What do the ratings really mean on a single coil?

[squierjosh]

What does a single coil rated at 9k offer that one at 7k doesn't? Is it pure volume? Or does it drive the amp differently? I'm thinking about the premium Texas Strat pups from GFS, and wonder how the ohms affects tone/sound. I've never really looked into it before.

[softwarejanitor]

Originally Posted by squierjosh

What does a single coil rated at 9k offer that one at 7k doesn't? Is it pure volume? Or does it drive the amp differently? I'm thinking about the premium Texas Strat pups from GFS, and wonder how the ohms affects tone/sound. I've never really looked into it before.

It affects volume, but it will also start breaking up, getting distortion, getting "crunchy", etc, earlier. Its similar but different tonally than just adding an overdrive pedal...

[adamjn]

Check this article out: http://www.guitar-repairs.co.uk/how_...ckups_work.htm

DC resistance (the "K" rating on pickups) is determined by the diameter of the wire and the number of winds around the bobbin. If you compare two pickups with the same magnet type and strength, on the same type of guitar, with as many other factors as identical as you can get them, you would expect a 9K pickup to be louder than a 6K pickup. At the same time, the 9K will have less high frequency response (top end) than the 6K. So, like all things in the world, you have to find a balance between output and frequency response, or loudness and tone, that suits you.

In "the days of my youth" I had a strat with SD hot Rails and loved them. Thick sounding, dark, tons of gain. Nowadays, I can't imagine using them because I'd probably find them too muddy, and I don;t play with as much dirt as I used to. At the same time, I don;t want a pickup that's "total vintage" either, because I need some output.

Does this mean you're gonna dump those pups you hate?!

[squierjosh]

Ha. I wouldn't say I "hate" them, but they are a bit weak for my tastes. I listened to the sound clip of the bridge pickup in the Premium Texas set and it sounded pretty crunchy, so it might end my fascination with getting an HSS setup in this particular strat, but the middle and neck aren't hot, so they would still sound good clean.

Originally Posted by adamjn

Check this article out: http://www.guitar-repairs.co.uk/how_...ckups_work.htm

DC resistance (the "K" rating on pickups) is determined by the diameter of the wire and the number of winds around the bobbin. If you compare two pickups with the same magnet type and strength, on the same type of guitar, with as many other factors as identical as you can get them, you would expect a 9K pickup to be louder than a 6K pickup. At the same time, the 9K will have less high frequency response (top end) than the 6K. So, like all things in the world, you have to find a balance between output and frequency response, or loudness and tone, that suits you.

In "the days of my youth" I had a strat with SD hot Rails and loved them. Thick sounding, dark, tons of gain. Nowadays, I can't imagine using them because I'd probably find them too muddy, and I don;t play with as much dirt as I used to. At the same time, I don;t want a pickup that's "total vintage" either, because I need some output.

Does this mean you're gonna dump those pups you hate?!

[adamjn]

I would even look at the overwound sets. They're still not as hot as rail or full-size humbuckers, and you can always lower them to get your ideal tonal balance. The cool thing about true alnico singles IMO is that you still get great clarity, even out a hot pickup. What you lose is that "chime," or surf kinda tone.

[Stratatattat]

personally, i prefer overwound sets. the "vintage" ones that are all 4.9K and just a bit too tinny for me. i like it broken up w/ a real hot pup in the bridge...generally between 8K and 12K (humbuckers work well for me in the bridge...besides, i can split coil em). middle i like 6K, and neck, i'll do the light 4.9K. away from the bridge, it's warm enuff and it's gotta tone control so i can crank down any excess treble.

[D.Allen]

I tend to like overwound pups above 6.6 or 7K for sure with 43 GA wire to bring in more tone. and lower K with 42 GA. I have not seen any fender strat specs below the mid 5K's. I know some winders underwind some pups. Then there is magnet choices!

[YeahDoIt]

Originally Posted by squierjosh

What does a single coil rated at 9k offer that one at 7k doesn't? Is it pure volume? Or does it drive the amp differently? I'm thinking about the premium Texas Strat pups from GFS, and wonder how the ohms affects tone/sound. I've never really looked into it before.

In general:

Greater impedance = stronger signal (good for overdrive distortion), lesser high frequencies.

Lower impedance = weaker signal and less capable of overdrive distortion, more high frequencies, clearer sound.

There might be sample mp3 files for various pickups on the web.

[adamjn]

Originally Posted by YeahDoIt

In general:

Greater impedance = stronger signal (good for overdrive distortion), lesser high frequencies.

Lower impedance = weaker signal and less capable of overdrive distortion, more high frequencies, clearer sound.

There might be sample mp3 files for various pickups on the web.

