Vintage pedal steel owners-pickup resistance help needed!

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

I would like to ask some of my friends here for a small favor.. I am looking to find the actual resistance on..

Fender400- 800-1000-2000 pickups,

60's or very Early 70's Buds especially coil tap models,

original ZB especially the 3 coil tap models..

old Emmons PP from the 60's..

I am considering having a pickup made using early specs..
Todays flamethowers are all too loud and muddy to my ears.. 19.5 K in a single coil??.. not me brother... Just looking for starting points... any help would be great!... Just stick an ohm meter on your old horn, and let me know what it reads .. I am really interested... bob

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Bob - my early 70s, round-front, rack and barrel Sho Bud Professional Model 6139 with coil-tap pickup reads 15.6 KOhm in the full-on position and 10.8 KOhm in the tapped position. It sounds great, but different, in either position - to my ears anyway.

Jay Ganz · From: Out Behind The Barn

Bob,
The Fender 400 I used to record the tune on my
website is 8K. I imagine the wire guage is the
standard Fender stuff. If you use a different thickness
you can get it would to 8K also, but it will sound a bit different.
My Sho~Bud Professional is the typical 20K with a
tap at 10K. All of my 60's Emmons are 14K.

Chris Lucker · From: Los Angeles, California USA

My pickups on one 1964 Emmons were changed to single coils in 1965 and they read 14.6 and 14.8.
Another 64 Emmons has Stereo, so does not count.
A 1965 or maybe 1966 Red Belly Emmons has 14.5 and 14.8.
I had a 1969 Emmons that read 16.2 and 16.4.
I have a loose pair of black surround Emmons pickups -- so probably 1966 and earlier -- and they read 14.6 and 15.4.

Chris Lucker · From: Los Angeles, California USA

I forgot about the 1967 Bolt-on with tapped pickups -- they tested in the mid-13s and 20k depending on the switch setting. The 20k ohms made the room rumble to my ears.

John Bechtel · From: Nashville, Tennessee, R.I.P.

To my best recollection, my Sho_Bud ‘The Professional’ P/U's were supposed to be 22k and 11k w/switch engaged. That was also in my Custom~Made (by Shot) 4~Neck 10-str. Non-Pedal. I was told this, but; didn't do any measuring back in those days! Nowadays I measure everything I buy, just out of curiosity! I was disappointed when I got a reading in the 16,300 range on the E-66 P/U's. I prefer the 19,500 10–1's.
_________________
<marquee> Go~Daddy~Go, (No), Go, It's your Break Time</marquee> L8R, jb
My T-10 Remington Steelmaster

Charles Rodrigues · From: Tiverton, Rhode Island, USA

Bob,

I have an early 70's, if not earlier, Sho-Bud D10. I measured the resistance of each pickup using a Simpson 260 multimeter set to the RX100 scale. The resistance is as follows:

E9 bottom neck= 4.5K OHMS
C6 top neck= 5.0K OHMS

The Sho-Bud has a nice mellow tone. I hope this helps you.

Chuck

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Early Fenders (400-1000) should measure about 6k to 6.5k, and the later (800-2000) should be around 7.5k to 8k. Be advised that this light a winding generally demands a good amp to get some real "body" or fullness in the tone. Of course, if highs are your main concern, just about any amp will suffice.

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Bob. I am not an expert in this, but might I give you something to think about.

You are obviously looking to put this pickup in the red MSA.

Your guitar body and mechanics will be a big determining factor on what your guitar will sound like. You might get closer to the vintage sound you want with a lower or a higher impedence than the original impedence numbers you getting from these old pickups. I think that the only way you will be able to get close to the sound you are looking for would be to actually borrow some single coil pickups of different impedences and put them into the guitar and listen to them. I don't really see how you could get some number values and have a pickup wound to them and then put it in the guitar and hope for a miracle. Just a thought to help you in your quest.

Edit. Another thing you might try is to have a single coil pickup wound for you with a high impedence. Have whoever winds it for you put a little turrent on the outside winding connection with the wire to the output soldered to the bottom of the pickup and the outside wire soldered to the top. Then you could easily unsolder the outside wire and unwind the pickup and test it at different intervals until you get close to the sound you want. Then you could have the pickup made in its final configuration.

J Fletcher · From: London,Ont,Canada

I had a 1970 or so S12 Emmons that sounded fantastic, had a 12K pickup. I was never too excited by the sound of my early 80's Le Grande, but recently put in an Emmons single coil 18k pickup, with a tap at 9k, and now it is a lot closer to what I'm looking for. In the 9k position, it has way more clarity, way less midrange, lots more top end, and a bit less volume. I can now use the guitar tone control, to roll off a bit of the top end if I like, where before I had no use at all for the tone control....Jerry

Lee Jeffriess · From: Vallejo California

Bob, dont get to hung up on the DC resistance, I think the key is the inductance of a PU, my favourite is in the 1.7 to 3K range. most people would think that would be limited,but with lower impedances and,more magnet you start getting smoother more HiFi sounds, the Bigsby and, Wright custom blade PUs are good examples, there only down side is microphonics, but now we are better able to deal with this.
If you need specs shoot me a email.
Lee

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Lee's right, but I know where Bob is going with this and the numbers DO have meaning in this context.

FWIW, my 2-pickup (modified) newer '63 400 is 8.1 and 8.2k; my '57 1000's are 6.7 and 6.8k. My GFI Ultra GFI II (a 'buker) is around 12.5k as I recall, which is real low for a modern pickup and I believe a reason it sounds so Fender-like.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

I am having a triple coil tap made... I have been thinking about having it wound @ 8K- 11.5 k and 15k.... I wanted some guidlines from old units, and they are about where I figured they might be...

I KNOW its not going to sound like a Fender on 8, a Bud on 11.5 and an Emmons on 15. I am NOT that naive'... The reason I wanted vintage specs is because I had a feeling that ALL the great sounding steels of yesteryear had much less powerful pickups than what is common today.

.I have talked at length on this topic with Jerry Wallace.. He knows what I am after...

Todays steels are just too thick sounding for my style... They sound great in the right hands.. Mine are not the right hands.. I don't play big fat chord melodies with big bass response and a mid so thick you can walk across it.. I like a bright, whiney steel sound..That 15 K final position is all the meat and heat I will ever use..

on my Carter steel, the 7.5 winding gets used 90% of the time and it sounds wonderful.. Smooth, glassy,bright and "pedal steely".. NOT tinny at all... I hardly touch the 12 K tap...

I use tube amps that are not designed for steel, so I don't like a massive signal overdriving the front end.

The 30K Bill Lawrence and 18 K Truetone rewind in the MSA sounded remarkably similar.. The TT is a little clearer and has better note definition.. the XR 16 mid was massive and rich.. BOTH were too dark and powerful for my taste, but the TT is much closer to a sound I can use effectively...

When I had my Bud here for the past year or so, I used only the 10 K tap.. The 20 K tap was useless.. Loud dark and muddy..

The triple tap TT should do nicely.. I should be able to cover most of my "tonal requirments" with 8/11.5/15 K... whattdya think???.. bob

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