It is arguable that a length a insulated wire whether next to each other or scattered along adjacent winds is till touching multiple windings. Electrical current is going to pass regardless if on a neat coil or a scattered coil. It is plausible that a neat coil will fit more wire on the coil rather than a randomized overlapping scattered coil. I’m not sure if 8000 winds by either by hand or machine will have a dramatic difference in tonal quality of the pickup. Perhaps it’s just marketing mojo to replicate past manufacturing processes without automated systems.
Yes, neat coils are more compact.
Don’t forget that the wire isn’t just passing current; the pickup is generating current. Current flowing through a wire produces a magnetic field around it. That field can induce current in neighboring turns. This is called mutual inductance.
Also larger coils make the outer turns farther from the poles. This is one reason a Jazzmaster pickup sounds different from a Strat (wide/shallow vs. narrow/tall).
Pickups are complex devices when it comes to trying to model all the parameters. Sometimes claims are made as to why you get a certain tone. These claims are often scientifically wrong, but we can take from this that the reasons why stated might not be correct, but the change of tone is real.
Same with guitar markers talking about coupling vibrations between parts. That’s not a real thing that you get any benefits from.
I find that neatly wound coils have a tighter low and and a crisper top end than very scattered coils. Similar effects are heard with thinner gauge wire, like 43 or 44 AWG.
Another example of placing turns farther apart is magnet wire with heavy build insulation, like heavy formvar. It has a “rounder” tone than single build. Heavier magnet wire, like 41 AWG has a similar tone.
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