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The Pickup Place / Accuracy of DCR values

« Last post by headcrash on February 20, 2025, 03:34:22 PM »

Does anyone have a feeling of how accurate large scale (and supposedly highly automated) pickup makers can wind their pickups to a certain spec or advertised value?

I have some examples:
I have two EvH Custom bridge pickups, one measures 16.74k, the other one 17.46k. A third one I had that I sold was more like 18k IIRC. In the "Remembering EvH" story it is "advertised" as 17k.
Then I have an f-spaced VHPAF measuring 9.90k, while Tonejourney's f-spaced specimen measures 9.59k, and it was advertised as 9.13k (dunno if as f-spaced).
Finally I have a 36th PAF neck that measures 7.67k, advertised as 7.31k.

I consider this to be quite a large range of values.
I'm just curious, there is nothing wrong with the pickups I own(ed).

But considering the hype around the gazillion PAF type pickups ...
(I mean, ok, there's probably still capacitance and inductance values that result from wire pull strength, or various layering techniques and whatnot. But does this translate into audible differences?)

Curious what's your point of view on that 

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by gregr on February 18, 2025, 11:50:36 AM »

The 67 is still a bit brighter than the Injector neck with these loads.

Reducing the load on the Injector neck with 500k pots won’t change its resonant frequency. I would instead consider an Area 61 and continue using 250k pots for a more traditional (less pointy) sounding response with the additional desired brightness, adjusting the heights of the pickups to help address the reduction in output if necessary. I intentionally chose the Injector for its warmer top end and output to keep up with the Fast Track 1 for distorted tones.

The exercise of swapping the pickguard for a vintage output set would be to determine whether the guitar was excessively bright, though I don’t believe it is. If it was excessively bright and I wanted the generous amount of chime provided by the vintage output set then I would use a brass block, perhaps changing out the saddles as well depending on the severity.

While the clean tones on this guitar are really nice, I’ll reach for a different guitar if I want the skinny Strat sound. As it is this guitar works well along side other guitars equipped with humbuckers. In a pinch I can plug straight in and get very useable Strat sounds without any adjustments. That’s the beauty of the Fast Track 1. It does an excellent job bridging the chasm between single coils and humbuckers. With the voicing I’ve applied and the values I’ve chosen for the tone control in position 1, it can get downright chunky with it rolled back yet still have enough output to be even with the rest of the positions, from the mid-bass through the low-treble without sounding honky.

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by darkbluemurder on February 18, 2025, 03:18:32 AM »

With the same load, the Area 67 is a lot brighter than an Injector neck in the same pickup position. As a rule of thumb, when I like an Area 67 with 250k, I mostly like an Injector neck with 500k. The 67 is still a bit brighter than the Injector neck with these loads.

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by gregr on February 17, 2025, 01:47:07 PM »

Thanks!

Imagine an Area 61 in the middle position of an average Fender American Standard with 250k pots. I don’t think the guitar is particularly bright for what it is. The Injector Neck without the noise cancelling coil is akin to a more powerful version of the Area 61 with the noise cancelling coil. The load of three 250k pots is 83k, so in the case of position 4 consider it like having a 250k volume with a 250k tone in parallel with a 500k tone instead. This makes the position slightly brighter than with vintage Strat wiring.

I’m doing additional things to optimize each position considering the mismatches between the pickups, as well as voicing the FT1 warmer to work better with distortion, but I think just summarizing the loading is able to paint the general picture.

After this project I’ve come to the realization that the Fast Track 1 is the only single-sized humbucker that I like in the bridge position out of everything I’ve tried, including The Chopper. For anything hotter I prefer a full-sized humbucker.

Just for the sake of comparison I’m toying with the idea of dropping in a pickguard with an Area 67 in the neck, Area 58 in the middle and a Virtual Vintage Blues in the bridge. I’ll be sure to post about it in the event that I do. If the guitar turns out overly bright then an Area 58 in the neck with an Area 61 in the middle and the Injector Neck in the bridge might work better, though I don’t have a spare Area 61 or Injector Neck on hand. (Please disregard; as much as I would like to build another set based on an Injector Neck in the bridge, doing it for the sake of being darker than the other set listed is wrong-headed on my part).

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by darkbluemurder on February 17, 2025, 03:37:04 AM »

Wow - certainly not an easy task to finish - congrats!

Based on those values my guess is that your guitar is quite bright.

