Pickup Winding Question

[Dirge for november]

I've just wound a pickup along the lines of this tutorial: http://www.skguitar.com/SKGS/sk/winding2.htm

The pickup in question is a single coil sized p-90. The reason I decided to start winding without any knowledge at all was: If you don't try you'll never learn. You can see this in the following questions

I've wound the pickup, though I have some more questions:

1. Which is + and - ? the beginning of the coil or the end?

2. I wound my neck pickup to 6 k ohm as stated in the tutorial. Though when I measured my seymour duncan sp 90 3 (high output p-90 which will go in the bridge pos.) it measured around 14 k ohm. The tutorial states that the bridge pup shoud be around 6.5 k ohm. Is it still possible to use these two pickups in combination?

Thanks in advance

[SwedishLuthier]

The + and – question isn’t that easy to answer. Plus is the wire the one you decide it to be. The important thing is that you are doing the same thing to all pickups. Else you will end up with an out of phase set of pickups. If you always rout the end wire to ground you will be fine. The exception is if you are trying to get a hum cancelling in between position. Then you should exchange the normal wire to ground with the other and vice verse. But at the same time you also have to flip the magnet polarity. If not you will get a thin, week sound.

Steven’s pages are excellent when you start to wind pickups. There is only one thing to consider when reading his tutorial on a S-90 type pickup. They are no intended to match a standard P-90. And with a high output P-90 you will have an even bigger miss-match between levels.

So, no, your pickup will most likely not match you P-90. But why not try it a ns see if you like it. Some people want a weaker neck pickup because it actually balances the sound better and you might like it.

[Dirge for november]

Hello,

Thanks for that!

I've also got a reply via email by steven himself. He says the pickups will match allright, as the p-90 I have uses 44awg as compared to my 42awg. In the case of the pickups not matching by a mistake in either wiring or polarity, as you mention. Do the pickups sound correct when used individually? (switch on neck position or bridge position)

[AndrewCE]

Hello,

Thanks for that!

I've also got a reply via email by steven himself. He says the pickups will match allright, as the p-90 I have uses 44awg as compared to my 42awg. In the case of the pickups not matching by a mistake in either wiring or polarity, as you mention. Do the pickups sound correct when used individually? (switch on neck position or bridge position)

yes, individually, a reversed signal will not change the sound of the pickup. Unless you connect the pickup shield to one of the wires coming out of the pickup, in which case the wire with the shield on it must be the ground wire. And impedance matching is not important either, in those single-pickup spots.

[SwedishLuthier]

I've also got a reply via email by steven himself.

Yeah, he's a great guy...if you get hold of him. From time to time he's completely impossible to get hold of. I think that he does military duty on a regular basis.

[Dirge for november]

Okey, in that case I definitely got lucky! And he was quick to reply as well.

@andrew, thanks!

[Dirge for november]

I got it to generate sound! I just held it with one hand above the strings of my other guitar, and played some open strings. The clean sounds clean, and the dirty sounds downright raunchy! (in a positive way) Of course I don't exactly know what it sounds like yet, but I'm really happy it produces sound. Also the experiment with the polepiece screws being your ordinary allen head screws (and them being screwed out further to allow for the scratchplate to cover the pickup itself) is a succes! I'm pretty excited so I think I'll be putting together the bits and pieces of my current project to try it out.

I still have to find out if I guessed the polarity right, but at least two of the three switch positions will be working. Thanks for all the help everyone, though knowing myself some more questions will pop up later.

Cheers

[Dirge for november]

Okey I rigged up my guitar, and it sounds absolutely great! The expirement looks like this:

Only the row of allen screws is visible. Don't mind the colour, it's just primer... Bummer I only have one string, I'm quite curious as to how the other strings will sound