How can I make pickups like the ones I have?

[Owen]

I have a bass which has 2 x sopabars in it. One J coil and half a P coil in each soapbar. So I can get the best of both worlds.

 

I am not particularly happy with them and fancy different ones. 

 

I have a pair of Fralin J5 pickups in another bass which are very lovely indeed. I approached Fralin to ask if they would do me a pair of similar soapbars but they are not set up to do it. Which is fair enough. So how do I work out what is going on in my Fralins so that I can get something similar made? They were 2nd hand on here many years ago so there is no chance I can work out exactly what they are (5% underwound, normal, 10% overwound etc). Can I strap a multimeter across them and deduce what is going on in them? I am clearly utterly clueless here.  

 

TIA

[Geek99]

You could ask @Matte_blackhe made me some lovely jazz bass pickups 

[Owen]

Thanks. Making them is not a huge issue, it is the spec which is needing detail put into it. 

[Aidan63]

Maybe talk to Armstrong pickups in the UK ?

[Owen]

As this concept has rolled around in my head, I guess the question I am asking is as follows - "If I whack a multimeter accross a pickup will that tell me if it is underwound, overwound or the other wound?". I have pickups I like. If I could buy them again and use them, I would. But that is not an option so I need to see if I can do it differently.

 

Thanks

[tauzero]

I'm by no means an expert in pickups, but I don't think that would give you enough information on its own. If you could compare the resistance with the resistance of a known identical pickup, you could work out whether it's underwound or overwound and by what proportion, but you wouldn't be able to compare with another pickup that used a different wire gauge as that would be a different resistance for the same number of windings. Would Fralin give you the info if you asked them nicely?

[John Cribbin]

Hmm, like the Borg say resistance is futile ....

 

Magnet type, inductance,  number of winds, tightness off wind, potting. It all makes a difference.

[Owen]

Ho hum. I guessed as much, but was willing my ignorance to be hiding magic truths. As ever, it did not.

[BigRedX]

I'm assuming that the Fralin J5 pickups which you like are smaller than the soap bars which you don't like?

 

Could you not just buy another set of Fralins and make wooden or plastic surrounds to fill the extra space?

[Chienmortbb]

15 hours ago, John Cribbin said:

Hmm, like the Borg say resistance is futile ....

 

Magnet type, inductance,  number of winds, tightness off wind, potting. It all makes a difference.

Yes, resistance is useless as an indicator as it does not take into account the diameter of the wire.

[Owen]

8 hours ago, BigRedX said:

I'm assuming that the Fralin J5 pickups which you like are smaller than the soap bars which you don't like?

 

Could you not just buy another set of Fralins and make wooden or plastic surrounds to fill the extra space?

I opened up the bass with the Fralins and remebered that their orientation was funky to get the string spacing. 

 

Squashing those at and angle and a P pickup into 2 Soapbar cases would not be an option. The string spacing on the bass needing new pickups is the same as this one.  But I have exhausted the possibilites so can carry on with no regrets. If only I was this thorough in the rest of my life.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Owen

[rmorris]

On 16/11/2022 at 13:08, Chienmortbb said:

Yes, resistance is useless as an indicator as it does not take into account the diameter of the wire.

 

Inductance is the dominant electrical parameter - and you'd need to measure it over the frequency range.

But it wouldn't tell you the magnet type - generally ceramic or alnico and there are various classes/grades within that.

Nor the wire type or winding / magnet geometry etc.