Great explanation. Which also helps to explain "low impedance" pickups like EMGs. Super-low impedance from the pickup, and a battery to boost the signal before it hits the output jack.

[BillStickers]

...everybody's beat me to it...

From what I've seen I think we can generalize it like this:
Single Coils:
-Al-Ni-Co magnets. Aluminium, Nickel & Cobalt made magnets through Science stuff. PUPs will usually state a number like III (3) or V (5). This number refers to a trade nomenclature referring to the the magnets variant properties. As they are man-made, Alnico magnets can be varied in many ways. They usually refer to the strength of the magnetic field and it's "shape". I believe most of of them below V are isotropic, so they're efficient all round. Alnico Vs are anisotropic so they prefer a certain orientation i.e it is possible to have it "the wrong way" and not work it's best.

-Neodymium... actually I think these are only used in expensive headphones...

-Samarium-Cobalt... these are very fancy and very strong... this is a Rare Earth Magnet along with Neodymium, they both beat up Alnico back in the 70s and left him labelled as a weakling in their presence.

-Ceramic magnets. Now, I am informed with a bit of doubt that Ceramic magnets are non-conductive and thusly can't be thrown directly into the pickup with the wind. So, the way they're used is they're stuck underneath with conductive metal pieces to act as pole pieces. This way the magnet magnetizes them and a magnetic field can then be distorted by the string and sent into the electronics. I believe this is how a magnetic pickup works, a magnet that has conductive properties has it's magnetic field distorted creating a signal which, thanks to the conductive property, can then transfer into an electrical circuit. That's probably why cheap Ceramics PUPs suck, because everything involved is cheap so they tend to just have a crap magnetic field. But they can be made really well.

-Winds. The stronger the magnetic field the more sensitive it is, then with the winds, the signal can have it's efficacy defined. More winds helps more of the sounds into the circuit and thusly into the amp. This means a higher wind will increase the Low End Frequencies prominence and so the sound is Bassier. I suppose one could say the "EQ" has had the Low End Frequencies "turned up". So of every pickups' wind as telling you what the "EQ" settings are, just like on iTunes. As a human you'll hear Bass more over Treble when the Bass is louder. That mean Low frequency on high volume. Why? Because big Bass sounds are generally associated with stuff like Earthquakes or Volcanoes so it's a good thing to be able to hear those Bass sounds so you can GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE!!! So High wind, it's all there but the Low End is on crack so it comes across as Bassier. The thickness of the wire (usually measured as AWG; American Wire Gauge) determines how well all the information is transferred. That's very general but think of it like the wires you use on your TV and Computer: the more bits of wire inside, the more info that can be carried. Only PUPs just use thicker wire for efficiency, it's the same thing, only using multiple really thin bits of wire makes for more flexibility. You need flexibility in computer wires but you don't need it in your PUPs as they're not moving anywhere . Fiber Optics are so cool as they consist of hair-thin wire so you can have all the benefits of a really chunky wire but with uber flexibility. Useless in a PUP though, as again, it doesn't need to snake around . It's practicality in ratio to electrical efficiency. Classic engineering story.
Let's go for an airport analogy :
The thicker the "security", the more stuff gets past "customs".
The more "wind", the crazier the "turbulents" are.
The less "wind", the smoother the "flight" is.
Too little "wind" and it's harder to "glide"... so the "planes" that aren't "powerful" won't get "off the ground".

Can't believe I've written another LONG post

[BillStickers]

Impedance refers to AC. Higher impedance means higher opposition to Alternating Current. That means they're great for Active Electronics.

Resistance more refers to DC. So a good deal of resistance in a PUP is great for Passive electronics as there is so little electricity involved.

The more electricity there is, the more erratic it can be, thusly Tesla and his discovery of AC led to him harnessing HUGE amounts of electricity... so he was able to shoot lightning from his fingers... LITERALLY!
EMGs active stuff needs to be run by batteries because the winds are so low, bugger all electricity is produced by the PUPs when you strum. So with an external power source (a 9V battery) the pickup basically gets on crack and can then get crazy with the music. IMO they're essentially those monsters that need constant sustenance... y'know, they're uber cool like the Relic monster but they gotta keep feeding on loads of 9Volties and s**t or they'll die.
For that reason I dislike ALL Active electronics, because I won't spend a fortune on 9Volties

I would think by this logic, Gibson's Robot guitars coil tap* when the active electronics are ON, so the Active efficacy is better.
*Coil Tap is the term for "tapping" off a point in the winding to cut the rest short, thusly having the Coil operate as if having fewer winds. Coil Split would be separating or taking out an entire Coil from a multi-coil setup.

[D.Allen]

well stated Bill. But now I am confused...LOL
not really