn't like the unbalance in output of a pickup with staggered magnets and goes to a bench grinder or a belt sander to grind a magnet down. You take a chance that a magnet gets too hot and becomes damaged.

Windings

Scattered vs Layered

"Scatter-wound" is just another sales slogan like "aged magnets". A more accurate term would be "random-wound," and any multi-layer winding of wire, finer than 38 AWG, is more or less random-wound. Electricity doesn't distinguish between layered and random-wound coils -- what matters is the count of turns-per-square and the relation between the length and cross-section of a coil.

Tensioning

Even the most advanced coil winders need modification to wind elongated pickup bobbins. Oblong bobbins pull different lengths of wire during the phases of each rotation. This requires synchronized changes in tension during each rotation to avoid pressure points at the narrow ends of the bobbin. These pressure points can cause shorts in the coil which create eddy currents.

Hand vs Machine

Do you really believe someone hand-guides 8000 turns of copper wire that is as thin as a human hair on a bobbin to complete, maybe, 30 coils per day and can guaranty any consistency? A well-wound coil is a well-wound coil regardless if it's wound with professional equipment, or if somebody's great-grandmother winds it to an old French recipe with Napoleon's modified coffee grinder and chops off the wire after a mile with an antique guillotine!

Eddy Currents

Eddy currents alter sound and output of a pickup and play an important role in pickup design.

Eddy currents are induced in metals in the vicinity of an AC magnetic field, creating a secondary magnetic field which opposes the inducing magnetic field of the coil. The dimensions, conductivity and permeability of the metal, along with the frequency of the current in the coil, determine the magnitude and phase relation of the eddy currents. An internal short in a pickup coil forms a conductive loop which, also, becomes the source for internal eddy current interference.

Output and Sonic Evaluation

I'm asked by players, over and over, " How much output do your pickups have?" This is a very disturbing question because one should consider, no matter how much output your pickup has, you'll never get more than 50 watts out of a 50 watt amplifier!

Rating Pickups with DC Resistance

DC resistance is NOT a power rating; it is the resistance of the wire in a pickup's coil at zero hertz, something that only occurs when the guitar isn't played. If some marketers use DC resistance as a power rating for an AC device, like a pickup, then they only show their ignorance. If we use DC resistance as a parameter, we disregard the fact that, due to Pe and other conditions that result in eddy currents, the effective resistance (Rac) is frequency dependant.

DC resistance (Rdc) tells you as much about a pickup's tone and output as the shoe size tells you about a person's intelligence!

Millivolts

The output rating of pickups is generally given in millivolts (mV). Millivolts could be a helpful parameter if all manufacturers would agree on a standard measuring method that provides such data over a wide frequency range. Now, let's say with this information, we plot an impressive-looking graph showing the different output levels at various frequencies -- does this give you a good idea of the sonic character of a pickup? Yes and no. Don't forget that not every guitar is created equal, and neither are the players. We use different kinds of strings, cables, amps and speakers, and a pickup is only one link in a chain that finally determines tone and output.

Inductance

Inductance ( henry) is another valuable parameter for the sonic evaluation of a pickup but requires some basic understanding of electrodynamics. As a general rule, the higher the inductance, the lesser the highs. For example, a traditional strat pickup has an inductance around 2.3 henry while a Gibson PAF has an inductance around 4.4 henry and some of the so-called "distortion" pickups have an inductance above 8.0 henry. With these comparisons, you get a basic idea. Besides inductance, there are other factors that also need to be considered in projecting tone and output of a pickup.

Tone and output mainly depend on the relation between inductance, magnetic strength and the efficiency of the pickup, as well as the relation between the inductance of the pickup and the capacitance of the cable.

Once Upon a Time...

In the early days of the electric guitar, a pickup had only one function -- to convert the mechanical energy of a vibrating string into an electrical signal. The output of these pickups was matched to the input sensitivity of the amplifiers, to achieve their maximum performance. By 1950, the recording industry introduced extended range recording and called it High Fidelity. We entered the Paradise of Sound.

However, this all changed in the ‘60s. A new era had arrived, and the electric guitar became the symbol of that era. Sometimes, I had the impression that all the baby boomers had united to buy every guitar in the country to follow the pied pipers from Liverpool! The places got larger, the cables got longer, the amps got bigger and the volume levels were dramatically increased. Pickups were no longer used to reproduce the traditional sounds of the electric guitar but to overdrive the amp and to generate a sound of their own.

