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Topic: Low impedance pickups |
Laurent Arams
From:
Edmonton,Alberta, Canada
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Posted 30 Dec 2009 9:21 am |
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Hello all, just a quick question if anyone has ever used low impedance pickup on their lapsteels before. I've been reading the Les Paul books and came across that he got his super clean sound from them. Any thoughts?
Thanks for your time,
Laurent |
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Danny James
From:
Summerfield Florida USA
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Posted 30 Dec 2009 11:22 am
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By "low impedance" if your thinking in terms of ohms of resistance in a pickup coil, there is a wide range of resistance in them from one guitar manufacturer to the next. A lot has to do with the players choice as to what sound they want.
The old Rickenbacher's with the horseshoe magnets in their "fry pan" guitars had as little as 2.5 K ohms, using 38 gauge pickup wire.
Some of the modern country pedal steel guitars have pickup coils with well over 20K ohms. of resistance. Most use either 42 or 43 gauge wire.
Much of this pick up wire diameter is about the thickness of a hair. (approx.--- .0025 inches in diameter.) ( 2 and 1/2 thousandths of an inch) That's pretty thin wire.  |
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James Kerr
From:
Scotland, UK
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Posted 30 Dec 2009 2:55 pm
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Laurent,
The nearest modern equivalent to your Low Impedance Pickup would be the Alumitone, it has no copper wire windings around the magnets at all. The Les Paul pickups you speak of had a small Amplifier inserted in the Guitar Cord as it entered the Amp, the Alumitone also has a small Amplifier fitted inside.
The Alumitone is on the right hand side in this photo.
James.
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Jerry Overstreet
From:
Louisville Ky
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Posted 30 Dec 2009 3:22 pm
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Laurent, you might be thinking of the Les Paul Personal model from Gibson. They were designed primarily for recording work I think.
Very few of them made. A friend of mine has one of them. It's a bit different animal for sure.
I don't know of any other pickups/electronics designed in this vein. Here's a link to that model.
http://jbwid.com/guitar/lpp01.htm |
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Bill Creller
From:
Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)
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Posted 30 Dec 2009 4:49 pm
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Old pre-war bakelites have low impedence coils, and the readings are all over the place. I did two a few years ago, and one was 1514 ohms, and the other was 1277. I heard (may have been a rumor!) that those were wound by women at the factory, like "that looks like enough wire on there" type operation 
The last few I had wound for horseshoe pickups were around 1800 ohms per my request, by Jason Lollar.
The output is a bit less with fewer turns on the coil, but not by much. Magnet strength may have something to do with that (?) |
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John Bushouse
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Posted 31 Dec 2009 9:35 am
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The new Gibson "Dusk Tiger" guitar uses low impedance pickups. Here's how they describe it:
LP-Z Circuit
The Dusk Tiger features a Built-in LP-Z High Definition Impedance Circuit, designed and named in honor of the late Les Paul’s constant quest for high-definition guitar tone.
The Dusk Tiger’s vastly improved output jacks also include a built-in active, low-impedance converter comprising Gibson’s new, proprietary LP-Z High Definition Impedance Circuit. The player can select either a traditional, passive high-z output, or the LP-Z’s active low-z output.
The LP-Z creates an immediate improvement in fidelity, allowing you to run long lengths of cable without losing any quality, delivering the highest definition sound that has ever come from an electric guitar. The difference has been compared to the visual difference in moving from old low-definition TV systems to a new high-def system, and the clarity and depth of tonal improvement that it brings to the game have to be heard to be believed.
Some info on the Les Paul Personal, Professional and Recording models - not very popular, but what Les Paul preferred to play:
http://jbwid.com/guitar/lpp01.htm
http://www.ntw.net/~w0ui/family_webpage/linkpages/music/music_lespaulrecording.htm
The pickups for the Les Paul Professional were made by EMG. If you want to check out some low impedance pickups, EMGs and Bartolinis are something to look at. They are low impedance, active pickups.
http://www.emgpickups.com/
http://www.bartolini.net/ |
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John Bushouse
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Mark Roeder
From:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 31 Dec 2009 3:55 pm
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I have used EMGs active pick ups with good results. I'm not sure what you want in a sound Laurent but they are cheap enough to experiment with. They are not sold as steel guitar pickups, they are 7 and 8 string guitar PUs with a big enough magnetic field for a Steel.
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