Guitar_MD

The WT10A meter is the one I use. Gauss is affected by the length of the magnet in addition to the alloy used. A8 - A5 - A4 - A2 - A3, in descending order, from highest strength to lowest strength. The coil being closer to the strings results in a better signal to noise ratio. I'm not sure how much of a real audible difference there is in regards to lowering a stronger Gauss pickup or using a lower Gauss pickup closer to the strings. You can demagnetize polepieces with a free polepiece. Magnetize a spare polepiece and hold it with the same pole (south to south for example) right on top of the pickup polepiece. It will demagnetize. You can re-magnetize the free polepiece and repeat on the other polepieces. If you have a steel vise and some neodymium bar mags you can make your own magnetizer, like the Mojotone, which is just a toolmaker's vise with a strong neodymium bar mag on each jaw. The alnico grades all have different properties aside from Gauss strength. I haven't done a deep enough dive to be able to explain exactly what those are but I have heard the term 'permeability' before, and I do know that A2 and A3 tend to have slightly higher inductance and lower resonant frequencies than A5 or A8 for the same given turn count on a particular pickup. So de-magnetizing is also an option. I've done this on A5 pickups and did not notice much difference at all. It's subtle. It doesn't mean the difference isn't there. I have no way of measuring such small details. So it's possible all these things do make an audible difference. I don't write anything off. I measure what I measure and if I'm not aware of how to measure something, then I remain open minded that there may be variables and things that affect tone that I'm not aware of. The real difficulty with your question is the difficulty in actually conducting a test that could prove or disprove a hypothesis regarding what we'd expect to hear from a lower Gauss pickup closer to the strings and a higher Gauss pickup farther away from the strings. Mixed pickups with A5 / A2 magnets, and anything similar, are sometimes quite popular. I've made some myself. I have a hard time trusting my ear and would really prefer to test these things scientifically, but I currently don't know how to. Doesn't mean there's no difference -- but you'll have to end up experimenting and relying exclusively on your ears, which can be a very tricky business. It would be nice to have access to testing that's more sophisticated than an LCR meter and USB oscilloscope with a signal generator for making bode plots. The interaction between the magnets and the strings and all these other nuances are far more complicated and difficult to measure as far as I can tell.

Wire in difficult to find gauges can be bought from here: https://www.ultrafinecopperwire.com/ You can fill out a contact form here: https://www.ultrafinecopperwire.com/contactus.html I've ordered 45, 46, and 48AWG from them. Single build poly nylon. With 46AWG, I've been able to fit 18,000 turns of wire onto a bobbin with .500" of winding space. This results in roughly 33k DCR, and 11.4 Henries inductance, with a resonant frequency of around 2.4dB @ 1.6kHz. Taller bobbins with .781" mags will allow for even more wire. 48AWG is extremely thin and difficult to work with. I've never tried 50AWG. 48 seems like the thinnest I'd go although with my setup I think I could do 50AWG. The utility for extremely thin wire is better suited for small winding spaces, Bill Lawrence Micro Coil style. Like 1/8" or even less winding space. 48AWG works very well for that and 50AWG may work even better. With extra short coils however the capacitance drops to ridiculously low levels and the pickups can be quite odd sounding. Like almost too high fidelity. Anyway, the most I've personally gone is about 18,500 turns on a Strat style pickup. That was on a .570" coil height with 44AWG, .781" mags. Now if I used 46AWG I would have been able to fit a lot more on there. But there is a point of diminishing returns. Once you get into the sub 2kHz resonant frequency range, pickups get very dark sounding. This can be a good thing. But I will say that at 1.6kHz with 18,000 turns of wire, I would not want to go any more than that. It's already very dark sounding and going beyond that would get too muddy for me. That being said, the resonant frequency was nearly identical on the .781" mag pickup I did with 18,500 turns of 44AWG, and the .719" mag pickup with 18,000 turns of 46AWG. The capacitance of both coils was also almost identical, the first being 125pf and the second being 127pf. The taller coil however, with the .781 mags, had about 1 Henry *less* inductance than the shorter coil with 46AWG. However, the resonant curve -- i.e., the entire bode plot -- the pickup with the lower inductance, the taller coil with 44AWG -- had more retention of high end frequencies / less dropoff of high end frequencies (however you want to word it) compared to the shorter 46AWG coil with almost the same number of turns. So their resonant frequency is just about identical. But the taller coil actually had a slightly higher boost in the lower frequencies and more retention of high end frequencies compared to the shorter coil. For further reference, I've made another pickup with .250" (1/4") winding space, using 16,000 turns of 48AWG. That's how fine that wire is. Now the funny thing is the resonant frequency ended up at 0.9dB @ 1.4kHz. But it's much brighter sounding than the previous pickups I mentioned. Reason being, while it has a low resonant frequency, the dropoff of the high end is *far less* than the other pickups, probably owing to the super low capacitance: 60pF total, after wax potting. 10.0 H inductance, 43.4k DCR. That was using .471" tall A5 rod mags. So resonant frequency isn't everything. You have to look at the 'resonance curve' -- how fast the high end frequencies drop off, and how much, for example. This is all represented in dBV @ Hz. The decibel voltage at a particular frequency. On my bode plotter I chart pickups in increments of 100Hz up through 10kHz. So at each 100Hz increment you get a decibel voltage. That tells you how much that particular frequency is being amplified by the coil. I enter everything into a spreadsheet. I made a video detailing my process for testing pickups. I'll provide a link below. Hopefully this helps. So to answer your question: for a pickup with .781" mags and fine wire, you could make an insanely overwound pickup in a Strat or Tele or similar style. The highest I've gone has been 18,500 turns on such a coil. The only reason I haven't gone further is because I don't think it would sound good. Though with extra thin wire like 48AWG or 50AWG it's possible you could get a low enough capacitance that you might actually get a usable tone with an even higher turn count and on a smaller bobbin. The most I've gone with 48AWG was that 1/4" coil with 16,000 turns. It was...interesting. I tested it out and decided I didn't like it but I didn't give it a chance by running it through multiple different setups. What you're running the pickups into is as important as the pickups themselves. Certain tube amps and certain plugins and FX might work better with different pickups. I won't get into talking about low impedance pickups by CyFi research has their "Nu Module" pickups, at least that's what I think they're called. Very interesting stuff. Anyway, here's my video detailing my testing process. I strongly recommend getting a similar setup as trying to evaluate new pickup designs *without* such a setup can be like fumbling around in the dark. That's a bit of an exaggeration as all you need is to know the build 'recipe,' be able to replicate it, and you're good to go. If it sounds good, it sounds good. But it does help to run tests so you have a deeper understanding of what you're looking at and what variables are affecting what when it comes to building and winding pickup bobbins.