Changing a pickup’s resistance?

[Adman103]

I got the Thornbucker Neck and Thornbucker + Bridge pickups yesterday. I recorded the stock pickups and then swapped them out and the Thornbuckers are amazing! They naturally solved all of the issues I had with the other pickups. The Thornbuckers had meat, punch, and air where the Bill Lawrence pickups were bloated, ice picky, and fizzy.

The Thornbuckers are medium output (which I like), so they’re very clear and articulate while letting your gain knob have a more usable sweep. Mine came with gold covers which dampen the tone a bit, but in my opinion, they absolutely kill my Lollar Imperial High Winds and my trusty old SD Alnico II Pro. I highly recommend grabbing a set. They really do bring your tone to life and let your hands speak in a cool way.

Excellent- glad you like them! I found them to be a serious improvement over the Burstbuckers that came in my SG. The neck, in particular, is really nice- much more clarity and string separation. I'm a fan of the Thornbuckers. I think your description- "meat, punch, and air" is spot on.

I just found another nice set of pickups for my G&L ASAT- I put some Lambertone Blondies in to replace the stock MFD pickups, and another serious improvement. Wow, do they sound good. What an incredible time to be a guitarist.

 

[guitarnerdswe]

I got the Thornbucker Neck and Thornbucker + Bridge pickups yesterday. I recorded the stock pickups and then swapped them out and the Thornbuckers are amazing! They naturally solved all of the issues I had with the other pickups. The Thornbuckers had meat, punch, and air where the Bill Lawrence pickups were bloated, ice picky, and fizzy.

The Thornbuckers are medium output (which I like), so they’re very clear and articulate while letting your gain knob have a more usable sweep. Mine came with gold covers which dampen the tone a bit, but in my opinion, they absolutely kill my Lollar Imperial High Winds and my trusty old SD Alnico II Pro. I highly recommend grabbing a set. They really do bring your tone to life and let your hands speak in a cool way.

+1

The Thornbuckers are my favourite PAF-style pickups.

 

[York Audio]

+1

The Thornbuckers are my favourite PAF-style pickups.

Agreed. I’m gonna buy some more Suhr pickups to replace my Lollar Imperial High Winds in one of my other Les Pauls. Just haven’t decided if I’m gonna get more Thornbuckers or try something else.

 

[pharmd07]

I have Thornbuckers in my Pete Thorn signature guitar. That guitar has so much amazing clarity. I’m not sure how much of that is attributable to the pickups vs the guitar.

 

[warlockII]

Agreed. I’m gonna buy some more Suhr pickups to replace my Lollar Imperial High Winds in one of my other Les Pauls. Just haven’t decided if I’m gonna get more Thornbuckers or try something else.

PM me if you might be interested in trying a Doug Aldrich set.

 

[JD0x0]

As others have said. Resistance is a poor way to assume a pickup's output.

Sure, it's OK (not great) if you're comparing something like a Strat pickup with 42awg wire, to another strat pickup wound with the same gauge wire. In that case it's fairly safe to assume the extra resistance is due to extra windings. The extra windings will increase inductance (more mids, less highs), and output power.

But, for example, if a pickup is wound with a thinner wire, this will give higher resistance for a given number of winds. If you look at Bill Lawrence's pickups, many of his designs use very thin wire compared to typical 42awg wire. This creates a high resistance, but many of his pickups have a low inductance, which gives tonal performance closer to a pickup that's wound less 'hot'. On the other hand, some of his designs use very powerful magnetic fields. So, then you have a high resistance pickup, with good power, but the EQ is still closer to a cooler pickup, due to the low inductance, the midrange is less prevalent, the highs are less hindered, yet, there's still a generous output.

Inductance is a pretty good way to compare voicings, but again, output isn't necessarily directly related to inductance. A low inductance pickup (Think vintage single coils, filter trons) will have more highs, less mids. A high inductance pickup (think hot rails, or a hot dimarzio) will roll off more highs and have a darker fatter midrange. The higher the inductance, the lower the frequency of the resonant peak of a pickup. The resistance of the pickup will control the height and 'sharpness' of the resonant peak to a degree, as will rolling down the tone pot. (It flattens the resonant peak, before it starts rolling off highs heavily)

Bill Lawrence's general pickup design idea seemed like it was, low inductance, for clarity, then high resistance, to create a more tame resonant peak, so the highs sound less spikey, harsh and ice picky. Basically, more high end bandwidth, but less peaky. That's why some may find his pickups sound a bit more 'HiFi' than traditional designs.

 

[Piing]

I bought at the same the Thornbucker + and the Aldrich. I sold the Thornbucker and kept the Aldrich. Both are great, but I found that the Aldrich have more character at the mids. I find it easier to dial tones to my preferred style with the Alrdrich (more focused at the mids, and with not much sparkle at the highs).

 

[guitarnerdswe]

I bought at the same the Thornbucker + and the Aldrich. I sold the Thornbucker and kept the Aldrich. Both are great, but I found that the Aldrich have more character at the mids. I find it easier to dial tones to my preferred style with the Alrdrich (more focused at the mids, and with not much sparkle at the highs).

Yeah, they're totally different pickups. One is a PAF-type, the other is a high output monster.

 

[York Audio]

I bought at the same the Thornbucker + and the Aldrich. I sold the Thornbucker and kept the Aldrich. Both are great, but I found that the Aldrich have more character at the mids. I find it easier to dial tones to my preferred style with the Alrdrich (more focused at the mids, and with not much sparkle at the highs).

I think the Aldrich might be a little hot for me. I like being able to have more control over the gain knob, and hot pickups tend to sound more congested, at least the few hot ones I have do (Duncan Alpha/Omega, Arcane Bulldozer, and Gibson 500T). I think I’m just an Alnico 2 and Alnico 4 fan. Those magnets tend to let the amp speak a bit more to my ears.