Winding My Own...

[Matt]

Im looking at winding my own coils for a Jem project that im looking at.

One problem tho, Although i love steve vai's EVO PU's i find them a bit sterile sounding.

Really id like to emulate the sound that he gets on the crossroads Duel, which i think he uses PAF Pro's

so EVO's...

Ceramic mag

DC 13.62k

I think one coil is AWG43 and the other is AWG42 to get the duel resonance

PAF Pro

Alnico mag

DC 8.4K

Not sure what guage wire he uses

Preferably id like to keep the wide range of harmonics that you can get out of an EVO except with moer of a gritty mid range wail that the PAF Pro gets.

so im thinking of winding an EVO with an Alnico magnet except underwinding it to compensate for the mid spike of an alnico mag and drop in highs and lows.

has anyone got any input that would help, im not sure abot how much i underwind it so all help would be greatfully recieved.

[Phil Mailloux]

so EVO's...

Ceramic mag

DC 13.62k

I think one coil is AWG43 and the other is AWG42 to get the duel resonance

You'll never fit 6.81kOhm of 42 AWG wire on a humbucker, it just doesn't fit. 43 AWG is the way to go.

As for getting Vai's sound from crossroads, odds are better that you'll get his sound from buying the same amp and recording studio that was used in the movie than making those pickups.

If you want to learn how to build pickups the way you explain wihout losing all those highs, or mids or ect... the only way to go is to build LOTS of pickups and analize them one after another. That's of course a big investment in time and money.

Another solution is to build the humbucker for your project yourself and just see if you like it. You can always rewind it if you don't and at least you'll learn something without busting your head about *the sound*

[Matt]

Ok how much can i fit onto a Hummer bobbin of 42 and 43 guage?

[GuitarGuy]

Ok how much can i fit onto a Hummer bobbin of 42 and 43 guage?

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I got 8k of 44 on a tele bridge bobbin with plenty to spare. So 43 you can fit approx that much on a single coil.

edit: 42 prob wont fit, like he said

[frank falbo]

They don't have to fit 6.81 on each coil. Part of the dual resonance is having a mismatched wind in addition to mismatched wire gauge. I'm not saying that's what they're doing, because I don't know the anatomy of the Evo. But I have one here and one coil reads about 6k while the other is almost 8k. So assuming they were using AWG42 for one of the coils, it would probably be the 6k one. Neither is wound all the way to the outside. There's plenty of room for more winds on each. A little taller coil, and you can get whatever you want on there. Another part of the Evo sound is the larger pole pieces. They are the solid threaded ones like the Super Distortion/Super 2. The PAF Pro has the standard thin bolt with the fat head on top.

As for the pickup, it sounds like you want a Fred. But if you're intent on rewinding a Dimarzio, start with a Fred or PAF Pro. It sounds to me like the fat pole pieces in the Evo are partly contributing to what you don't like about it. Underwinding it with an Alnico magnet source will probably yield a sound that is still thin, and doesn't have the attributes you like from the PAF Pro. So I would rewind PAF Pro coils to Evo specs if I were you, and alternate wire gauge, even if you can't confirm that's what the Evo does.

[Matt]

Thanks very much for that!!

how do the size of the slugs/screws alter the sound? I though having double rows of bolts/screws add bottom and top?

[frank falbo]

I can't give you the science because I don't know. But I do know that the fatter pole piece will carry the magnetic field up to the top differently. So it must change the way the magnetic field responds, as well as the aperture. Think of the difference between a Tom Anderson with the 1/4" poles and a traditional pickup. I'd say that the thick Evo poles are more like the slug coil of a traditional humbucker because that's about what size they are.

I can only tell you what I've experienced. I feel like the thicker pole compresses the sound a little, and makes for a slightly harsher, more agressive sound after the initial attack. The Tom Andersons are really smooth sounding, but they're using neodymium magnets and he's winding for that kind of sound.

[benbo]

Ok how much can i fit onto a Hummer bobbin of 42 and 43 guage?

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Hi, you can get about 4K per bobbin with 42 maybe a little more, watch your tension, not too much and not too little, 43 can get upwards of about mid 6K to 7K per bobbin, 44 you can get as much as 9 to 10K, wind pattern is also important in the sound it will give as is the coil shape, different wire can affect the tone as well, formvar, solderon, enamal etc.. As far as unbalanced coils, you get even more tonal variations, but remember, both coils need to be pretty close to the same resistance for them to work to cancel out noise from each other, hence humbucker. uneven sounds great but you do get some noise. Hope this helps out.

benbo