Resistance Means NOTHING about a Guitar Pickup and INDUCTANCE means Everything!

[@eddiemoser3150]

are you saying resitance is futile ?

[@mihailmilev9909]

wow

[@mihailmilev9909]

wiw

[@EvanDander]

You win!!

[@Tyler-ry3lk]

​​@@EvanDanderthat guy ?

[@mikak2747]

No it's not

[@seabreezy3368]

Is this satire? The time varying voltage output by a guitar pickup is described by the well known equation: Voltage=(current multiplied by resistance) + (inductance multiplied by the speed of current change). If you want the pickup to output higher voltage (a hotter sound) you would lean towards the higher resistance pickups.

[@zaxmaxlax]

Excet youre talking about impedance(Z), which isnt the same as resistance(R). |Z|²=√(R²+X²) X being the "reactance" of a coil or cap to a variable current. You could have two different pickups with the same "resistance" by using thicker wire and more windings but interely different tones because of the difference in impedance.

[@mattheweady615]

I always meet a huge amount of resistance when I try a new pickup line 🧐

[@johngonzales8224]

Inductance is more about the amount of interference that can be created or received. which is why with higher inductance you want to have the wires cross less and travel the same direction. Higher inductance pickups can be noisy.

[@donarmando916]

Ok this is good to know. I'm not an electrician, but i assume the resistance is determined by the number of windings the coil has and probably also the kind of wire used. No change in the resistance when removing he pole pieces doesn't prove there is no impact on the sound between one with higher or lower resistance.

[@bluwng]

I think the misconception is the impact resistance of the wire has on output. Higher resistance can come from length of wire or composition of the material or,both. In theory more windings means a higher EMF and hence more energy stored, it has some truth just enough to confuse people. You have to know the magnetism of a pickup and Inductance is dependent on magnetic field so in a round about way it speaks to it.

[@geraldponce8336]

Seems like the type of magnet and the magnet charge would be the other half of the equation

[@LukeMosse]

Its a shame that virtually no manufacturers release the inductance values. Fender does but few others.

[@krzysztofwaleska]

Yes. Now I am waiting for pickups wired with silver wire. Like in High End valve amplifiers. This must happen sometime. Noone has done that for guitar pickups to this time.

[@pharmerdavid1432]

You can buy pickups with silver wire, just do a search - Duncan makes them.

[@_-_Michael_-_]

I use resistence to determinate if pickup is OK or not when I repair. Also measure resistance when I wound them to know if I’m around the same as they were before (measured on similar good pickup ofcourse) hope that usage is OK.

[@CaptainWrinkleBrain]

It’s definitely the most useful measurement, but to increase confidence you can measure other values. Ex: The capacitance will be much higher than an unbroken one (since the signal is now running through parasitic coupled capacitor rather than a continuous connection)

[@olenfersoi8887]

It's fine to measure resistance of two pickups of identical design, to get an idea of relative potential output...just don't put a lot more stock than that into the measurement. And, of course, like a check of continuity, a resistance reading below infinity (usually that's "1" on a meter) means the coil wire is not broken, whereas an extremely low resistance would indicate a short.

[@crunchchannel9391]

Ive heard this time and time again the resistance tells nothing about the pickup but time and time again ill get a pickup i like in the 7-8 ohm range i like and anything over 8k i dont care for. I like the sound of a classic 57 and they all seem to be under 8k if you search around every pickup that has "vintage" or classic tone is always in the 7-8K ohms range. Ive never seen a pickup that claims its a vintage tone thats a igh output 17k pickup even 9k is a tad to hot

[@olenfersoi8887]

But, higher resistance is just a "symptom" of more winds...not the reason for higher output: If you stand outside in the rain, you'll get wet. But, if you get wet, and then stand outside, you won't cause it to rain. If it was just high resistance that meant high output, we wouldn't have to worry about have thousands of winds of copper...we could make a coil with just a few winds, and put a high value resistor in a series with it, and that would be that. But, that doesn't work. Perhaps this videographer should demonstrate that.

