"Ask Bud!"

Question:

Why are pickups wound to certain resistances (K Ohms, which means 1,000 ohms)?

Answer:

Pickups are wound to specific resistances to produce a certain type of sound. Resistance is a function of wire size and wire length. Wire length is also referred to as number of windings. Most pickups for modern steels vary from approximately 16K Ohms to 23K Ohms. That is, a 16K Ohms pickup will favor a brighter sound while a 23K Ohms pickup will produce a more mellow sound.

Generally, all things being basically equal, the greater the resistance, the more emphasis that is placed on the low's.

Remember: the sound of your guitar is dependent upon more than just the pickup. Construction, design, materials, & your "touch" are just some of the other factors that affect the sound of your guitar.

ADDENDUM

Before all you engineers and techie types out there jump all over me about using resistance instead of impedance, please read the next paragraphs.

The vast majority of steel players use DC resistance to discuss pickups. While not correct, it is more easily understood.

Impedance: With regard to impedance as a measurement of pickups, I recommend that you talk with Bill Lawrence. Bill will be happy to discuss his pickups in terms of inductance, which is the reactance part of impedance.

Different pickups of different design and manufacture will not sound the same even though they are wound to exactly the same DC resistance. DC resistance is a function of wire material and diameter, as well as the shape and size of the coil form.

Another thing about impedance: Impedance is an AC measurement. You could think of it as a measurement of AC resistance. It consists of 2 parts: a DC part called resistance (measured in Ohms) and an AC part which can be either inductance or capacitance (measured in Henrys and Farads).

Or, if you want to think of this in mathematical terms, the impedance consists of a real part and an imaginary part (imaginary being the result of trying to take the square root of a negative number). The real part is the DC resistance; the imaginary part is the reactance.

Back to Introduction to "Ask Bud!"

Back to Carter Steel Guitars' Home Page

We welcome your feedback about our Site via Email at psgbuilder@steelguitar.com