Guitarist may be interested...

craigb
Love this stuff!  Keep up the experimenting Michael!  

batsbrew
interesting!
 
EVERYONE... should experiment with all ideas like this, if your intuition guides you to it.
 
lord knows, i've been experimenting for 30 years!
LOL
 
Well it's paid off for you. You have wonderful tones and your recording skills have been capturing it and it's getting polished with some excellent writing skills. ( I like the vocal work too Bat)
 
I guess it can be hard to experiment if one just isn't in to it. It does take time, money and learning about stuff one may not be that interested in. I'd like to have a tech that could do all the work and just tell me all the technical why's and why nots.
 
Strings:
you, know some of the biggest tones i've ever heard came from Billy Gibbons, allan holdsworth, and Yngwie Malmsteen, all users of .008 gauge sets...
so i know that string size isn't the deciding factor...
i use .009's just from years of being used to getting boxes of them at a time.
 
I agree. I do think the metals and condition are contributing factors.
 
pickups:
i've never liked high powered pickups, i guess that's why.
 
i've always thought the low-midrange of (inductance) henries was where the meat was.
 
hot pickups are like american processed cheese, tone wise....
very homogenous, lacking 3d qualities....
 
PAF is where i like it for humbuckers, my bill lawrence L500L's are at about 6.8H, which is as hot as i'd ever want.
 
single coils, like mid 60's, around 2.4H
 
YMMV
 
I know some winders that believe when that PAF style HB gets over 7.2- just no good. The last one I wound was for a Tele and I hit 7.1 and the owner got just what he wanted. It was going to have a splitter. If not I would have gone lower. So I'm with you.

mike_mccue
http://www.daddario.com/upload/tension_chart_13934.pdf
 
It's nice when the strings are tensioned so that each ones seems like a good neighbor to the others.
 
I like the clean sound of lower impedance windings. One of my Strats has a set of 6k 6k 6.6k Fralins with Alnico IIs and 42g Formvar wire.
 
The pickups I pulled were stock A5 with 6k range. I wanted to hear what lowering to A5 with 5k range had.
Last night I played through an Egnator with WGS 12" x 2 birch 13 ply cabinet- 5200 cu.in. with the US "modern" setting. ( a friend that gigs rig)
2 guitars- One I put together for him with Fralin pups (same as yours) and the one I put these pups on. 2009 US Strat-nothing changed but the pups.
Major difference. We were both surprised by the volume and tonal difference. The 5k blew away the Fralins. Better tonal range and power. Fluke? I do not know.
 
I use a set of xtra light flat 10-42 flat wounds that I make by taking a 12-52 pack and discarding the 52 and adding a separate 10 on the bottom.
 
I like that clean stringy sound coming through a clean Fender amp.
 
I like to have a full clear range because then I can manage it. I know there are players that don't use tone controls...and that's fine by me.
 
best regards,
mike

ampfixer
I discovered WGS a few years ago and if I sell an amp with a speaker, it's a WGS. I've tried everything from the little 8 inch speakers to the 15" guitar speaker. Not much experience with the American line but the British line is great and not made in China.
 
Thanks for the thread Spacey, happy I'm not the only one tinkering. Lollar has low wind humbuckers that are really nice and I find that Alnico 3 magnets work great on strat pickups with vintage spec windings.

mike_mccue
I was suggesting that those other pickups may already be 5k... not that you should wind those shape pickups. I wonder if back in the day, in an effort to save a couple hundred feet of wire, if the student guitars came with underwound pickups. I've never measured my Melody Maker or my old DeArmonds but they are much lower output than their more famous contemporaries. 
 
I didn't think you were suggesting I should. I was expressing that material to build or information isn't readily available so one would probably have to own them to measure and probably disassemble, if possible, to know the details. What I listed is really all that's available for the novice. I have found youtube videos of guys with old pups that do just that.
 
 
I was going to ask if you used the same guitar cord but did some calculations and see that unless you use a really long and really crappy cable that the cutoff frequencies for a 6k and a 5k source are generally ultrasonic.
 
Yes. A new planet waves 10' cord. But I also ran the guitar through my friends stage set-up last night and I know that cord coiled look to be 25 ft one and then through is pedal board then another long cord to his amp...I noticed no difference in the tonal character...as mentioned earlier...while comparing to the Fralins.
All of his effects are true bypass.
 
e.g. 23 and 28kHz cut off frequencies for a 25 foot, 150pF/m cable. 
 
Then a more obvious question came to mind: Did both guitars have your custom 10-36 string set installed?
 
No. Different diameters. And I was surprised again that the smaller wound strings had not only the nice metallic ring but sounded as "fat" as the larger dia.
I use .010 -.046 sets on all my electric guitars so I know the sound very well.
Fender- and super bullets for the ones with trems. Pure Nickel and Nickel coated work fine for me.
 
Although the sound of the lighter gauge combined with the 5k range singles was a complete surprise to me...the playing action didn't take long to adjust to but what really stood out was the tuning stability. My first go-round with D'Addario - because they supplied the single strings I wanted- but they may have gained a new customer. I'm not sure what to contribute the tuning stability to...I had to do a set-up for the strings but I also added springs to the trem (5) and pulled it down to the body (lower pitch only)
Also has I previously mentioned Mike...I wound 6 pups and will be installing 3 (in kind) on a guitar with my normal playing gauge.
I think I will also get a set of .010-.046 from D'Addario.
Finding out what percentage of all these little changes may have is a trip...no doubt.
 
You may have missed me stating that I didn't do this has a test that I had "designed". I did it based on an article I read about the tech that handled Jimi's guitar/setup....string gauge was given. The pup size guessed was pre-CBS and knew it would be in the 5/6k range. I had 6k pups so wanted 5k's ...I knew the lower would help brighten the low end...or theoritically should.
I do know I like the results and now I can continue to determine how much the strings had in it.
 
I have to do it soon though...my friend is wanting the guitar now LOL. A guy he plays with has a Twin Reverb...he is going to try and trade him equipment for it (he knows I like those amps) and make a trade with me. That'll work. I'll put some WGS speakers in that baby...like I need an amp lol and not like I'll be out of Strats!
 
best regards,
mike