[@chuckmatses6803]

Thanks Vaughn. Greetings from Boxford, MA

[@you2vertigo]

Ok.....resistance says nothing about the sound of a pickup - but what does inductance say about the sound of a pickup ?

[@tomsawyer2112]

excellent question, and then even if the resistance is present through the wires, it will still be present when the pickups are at work. People who jump from white to black are as wrong as people jumping from white to black. I guess every little detail has its little difference in the sound. The real question is, as you say, what does inductance and resistance and other factors do to the sound.

[@winthorpe6594]

So....how else can i approximately match output of 3 different pickups if resistance has nothing to do with it? I am desperately trying to match H-S-P90 all dual coil. my humbucker is 13 ohms parallel, my singlecoil 9 ohms parallel, my p-90 is 32 ohms parallel. So.......i am considering running my P-90 in series to get the resistance down, so that has nothing to do with balancing (the best i can) the output? Completely confused by lots of counterintuitive information here on YT😳. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.🙏tks, tim

[@dongwarrenmusic]

resistance is just how long or big the wire is. smaller but long more resistance, shorter but big also more resistance.

[@presterjack9764]

So the wire could be a chodey or snakey and have the same resistance.

[@dongwarrenmusic]

​@@presterjack9764 yes, for this area and situation only, "pick up wires". imagine, just like how water flow in a hose, the longer the hose is, the longer the water takes time to come out to the other end of the hose.

[@timbucker]

As well as capacitance. Inductance cuts low frequencies and capacitance cuts high frequencies. Where one wire is laying against another forms a capacitor where the wire insulation is the dielectric. Every turn builds more inductance and capacitance.

[@olenfersoi8887]

Sorry, but capacitance cuts low & even mid frequencies. It acts as a high pass filter and more capacitance raises the cut-off frequency. It is an illusion of our hearing that we perceive less lows (ie: a higher low band cut-off threshold) as more highs, and vice versa. But it is the ratio of one to the other that gives us that illusion. It is resistance that reduces highs in general, as well as reducing the resonant peak that generally lies in the "presence" frequency bands (between mids & treble). Hence, the downside of more coil winds, which boosts power output voltage, but tends to boost the low & mid frequency output in relation to the treble band. Same result with humbuckers, which put two singe coils, of opposite phases (reverse windings), into a series. The only disagreement I have with this video is that removing the pole pieces that are just steel, rather than the actual magnets (the usual case with single coil pickups), would weaken the pickup's output, but not kill it altogether because the vibrating string would still be in a magnetic field, though a weaker one, generated by the base magnet. On the other hand, if the magnetic field is generated by alnico pole pieces (not usual for single coil pickups), removing them would remove the magnetic field entirely, killing the pickup. Perhaps that's what the videographer intended...but, while a coil will show some inductance even without a magnetic core, I believe that at relatively low guitar frequencies, the coil's inductance would have been much lower than close to 2 without any magnet at all.

[@kyleritter3074]

Thank you for your knowledge. I only ask out of ignorance and not to challenge... why do pickup manufactures list the resistance and use that as the baseline then? Like if you look up the specs for a seymour duncan pickup. They provide the resistance. Thank you in advance.

[@olenfersoi8887]

The resistance is an indication of number of winds, because higher resistance means a longer coil wire, which permits more winds. But, comparing resistances of pickups is only meaningful if comparing those of similar design...Ie: both single coil, or both humbucker.

[@bysykler4959]

I hope this guy gets the right meds to temper his excitability.

[@giulioluzzardi7632]

So all we are measuring are the amount of turns/ density of the copper wire?

[@rabaloo6549]

Wow, you really hurt my feelings. LOL. I was wondering why the guys thought I was boring them with my tech talk and 5 dollar multimeter. Now I know! Who is Henry?

[@robphillips8351]

The guy at Walmart sold me a 600 k pickup is it any good 😂🤣 kidding I couldn't resist. I new impedance was misleading and this video proves that. Mucho gracias!

[@Tyler-ry3lk]

Mooch. i always knew it ..

