Guitar Pickups I: Analysis of the Effect of Winding and Wire Gauge on Single Coil Electric Guitar Pickups

Abstract

Guitar Pickups have been in production for nearly 100 years, and the question of how exactly one pickup is tonally superior to another is still subject to a high level of debate. This paper is the first in a set demystifying the production of guitar pickups and introducing a level of scientific procedure to the conversation. Previous studies have analysed commercial off-the-shelf pickups, but these differ from each other in multiple ways. The novelty of this study is that dedicated experimental pickups were created, which vary only one parameter at a time in order to allow scientific study. The most fundamental qualities of a single-coil pickup are investigated: in this paper, number of turns and gauge of wire. A set of single-coil stratocaster-style pickups were created, with the number of turns of wire varied across the commercially available range (5000-12000 turns), and this was done for two widely used wire gauges (42 and 44 AWG). A frequency response analyser was used to obtain impedance across a frequency range. It is shown that resonant frequency decreases exponentially with number of turns, while the magnitude of the resonant peak increases linearly with number of turns. The wire gauge used has a significant impact on both parameters, with the thicker wire giving higher resonant frequencies and higher magnitudes than the thinner wire for the same number of turns. These impact the sound associated with the pickup: the resonant frequency is linked to the perceived tone of the pickup, and the magnitude to the output amplitude and hence 'gain.' Increasing the number of turns will give a higher output pickup with a darker tone, and thicker wire gives louder outputs and brighter tones - consistent with what can be observed in commercial pickups.