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I'll agree that 8k is a generally good starting point but that will also depend on the sound you are going for and what magnets you are using. When I started building pickups, I researched the spec's for classic tele pickups and tried to duplicate it with 3 & 4 poles. What I quickly discovered is that it didn't directly translate into the sound I was after. So it was back to the drawing board.
So depending on what you are after, you can go Alnico 2 or 5. 5 will be brighter and I found on shorter scale, higher pitched instruments to be too bright and a little shrill for what I was after. For smaller pickups, I like Alnico 2 wound fat with 42awg heavy formvar wire. It yields a richer tone with good top end that doesn't take your head off. I've also gone up to almost 11k turns with solid body 3 string pickups with good results in tone.
If you are going to play loud, don't forget to pot the pickup in wax to keep it from being microphonic.
There are a couple of 3 string pickup detail photos on my guitar blog page at http://bit.ly/3string
Don
Don, by wound fat do you mean more winds? 9k?
Don Goguen said:I'll agree that 8k is a generally good starting point but that will also depend on the sound you are going for and what magnets you are using. When I started building pickups, I researched the spec's for classic tele pickups and tried to duplicate it with 3 & 4 poles. What I quickly discovered is that it didn't directly translate into the sound I was after. So it was back to the drawing board.
So depending on what you are after, you can go Alnico 2 or 5. 5 will be brighter and I found on shorter scale, higher pitched instruments to be too bright and a little shrill for what I was after. For smaller pickups, I like Alnico 2 wound fat with 42awg heavy formvar wire. It yields a richer tone with good top end that doesn't take your head off. I've also gone up to almost 11k turns with solid body 3 string pickups with good results in tone.
If you are going to play loud, don't forget to pot the pickup in wax to keep it from being microphonic.
There are a couple of 3 string pickup detail photos on my guitar blog page at http://bit.ly/3string
Don
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