software

granted I have no winder, but could one do this if they wnat to raise the DC resistance just a little bit...say .4k?

As simple as desoldering the leads, soldering some copper wire of the same gauge to the existing wire, making some scattered winds, maybe whip out the hairdryer for the wax, and resolder?

I'd have a multimeter to check the resistance. In theory it seems like it would work, unless I'm forgetting something.

I am pretty sure that is how it works. I dont know exactly how to go up just .4 but you should find the DC resistance, find out how many times it is wound, and divide the wound times by the resistance and it should give you how many times you need to wrap it for every 1.0 more. I am not sure, but it should work.

Like *not real numbers but just making it up*

5000 (wraps) / 14.5 (resistance) = 334.82
than divide that my 10 so you can get every .1

335 / 10 = 33.5 wraps

So wrap it like 134 times to get it .4 higher! ( in this example i mean)

(p.s. i cant believe I did that this late and i thought of that so fast....i hate math)


Originally Posted by korovamilkdudgranted I have no winder, but could one do this if they wnat to raise the DC resistance just a little bit...say .4k? ...

True confession time... I got my first Tele back in 1982. I tried a few different bridge pickups, ending up with the Broadcaster. Like a total dumb sh*t I thought that the mids were too strong in that pickup so I figured that I would remove maybe 500 winds (something I had done before with other pickups). I kept dozing off and I'd break off the wire so I'd have to fish out the end and start again. Only after doing that a few times the wire must have broken off deep inside the pickup because I never could find two ends to use.

The Broadcaster was wound with 43ga wire so I figured I might as well salvage the wire from the dead pickup. I ended up using it to add boosted taps to a later model SD tele bridge- I think around 8k and 10k. With the wire being 43ga I was able to add a lot of ohms in a little space. I soaked the pickup in paraffin, rewrapped the SD black fabric tape and that was my favorite pickup for about 10 years. (I had also added some turns to the SD tele neck pickup.)

I doubt if you'll be able to hear much difference in adding an extra 400 ohms to your pickup; I'd guess that 800 ohms would be the minimum boost I'd want to do.

Is there room on the bobbin for more wire? I'd recommend something small like 43ga so that you can add a significant number of ohms in the limited space on the bobbin.

The downside to all of this is that the added windings will not really match the rest of the coil. So if you were to add 0.4k ohms I don't think it would improve your sound as much as it might detract from it. (If you ordered a tapped coil from SD they would do it right: wind part of the coil, pull out a wire to a copper rivet and then wind the rest of the coil. So the whole coil would be of the same gauge wire and same winding techniques. ) But if you have a pickup that is just too wimpy for your tastes, what the heck... go for it!

Well, I'll tell ya, I had an 8.2k aph-1 in my neck spot...too muddy

I now have a 7.4k aph-1 in my neck...not enough bass.

I can hear the difference....not tootin' my own horn or any thing, but uhh...

never underestimate the KMD ear.

So you would like to add 400 ohms to a 7.4k APH-1 humbucker? Were you thinking of adding 200 ohms to each coil, or the full 400 ohms to one of them? It might be interesting to see how they work with a slight imbalance like that.

I never tried boosting a humbucker like that but you are certainly welcome to try!

Let us know how it turns out!


Originally Posted by korovamilkdudWell, I'll tell ya, I had an 8.2k aph-1 in my neck spot...too muddy

I now have a 7.4k aph-1 in my neck...not enough bass.

I can hear the difference....not tootin' my own horn or any thing, but uhh...

never underestimate the KMD ear. Try to find a Pearly Gates bridge unit that's on the cool end of the output scales (I've seen some with 7.9K). That should solve your problem pretty quickly.

Honestly I'm quite certain I like the aph-1. I just would like ever so slightly more bottom from it.

I love th way it's balanced, but like I said, 8.2k was just a tad too muddy, and 7.4 is just a tad too thin. Looking to go right down the middle.

I THOUGHT of winding up the slug coil so I could get a slightly hotter split tone, but I'm a bit weary of getting the PG effect on accident. I don't really want a different pickup, just an aph-1 with bit more. If the stagger winding didn't really affect the tonal balance, I'd jump right on it.


Originally Posted by korovamilkdudHonestly I'm quite certain I like the aph-1. I just would like ever so slightly more bottom from it.

You seem to know exactly what you want so go for it! The bobbins have room for more wire? Do you have wire of the same gauge and insulation as the original? I'd solder the wires together very carefully and then put a dab of nail polish on the joint so that it would not short out. Do the math to figure out how many turns you need to add. Confirm the resistance with a meter then solder the fine leads to the original quot;pigtailquot;. Voila! You should now have an APH-1 pickup that measures ~7.8k.

I don't actually know ho many winds are in the aph-1, but I was just going to check with the multimeter as I went along.


Originally Posted by korovamilkdudI don't actually know how many winds are in the aph-1, but I was just going to check with the multimeter as I went along.

The pickup wire is insulated and each time you measure the dc resistance (by scraping or heating the wire with a lighter) you risk breaking it (no big deal- just solder it back together and insulate the joint).

However, just for a rough idea of how many turns you might need, I would take the quot;magic numberquot; of 6,500 turns and figure that will create your desired 7.8k ohms. That works out to 1.2 ohms per turn (average). To add 200 ohms to each coil the math works out to 167 turns. Actually since the added turns are on the outside of the coil, the value would be higher than the average. So you might want to try adding 120 turns to one bobbin and then see what that measures out as.

Het a APH bridge position and use it.


Originally Posted by theodieGet a APH bridge position and use it.

That was the 8.2k one.

I'm finding the resistances can be so random, you really cant just go by what it says in the tone chart. Although today I did measure a new one that read 7.6k.