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Posted by: yoncopin Apr 1 2017, 06:51 PM

I've been doing a lot of research on pickups and wanted to be able to compare the technical details across manufacturers and between name-brand, boutique and generic pickups. Most manufacturers post no real details about their pickups and there is so much misinformation out there regarding their tone. This post in this thread is just the beginning of the journey, but I was excited to share the tools I've constructed to collect data.

These are the "real" details about a pickup to determine their output and EQ.
- Resonant Peak / Q factor
- Inductance
- Capacitance
- Resonant Peak
- DC Resistance
- Flux Density

First, using a car dash cam mount I built a device which will suction to the guitar face and lower a pickup to the strings for testing. This allows me to try pickups without changing strings or taking the guitar apart. It's a bit of a process, but is non-destructive and allows you to audition pickups.







Second, is the Gaussometer. At the end of the wooden stick is a hall-effect sensor which measures the presence of magnetic fields. This will allow for the comparison of the flux density, or magnet strength.



Third, is a http://kenwillmott.com/blog/archives/152 to connect to my audio interface. You can sweep the frequency spectrum and map the frequency response (Q factor, Resonant Peak)



http://imgur.com/GttpnDN

Lastly I have my trusty multimeter for DC resistence and an LCR meter for measuring the inductance. If anyone is interested I'll post more tech details and model info as I proceed.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 1 2017, 07:40 PM

WOW! That's freaking impressive. Are you a pro mechanical engineer or something? This is FAR beyond guitar diy IMHO. These are specialized skills. I think the information you get from each pickup should be included in our gear WIKI. As Kris Mentioned, the more new content the better and maybe it will finally get the Nav link it deserves in light of Frans years of hard work!

Also, I'm curious if you can test an original Ibanez V8 pickup. They are simple stock pickups but remain my fave in terms of tone. The only thing I've found close was the CRAZY 8 pickup from Seymour Duncan.

Todd

Posted by: Mertay Apr 1 2017, 11:15 PM

Yes please

Posted by: yoncopin Apr 2 2017, 01:22 AM

Ha! You're to nice I'm actually a software engineer. I just love to tinker in my spare time, and it's more like specialized tools than skills I don't have the pickups you mentioned, but would be happy to test them if you'd like to mail me the pair. We can see how close the two actually are. Not only that, but a pickup isn't set in stone, there are simple electric mods you can do to adjust resonant peaks or filter frequencies etc... Instead of just buying a new pickup, I can now see how small circuit adjustments can get closer to the tone I'm looking for.

My hypothesis is that a lot of pickup info is just marketing BS. It's really just magnets and a wire coil, and most designs haven't changed in decades. Stock pickups get a lot of haters as well as budget options like http://www.guitarfetish.com/and http://www.dragonfireguitars.com/. I think for the most part they're all just re-branded http://www.artecsound.com/pickups/index.htmlor something similar. There is no reason an exceptional sounding pickup can't be made in Korea, etc... That said, I do think it's more challenging to find the sound you're looking for and manufacturers aren't very forthcoming with actual data (to protect their business). This makes comparisons hard, but now I can see the truth. I have a "vintage" SD JB, a modern SD JB and a Duncan Designed HB-102 (JB). My hypothesis is that they're identical, with a small production variance.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Apr 2 2017, 01:45 AM

Can't wait to see what you find out! People bag on the cheap jb big time. It would be funny if it's just a pole adjustment or something. I'd have to rip the v8 out of my prized ibby, sadly, but I was curious about how alnico pickups look compared to ceramic

Posted by: Rammikin Apr 2 2017, 01:58 AM

Brilliant!

Posted by: Mertay Apr 2 2017, 10:28 AM

Yeah do an ibanez v8 as my experience is opposite to Todd's but rather than sound my curiosity was the parts were way less magnetic than a dimarzio and I wonder if this affects freq. , dynamics or both.

Oh and also wax potting is a thing to test too! but careful I heard it can be flamable.

Posted by: Fran Apr 4 2017, 12:48 PM

Wow, looks great Adding it to the wiki!

Posted by: Fran Apr 11 2017, 03:42 PM

It's here at this entry:
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/index.php/DIY_Pickup_Tech_Testing_Contraptions

I'll be happy to add any new info to the wiki

Posted by: Darius Wave Apr 11 2017, 06:52 PM

Excellent concept! Love it

Posted by: yoncopin Apr 12 2017, 02:30 AM

Thanks for doing that Fran! I'm going to have some results to show shortly. I ordered some ceramic, and Alnico 2/5/8 bar magnets to see what magnets swaps do to existing pickups. Just waiting on delivery.



Thanks Darius