Hot pickups

John Sluszny · Post by **John Sluszny** » 10 Jun 2003 7:58 am

Why are steelguitars' pickups much hotter than electric guitars' ones?
Thanx.
js

jerry wallace · Post by **jerry wallace** » 11 Jun 2003 10:29 am

John, The main reason {there are some others} that Steel guitar pickups are "hotter" than a standard 6 string guitar is the length of the winding area..

A Tele or Strat for instance is about 2" center to center on the 1st and 6th string..While a 10 string pedal steel is about 3" C/C 1st to 10th..In order to get the proper inductance in the coil a certain number of turns needs to be wound..The wire has a fixed resistance per foot..Number #42 for example is about 1.659 ohms per foot.

So the same number of turns on a 10 string steel pickup will give you considerably more resistance {hotter} than the same number of turns on a 6 string due to the increase in the length of the wire per turn.

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Jerry Wallace-2001 Zum: D-10,8+6, "98 Zum: D-10,8+8,Nashville 1000,Session 500 ,Session 400 head only amp,Tubefex,ProfexII, Artesia, New Mexico
http://www.jerrywallacemusic.com

[This message was edited by jerry wallace on 11 June 2003 at 11:33 AM.]

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 11 Jun 2003 10:37 pm

the same number of turns on a 10 string steel pickup will give you considerably more resistance {hotter}

Jerry I suspect you meant more inductance...
more resistance would give more load, hence a weaker signal. Typo I'm sure.

And I'll note the magnet structure is also larger on the 10 string pickups.[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 11 June 2003 at 11:39 PM.]

jerry wallace · Post by **jerry wallace** » 12 Jun 2003 9:28 pm

David, yes your correct more turns does equal more inductance..However , it also equals more DC resistance due to the #42 wire having 1.659 ohms per foot..Each turn around the magnets will give you approximately .8 ohms around 6 strings and 1.12 ohms around 10 strings.. Since the distance around 10 magnets is further than 6 magnets..

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Jerry Wallace-2001 Zum: D-10,8+6, "98 Zum: D-10,8+8,Nashville 1000,Session 500 ,Session 400 head only amp,Tubefex,ProfexII, Artesia, New Mexico
http://www.jerrywallacemusic.com

Jason Lollar · Post by **Jason Lollar** » 13 Jun 2003 10:37 am

I think what Jerry is alluding to is people equate hot with high resistance which is an error.
"Modern" steel sound compared to old timey sound is from putting alot of turns on the pickup, this will generally increase the voltage induced which with some amps will give you a more compressed sound making it smoother on attack and the high turn count will give you a fatter sound at the expense of some cut depending on the magnets and design.
Thats the "modern" sound to me.
The old timey sound is punchier and clearer and it just so happens that because of the magnets used on very old steels the output is sometimes tremendous with few turns giving a clearer sound. The wire diameter is usually far bigger than what was used later so the ohms will fool you into thinking its a low output pickup.
Why were they so high output? Was it just a fluke of design or did the amps back in the 30's have limited gain?
I think maybe it was the latter and amplifier technology advanced faster than the pickups. I think pickups caught up later and thats when you start to see the designs begin to resemble each other and you really ony have two or three different kinds.
Its all just me speculating but maybe its possible.