Pickup, save or bin?

Kittyfrisk

As I'm currently stuck in isolation in Scotland (long story), I was having a rake about in a box of guitar bits I gave my brother in law a while back.
I pulled a garish white cover off a Stratocaster type single coil & found something that appears to be a little older?
That is meaningless I know, but I thought I'd ask the experts here.
 





I'm not expecting this to be anything other than a POS, but I have learned that when you you don't know something, it's best to ask someone that does 

maltingsaudio

Don’t recognise it but the only way to find out is stuff it in a guitar and try it, as your in isolation good way to waste a couple of hours

ICBM

I don’t recognise it either, but it looks like something quite good - it’s well-made and has individual pole magnets rather than the usual cheap ceramic magnet glued on the bottom.

Given the cream plastic and tape it may be some sort of DiMarzio or licensed far-east version of one.

p90fool

That looks interesting, as ICBM says it's obviously good quality. 

If it fits snugly in a Strat scratchplate with no cover I'd guess it has a lot of winds on there and is pretty hot. 

Henrytwang

I’ve got a similar looking Strat type pickup in my spares box which I bought in the late 1970s/early 1980s and never used. It was claimed to be a high output type and I believe that it was made in Japan.

Kittyfrisk

Thanks for the advice, most helpful.
It came out of my favourite guitar years ago, but as it had been very roughly fitted as a middle pickup to a tele, I just left it out.

Surprisingly, it is not a hottie...

victorludorum

What does the readout say? 7.41?

Kittyfrisk

victorludorum said:

What does the readout say? 7.41?

Yes, 7.41 kΩ

ICBM

That may be fairly hot - remember that it's the number of turns that counts, not the DC resistance which is quite dependent on the wire gauge. Given how full the bobbin looks, 7.4K could be a lot more turns of standard wire gauge.

Kittyfrisk

ICBM said:

That may be fairly hot - remember that it's the number of turns that counts, not the DC resistance which is quite dependent on the wire gauge. Given how full the bobbin looks, 7.4K could be a lot more turns of standard wire gauge.

Good point as usual.
The bobbin does feel pretty full, but apart from fitting it or untaping it (not going to happen) it's guesswork.
The taping is actually much neater than some Fenders & GIbson pickups I have seen 
All I need now is to get home & dig out a suitable project guitar... probably not going to happen, as there's already a queue.

Or if there's anyone out there that is looking for an interesting untested pickup to try, then let me know.

Funkfingers

Henrytwang said:

late 1970s/early 1980s ... made in Japan.

I concur with this. The three conductor wires are either end of the coil plus ground for the shielding.

The cream plastic is certainly inspired by DiMarzio but, then, Schaller has made its fair share of cream-coloured pickups.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

The cream plastic is certainly inspired by DiMarzio but, then, Schaller has made its fair share of cream-coloured pickups.

And Bill Lawrence, which was the other one I wondered about. Lawrence also used PCB material for baseplates on some pickups - but the tape and the wires don't look right, they used very thin wire.

PetGerbil

Errr,is that a laptop that you've got those pickups resting on ? Has that laptop got a hard-disk in it ? Is that wise putting a powerful magnetic pickup on top of a hard disk ?

Kittyfrisk

PetGerbil said:

Errr,is that a laptop that you've got those pickups resting on ? Has that laptop got a hard-disk in it ? Is that wise putting a powerful magnetic pickup on top of a hard disk ?

It is a laptop, but the machine was turned off.
The HD & DVD drive were replaced with SSD's, also the HD would not be near the centre of the chassis but thanks for the concern 

prowla

Well, I'm not sure what guitar it was intended for, as Strats usually have the wiring channel along the centreline.

My guess is also 700s/80s Japanese, but can't say what.

I suppose the thing to do it give it a try - suck it and see...

thermionic

The pcb base must narrow it down? I don’t recall seeing anything like that before.

clarkefan

ICBM said:

That may be fairly hot - remember that it's the number of turns that counts, not the DC resistance which is quite dependent on the wire gauge. Given how full the bobbin looks, 7.4K could be a lot more turns of standard wire gauge.

In the photos it looks like an overwound eg Strat pickup, and 7.4k would be hot, for a "normal" Strat pickup, is that what you mean?

ICBM

clarkefan said:

In the photos it looks like an overwound eg Strat pickup, and 7.4k would be hot, for a "normal" Strat pickup, is that what you mean?

Yes, exactly. If it uses the same gauge wire it will have about 25% more windings than a normal Strat pickup, which is quite a lot hotter - but if it uses thinner wire it could have the same number of turns and be no hotter at all. (I think the first is more likely, looking at the coil.)

This thread on the Duncan forum might help to explain why even a small change in wire diameter makes more of a difference to the DC resistance than quite a lot more turns -

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?74843-Pickups-101-DCR-vs-of-turns-Will-the-real-output-indicator-please-stand-up&p=912743&viewfull=1#post912743

clarkefan

But if they use a thinner wire and wind it so the physical size is the same doesn't that mean the resistance increases?

Isn't that how they wind pickups with higher resistance?  

Take a PAF style pickup, to get higher output they can't use the normal gauge cos it would mean being so overwound it wouldn't fit in a standard guitar.  So they use thinner wire which both fills the bobbin normally and increases the resistance?

Adey

Out of curiosity, does anyone wind pickups with two or more wire diameters at the same time? And if so, what do they sound like and how do they behave?...

ICBM

clarkefan said:

But if they use a thinner wire and wind it so the physical size is the same doesn't that mean the resistance increases?

Isn't that how they wind pickups with higher resistance?  

Take a PAF style pickup, to get higher output they can't use the normal gauge cos it would mean being so overwound it wouldn't fit in a standard guitar.  So they use thinner wire which both fills the bobbin normally and increases the resistance?

Yes, both. That’s why you can’t go by the DC resistance alone, ie a 16K pickup does not have twice the output of an 8K one.

Looking at the mystery Strat pickup, if it used thinner wire you would expect the resistance to be higher than 7.4K given how full the bobbin is.