[@valueofnothing2487]

Except that you're kind of wrong where it counts, which is the traditional single coil pickup. And that usually has a fully charged A5 magnet with a similar composition and permeability. And so the resistance really does "determine" the output, since the only variable factor. It's even true with the PAF humbuckers. And Fender and tonerider even publish their inductance and resistance and they're similar to each other. My GFS 5.5k sounds a lot like my classic vibe Squire 5.5K. because the company is probably use the same magnets and magnetic strength and fully charged alnicos. And sure enough if you take a Seymour Duncan 6K and a tone rider 6K and a fender 6K vintage Alnico pickup they all sound similar.

[@Earthstein]

Skow, You are only confusing the idiots here. (That includes me) -- I hope some of them understand your presentation. Good work, sir.

[@geraldponce8336]

Resistance is still at least half of the equation. Inductance is going to take in account the magnets,; type, and magnetic charge. Think both readings used together are useful information

[@nros5020]

Hey vaughn whats a good contact for you, interested in getting a archtop pickup and harness off you thanks!

[@CornholeNetwork]

Hi, glad I ran across your channel and website. Great information and products. I have a request- could you do a video about pickup height? With so much attention given to pickup technology it seems to me that pickup installation and adjustment seems to get almost completely ignored yet have a huge impact on tone. For all of my guitar life I have just been adjusting pickup height by ear and trying to find a sweet spot but really not knowing how to best achieve the holy grail setup for my Les Paul and Strat. I would love to hear your take on it.

[@robertdavis3433]

On my strat I lower the bass part so it doesn't sound muddy and overpower the thinner strings. What else can you really do.

[@jonnyhafer936]

Can i ask what your back ground in electronics is. Resistance can give you an idea of if a pickup is what we call high output or low out just as inductance can also tell us things. Using your theory inductance is useless also and you ust proved that you measured the inductance and got reading (X) then you removed a couple magnetic poles and got reading (Y) however putting that pickup back in with 3 magnets missing the pickup wont work like it should. What would be better if you dont want to trust the pickup manufacture would be to buy a book on electronics and actually learning the theory behind everything you take into acount. Because can you tell me what measuring the inductance means as far as the tone and output of the pickup. Of you can you sure didnt say it here however if a pickup is in working order and it reads 8k resistance and then you grab a second pickup and it reads 15k resistance you do know that one will be more output than the other and one will be darker than the other in tetms of treble response. Will the resistance tell you if your going to like the tone of the pickup? No but it will give you an idea if the pickup is what the guitar world refears to as high output or low out. If you can explain how inductance relates to the sound of the puckup please do, the only thing you just proved was inductance changes as you remove parts of the pickup and resistance doesnt. That doesnt help at all when trying to figure out if you might be in the ballpark of what you like from a pickup.

[@TVoltG]

It's all about the inductance. Facts

[@mikak2747]

That claim is bs

[@Lomoholga2]

Man. I have asked several KZbinrs (Dylan talks tone etc etc) about why cheap pickups sound worse than name brand pickups- specifically how are they made differently and sound muddier etc- never get a good answer. Never! They all talk about resistance!

[@hadleymanmusic]

Exact resistance your inductance changed. Get u some basic electronics LCR circuits

[@strawbryminiwheats]

thank you

[@1989truck]

I'm a pickup expert now

[@SixStringJoy]

Omg why did I open this pandora box….mv output vs DCR smh

[@purple...O_o]

removing those pole pieces with no novocain ?? madman

[@hadleymanmusic]

Low resistance high resonance peak

[@PandevAstinapur]

Are you saying resisance is nugatory ?

[@Tyler-ry3lk]

stunce

[@drumcrazy5866]

I share your pain. And I own some serious meters. Folks will watch this, then request you make pickups to DCR figures anyway. They're just stoopid.

[@hadleymanmusic]

Removin core

[@hadleymanmusic]

Q says otherwise

[@tomsawyer2112]

this is a fake : what are wires attached to ? Why did you not show us the other side.. I guess a magnet is somehow in the cover, and it is the magnet, that has the resistance, not the metal tops...