Sussing humbucker impedance

AsleepAtTheWheel

Howdy all.
I have a humbucker who's strength I know not. I have a multi-meter with no instructions & I'm not sure how it works. The meter is not an auto one, it has a whole range of setting to select from. When I set it to 20k I get a reading of 10:45. Am I right in assuming that means the pickup has an impedance of 10:45k. Probably a silly question I know, but I thought I'd better check. A frend wants to buy it & wanted to know it's strength first.

Adam_MD

I don't think resistance and impedance are the same thing.  You can't really tell the strength from dc resistance unless you have a lot more info to go with it i.e wire type, magnet type, scatter etc.  I'm sure Ash or someone else will be along soon to let me know I'm wrong.

IanSavage

Yeah, you're measuring the DC resistance there BUT that is the figure that most manufacturers etc tend to supply  for comparison  anyway, so no harm, no foul.

ecc83

Do not believe it!

Fact is, digital meters have huge problems measuring the DC resistance of high inductance devices. Even my quite expensive Fluke 83 would go daft on some transformer windings!

A good check (if you REALLY need to know) is to put a resistance in parallel approximately equal to the reading you found. The resultant should of course be about half. If it isn't the meter is telling porkies!

Dave.

MattFGBI

set to 20k ohms and put one end on each wire. 

ICBM

10.45K sounds about right for a DC resistance. If so that would be a medium output pickup, assuming a typical wind.

What pickup is it?