Cheers Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Dimarzio/IBZ Bridge Review

« Last post by nienturi on February 14, 2025, 08:27:40 AM »

Hi. This is my review on Dimarzio/IBZ bridge that covers tonal specs, comparisons with Super Distortion & Evolution, and why they deserve more credit. Hope you like it;

https://www.tonejourney.com/post/dimarzio-ibz-bridge-review

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by gregr on February 11, 2025, 07:56:21 PM »

I ended up using a 500k/250k dual-gang, single-shaft pot for the master tone control. It was the only way I could do everything I needed to do after exhausting all four poles for positions 2 & 4 on the 5-way super switch.

The final tally for the loading:
bridge (Fast Track 1): 110k
bridge & middle: 250k
middle (Area 61): 125k
middle & neck: 100k
neck (Injector Neck): 125k

Position 2 could possibly benefit from a lighter load. A 1 Meg pot for the volume control might make a slight improvement, though I don’t think it’s worth the effort since the Fast Track 1 simply won’t achieve the same result as a single coil. As it is, position 2 sounds good and is definitely useable.

I’m satisfied with the amount of chime for all of the other positions. The Area 61 in noise cancelling mode loaded with the standard 125k was my baseline for matching positions 4 and 5. With the exception of position 2, there was still room to go brighter, so the values chosen were free from the limitation of too little pot resistance; keep in mind that the noise cancelling coils aren’t being used in positions 2 & 4, and the noise cancelling coil on the neck pickup is dependent on the outer tone control that’s only active in position 5.

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by gregr on January 28, 2025, 12:28:41 PM »

I don’t like having the tone up high when playing single coils with much gain, so hum from running the Injector with a compromised dummy coil will never be an issue for me.

I’ve used the Injector Neck in all three positions in various guitars. While it is warmer than a traditional vintage single coil, I have never found it to be lifeless. Of course there are many factors involved that will influence how a pickup sounds, not the least of which being the materials used for the bridge and how you set your amp.

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by darkbluemurder on January 28, 2025, 03:56:13 AM »

The Injector definitely benefits from a lighter load, though the 250k total load from a pair of 500k pots is not enough. If I were only using two controls one would be a 500k and the other would be 250k, which is essentially what I am getting with three 500k controls (167k). The problem with reducing the load too much is that a spike begins to develop in the top end. The real key to getting an extension in frequency response with the Injector Neck lies in shunting the dummy coil. Configuring the second tone control the way I did I am able to do both. Again, the linear taper allows for more precision at the upper end of the control. I also use a series resistor with tone controls in order to prevent the tone from folding over, allowing me to quickly get the exact sound I want without undershooting.

My observations were quite similar. In two different guitars where I had Injector necks with 500k volume and tone they were a bit stiff sounding. Using a no-load tone pot solved that. In another guitar however removing the tone control load made the guitar too sizzly in the top end whereas with the 500k tone control the top end was nasal. A 1 meg tone control was the happy medium where I landed.

I did not want to shunt the shunt coil as I wanted to preserve the hum-cancelling ability.

Cheers Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by gregr on January 27, 2025, 12:36:53 PM »

You’re absolutely right about using a linear taper for the volume control. I don’t like the large initial drop in volume you get with an audio taper, especially on a Strat pickguard where it sits so close to where my hand is. Because of the treble bleed, I treat the volume control as another tone control and the linear taper gives me a more precision. My rhythm tone is medium gain and I’m still able to clean up by rolling the volume back and by lightening up my touch.

The Injector definitely benefits from a lighter load, though the 250k total load from a pair of 500k pots is not enough. If I were only using two controls one would be a 500k and the other would be 250k, which is essentially what I am getting with three 500k controls (167k). The problem with reducing the load too much is that a spike begins to develop in the top end. The real key to getting an extension in frequency response with the Injector Neck lies in shunting the dummy coil. Configuring the second tone control the way I did I am able to do both. Again, the linear taper allows for more precision at the upper end of the control. I also use a series resistor with tone controls in order to prevent the cocked-wah sound.

The Fast Track 1 excels in all three positions. It’s a very versatile pickup. I first tried it in the bridge many years ago and liked the tone but it wasn’t what I wanted at the time. It’s reminiscent of the FS1, perhaps more-so than the Injector Neck which is closer to the FS1 in terms of specifications. The Injector Neck also makes an excellent bridge pickup, though I prefer the Virtual Vintage Blues for the extra sparkle.