By 1974, a new class of highly specialized power pickups took over the mass market. Now, we had two basic classes of pickups on the market - Class A, the traditionals and Class B, the special power pickups.

Class A Pickups "The Traditionals" provide the amplifier with a wideband signal of a moderate output level. They convert each minute vibration of the strings into an electrical impulse and allow the player the widest possible tonal variety -- from sweet to bright, from clean to distorted, you name it! With these pickups, the player is fully in control.

Class B Pickups "The Specialists" are designed with a specific sound in mind --pickups that severely exaggerate certain frequency bands. Each Class B pickup has a distinctive sound, limited within its own pre-determined range. These pickups overdrive the amp at relatively low volume settings and produce, even below distortion level, a compressed tone. Most of the Class B pickups have a much higher inductance than Class A pickups which causes, combined with cable capacitance, a reduced frequency response. The biggest disadvantage of Class B pickups is that they may sound awesome in one guitar but just awful in another, making them a risky purchase.

Mixing Class A and Class B Pickups in the same guitar can be quite problematic. Besides the difference in sound, we are also faced with different output levels. For example, a Class B pickup may reach its maximum output level with the amp set on 3 while its Class A companion won't reach that point until the amplifier volume control is set on 5 or 6. Of course, the actual volume limit for either one is determined by the wattage of the amp and the efficiency of its speakers.

Tone

Players often ask me the same questions, like:

Some History

In 1964 I played a Strat through a Vibrosonic amp with a 15" JBL D130 F speaker. I used like everybody else at that time a simple 8' cable. I wired Pickup One & Three to the 3 position switch, like a standard two pickup guitar, and the Middle Pickup was wired to the second tone control so I could slowly blend it into the circuit. My sound was great — out of this world! However, this all changed overnight when the clubs got bigger, and we started to move all over the stage and needed longer cables.

I'll never forget the first and last time I used a 26' heavy-duty cable. My sound was horrible, no highs and no definition. When I turned the volume up, it got distorted. I ran back and forth to re-adjust my amp, but nothing helped. The next day, I measured the capacitance of that cable and could not believe that a reputable company was marketing a so-called high performance cable which had a capacitance of 1400 picofarad! I immediately called a nearby cable factory, and they had some inexpensive low-capacitance TV communication coax. It was not as stable and flexible as that beautiful, super cable, but my sound was restored.

Cable

Today, cables are sold by look, flexibility, physical strength, and the most meaningless sales hype- conductivity. The few ohms resistance of a cable in a high impedance system have no measurable effect on sound and output. They can write all about gold-plated connectors, but gold will not improve your sound.

The fact is that thicker conductors and the more flexible insulation materials are causing an increase in capacitance -- the most important specification of your cable. The higher the capacitance of a cable and the higher the inductance of a pickup, the lesser highs you'll get.

Click here to check the LCF table.

By the end of the 60's, the power circus began with heavy duty speakers and over wound pickups; but today, there are more players than ever searching for a good, traditional guitar sound.

A Good Tone Depends On Seven Major Factors:

1. The height adjustment of the pickups.

2. The inductance of the pickups.

3. The capacitance of the cable.

4. The sound characteristics of the guitar.

5. The amplifier and its set-up.

6. The frequency response of the speaker.

7. The right hand technique of the player.

Quack, Quack and Quack

Bright-sounding pickups and guitars can give you a much sweeter tone in Positions 2 & 4 than in Positions 1, 3 & 5. Most 10" speakers have a better high end than larger speakers, resulting in a more distinctive quack. So, if you want the Mark Knopfler sound, try using unhyped Class A pickups, a low capacitance cable and speakers that have a good top end - the rest is in your right hand. With a good right hand technique, you can get all the quack, twang, or whatever you want to call it in all five positions!

Good-sounding gear won't make you a better player, but it might motivate you to become one!

Advertising

I am accused by many in the music industry of being a poor marketer. Maybe they're right because I refuse to advertise my products with meaningless jargon.

My philosophy is:

If the product is right, the price is right and you treat your customers the way you want to be treated, the word-of-mouth is faster than the speed of sound.

Our product is our advertisement!