Mosrite "Surf Set" custom wound pickups

[Strat-o-rama]

Recently there has been a lot of talk about pick-ups and custom winds.
Mosriteforever was discussing output on another thread and mentioned a 10-13k gave the best sound to his ears. As we know, under-wound pick-ups tend to have a longer tone scale, with more clarity in the upper ranges. I have heard a number of experts claim some of the best sounding Stratocasters measured under 6.0k, giving that sparkling high end.
Has anyone experimented with underwound Mosrite pick-ups to emphasize the high end? Something that would be described as a "surf" wind, maybe around the 8.5 -9k measurement. Would love to hear opinions.

[sleeperNY]

I have also read that lower ohms readings give cleaner sounds with more brilliant highs. Higher readings give more mids and lower highs. Case in point are Gretsch guitars. There filtertron pickups are wound to just over 4k and are very clean and clear sounding that helps identify the Gretsch sound.Single coil pickups can have more windings and still retain the highs longer. My parts rite Mosrite has 8.5k neck and 12k bridge and I like the sound of the two. They are well balanced in output and retain that Mosrite sound. I have always felt that the Hallmark is only missing in the Mosrite sound due to the high reading of the neck pickup. It just doesn't have the high end sparkle it should have when used alone. I am not convinced that potting them changes them that much. I had a Gretsch that had a bad high squeal and I potted them myself and it cured the problem but didn't make a difference in the overall sound. At least not one I could hear. Fore some reason the Mosrite pickups have a nice high end even at higher ohms readings. Not sure why. I know the original Ventures model I use to have was very bright and clear. I never took a pickup reading on that guitar because I liked the sound. They may have been lower readings as many were or so I have read. As I have said mine is 8.5k and I love the sound of it.

Jim

PS: You can rear the Mosrite on the music section of my websight. All the slow songs were played using the neck pickup. It is only classic country music but does give a good idea of the sound I like on stage.

[MWaldorf]

Funny, it's the reduced highs that appeal to me about the Mosrite pickups. I've been playing in surf bands for fifteen years, and always had to be careful to find the balance of reverb drip and ice-pick highs with my Jazzmaster and Jaguar, especially on the bridge pickup. With the Mosrite, I can drippier without the ice-pick. I find that on my outboard reverb tank, I set the dwell lower and tone higher with the Mosrite than the Fenders. The Mosrite doesn't "drip" quite the same way, but I find it's a worthwhile tradeoff.

[Mr. Bill]

Two of the factors that need to be discussed when talking about any guitar pickups are: One the resistance and Two the inductance.

The resistance of the coil 4K or 8K or 13K, etc. is a factor of two things: How many turns or how long a length wire is used and what size or gauge wire is used.

If all pickups were wound with the same gauge wire, the dc resistance would be an indication of how many turns were wound on the coil form. And in general terms, the more turns the hotter the output.

If you were to change the gauge of the wire to a thinner size, the resistance per foot will increase resulting in an even higher resistance coil given the same number of turns of wire.

The opposing factor here is the coil inductance. The more turns on the pickup, the higher the inductance of the coil. The higher the inductance the darker the tone of the pickup.

So when comparing pickups, the DC resistance may or may not be a reliable gauge to what the tone of the pickup will be. What you need to know is what gauge wire is used on all of these pickups and how many turns.

Now to confuse things even more, is that sometimes winders will wind only by number of turns, and they will use 10K to mean ten thousand turns.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Bill, you posted:

If you were to change the gauge of the wire to a thinner size, the resistance per foot will increase resulting in an even higher resistance coil given the same number of turns of wire.

I'm not sure I'm following this correctly, but does this mean that having the thinner gauge wire,
would 'refuse' a hotter pickup from working as such, with more windings?

[Mr. Bill]

Sorry Dennis, but I don't understand what you're asking.

What I meant was two coils wound with the same number of turns, each with a different gauge of wire, will not have the same dc resistance ratings. The coil with the thinner gauge wire will have a higher dc resistance than the coil wound with the heavier wire.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Sorry Dennis, but I don't understand what you're asking.

What I meant was two coils wound with the same number of turns, each with a different gauge of wire, will not have the same dc resistance ratings. The coil with the thinner gauge wire will have a higher dc resistance than the coil wound with the heavier wire.

Bill, my fault, never mind . With the exception of my Combo, all my Mo's
have factory made Humbuckers on them. I wasn't thinking single coil .....