Pick Up output measurement

[dirtycooter]

Ok I have a question and it may be stupid

But DiMarzio gives output in mV or whatever the max output drive is.
Duncan does not do this nor do many other pickup makers for the most part. DC resistance does not correspond to output.

Can someone explain hiw they get this output measurement? Is it just strumming and measuring from the output jack of the guitar? Or do they have a special way of doing this to get accurate output readings?
Seems smaller strings and fatter strings would give off different amounts of this.

Reason I ask is it may be much more helpful knowing how much drive a pickup has when trying to tame down gain in the preamp section where the input gets hit by the pickup. Its kinda odd but tonality and e.q. response is one aspect but the actual "drive aspect" seems to me would be just as useful to many.

My 59 has the voice, the dsd has too much drive, and my wolfgang is in between those two in drive but still a bit too much.
It began me thinkin about boosts for weaker pickups, then hot pickups that don't need one, and then here I am on a output measurement hunt

[rdodson]

Great question bump.

[rgorke]

So, i just watched these videos that Uncle Doug has done. One interesting experiment might be to test the AC that each pickup puts out. He puts a meter on a guitar cable and strums and gets 0.8 vac. I am curious and would guess that "higher output" pickups put out more AC. But, there is only one way to check.

[jnew]

Enjoyed that video a lot. Pretty awesome.

Oh, and Rusty Rocks.

[dirtycooter]

Thanks for the education. I can now gather some better idea of what I am usin and about how hot it really is.

[Star*Guitar]

I enjoyed that video too. Thank you!

[dirtycooter]

Makes me want to buy an Ebow-make a mount that positions it precisely from guitar to guitar heightwise over the pickup and take mesuremnts consistency. Probably would be best way to get accurate sustained results.

I been pondering this for some time. Also of ponderance is the amount of capacitance in Eds fx chain and cable type and length of those cables. Had to be quite a bit of capacitance with no true bypass, sub par buffers in the old mxr fx (known to suck tone), and then finally the echoplex top and bottom roll off.
I think it was Belden cable someone said. Be cool to measure the voltage at the end of that whole chain if it could be known all the lengths involved. I am gonna try some of this with stupid lengths of cable. Wanna rolloff the bottom and top smooth over accentuate some mids on my latest sound.

[danman]

I remember seeing a mv chart from Seymour Duncan awhile back. It took a little searching but you can find it at "www.seymourduncan.com/products/redesign/specification/" The list seems much shorter than the one that I remember seeing originally, with many models now missing from it. I believe that there was an issue with how they were measuring the output on the original chart so they may be in the process of redoing it.

[rgorke]

So, I did a little experiment. I hooked up a cable to my DVM and strummed away with different pickups.

Duncan '59 - 0.044 vac
Duncan Custom - 0.110 vac
MM 1800 - 0.130 vac
start with single coils 0.030

It shows that pickups that give the most drive, put out the most AC voltage.

[dirtycooter]

When one is kinda lookin for more or less drive this is gonna come in handy on the sort.
Anyone have an EVH Wolf and Frankenstein they can measure?? Bareknuckles? 78?
When I get home I will try and measure my PV wolf to throw in here

[jnew]

So, I did a little experiment. I hooked up a cable to my DVM and strummed away with different pickups.

Duncan '59 - 0.044 vac
Duncan Custom - 0.110 vac
MM 1800 - 0.130 vac
start with single coils 0.030

It shows that pickups that give the most drive, put out the most AC voltage.

What is MM 1800? Another model of the MightyMite PU?

[rgorke]

So, I did a little experiment. I hooked up a cable to my DVM and strummed away with different pickups.

Duncan '59 - 0.044 vac
Duncan Custom - 0.110 vac
MM 1800 - 0.130 vac
start with single coils 0.030

It shows that pickups that give the most drive, put out the most AC voltage.

What is MM 1800? Another model of the MightyMite PU?

Its the MM with the slugs on both coils. Sounds just like the 1300.

[dirtycooter]

It would be great if we could compile a list of as many pickup output measurements as possible.
I will test my pv wolf and soon as I get back my LP I will measure its bridge pickup-that one is a ceramic mag.
These simple measurements shoulda been given all along-I feel it directly could show more balls and at what resonant peak would give the hottest point of frequency in the drive I am guessing.

[jnew]

Cool.

[ttowne]

Interesting topic that's going on here. I was working on similar experiment over this past summer. I'm fairly convinced that the outcome of any investigation into pickup output will directly correspond to the single pickup and single volume knob configuration alon with a 500k pot. However, I haven't totally proved that true yet because I need to do another check on another guitar and another pot to be sure. If it does prove true then I will be totally convinced that the single pickup/single volume knob arrangement is the main ingredient that yields much higher a/c output than any other configuration and is a BIG piece of the puzzle. Don't bust my balls too hard if this proves not to be completely true though because it is possible that my VERY RESONATE JB strat with Duncan JB is the big factor currently giving out 1.35 volts of AC on a Pete Townsend attacked e maj.


I'd certainly like to see the wiring here but (in DLR voice) "somethin's goin on here I saaay"

http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showt ... alen-burst