dmccombe7 Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Just bought a passive Godin Shifter bass and i love it but i've noticed the pick-ups are very hot even compared to my active basses. Compared with my other passive basses with amp at exact same settings and bass volumes at max i find with the Godin volume i need to turn the volume on the bass down to less than half the pot range. Its not a major issue by any means but i'm now curious. What causes a pick up to be this hot ? Is it the number of windings in the coils ? Is it just the resistance of the coil wire V's coil windings etc ? I'm just curious TBH. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Magnet material/strength? Closeness to the strings - closer == louder/hotter? Type/material of strings can have an effect? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 (edited) 7 hours ago, neepheid said: Magnet material/strength? Closeness to the strings - closer == louder/hotter? Type/material of strings can have an effect? Plus as OP suggested winds and thickness of the wound wire. But yes, magnet strength have a huge influence on how much output a pickup has as well. And parallel vs. series connection too, if humbuckers. Edited March 15 by Baloney Balderdash 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 Oddly enough the pick ups can be put into serial or parallel mode. In parallel mode the pick ups are def louder and deeper almost boomy with a lack of hi-mid clarity IMO. To be fair i haven't experimented with that position. At the last gig i used series mode and couldn't hear the top end too well and this is the surprising part that wehn i put it into P position only the top end and depth was there. That did surprise me but i have to admit that P pick up is pretty impressive. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 (edited) On 15/03/2024 at 21:21, dmccombe7 said: Oddly enough the pick ups can be put into serial or parallel mode. In parallel mode the pick ups are def louder and deeper almost boomy with a lack of hi-mid clarity IMO. To be fair i haven't experimented with that position. At the last gig i used series mode and couldn't hear the top end too well and this is the surprising part that wehn i put it into P position only the top end and depth was there. That did surprise me but i have to admit that P pick up is pretty impressive. Dave Strange, parallel mode should give less output, and series more output, low end and mids. Edited March 17 by Baloney Balderdash 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 Hi Dave, most of the 'hot' pickups are going to have a lot more windings in the coils. You'll often see this in the specs with the higher impedance or DC resistance of the PUP's. More wire and thinner wire=more resistance. This has a secondary effect, coils have something called inductance where the impedance (resistance which is frequency dependant, sort of) rises with frequency and acts as a low pass filter. More turns means less treble and a darker sounding pickup. That may be what you are hearing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 Magnet material also seems to play a part, if only because of the way the sound is presented tonally. I suppose magnet size/strength will govern the field through which the string passes, also affecting output. AlNiCo magnets are the softest, warmest sounding. Ceramics are harsher and seem "louder/hotter" And as for Neodymium... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 2 hours ago, Lfalex v1.1 said: Magnet material also seems to play a part, if only because of the way the sound is presented tonally. I suppose magnet size/strength will govern the field through which the string passes, also affecting output. AlNiCo magnets are the softest, warmest sounding. Ceramics are harsher and seem "louder/hotter" And as for Neodymium... The field/strength is the word here. An AlNiCo may be weaker than an Nd. The material specifications are dependent on the production process. Therefore the strength cannot be read from the type. Otherwise it would be like the car manufacturer "Ford" equals fast and tractor brand "Lamborghini" equals slow. Measuring requires expensive equipment. As long as people are not able to measure components, these text based descriptions live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 2 hours ago, itu said: The field/strength is the word here. An AlNiCo may be weaker than an Nd. The material specifications are dependent on the production process. Therefore the strength cannot be read from the type. Otherwise it would be like the car manufacturer "Ford" equals fast and tractor brand "Lamborghini" equals slow. Measuring requires expensive equipment. As long as people are not able to measure components, these text based descriptions live. I take your point. It might be nice if manufacturers measured/ declared such specifications? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 4 hours ago, Lfalex v1.1 said: I take your point. It might be nice if manufacturers measured/ declared such specifications? But they do! When you order bigger amounts of magnets, you specify material, shape, size, and strength. Any pickup manufacturer could include details of magnets, coils etc. Why not? Should we ask them? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted March 16 Share Posted March 16 It wouldn't hurt if it helped people make better/more appropriate purchasing decisions! I've never needed to purchase any pickups. But from what I can recall seeing, they only quote things like DC resistance, Resonant frequency, wire gauge and maybe how many windings there are. Yes, they quote magnet material, but field density/ strength? Don't think I've seen that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 (edited) On 15/03/2024 at 20:57, Baloney Balderdash said: Strange parallel mode should give less output, and series more output, low end and mids. Maybe i've got it round the wrong way. That's highly possible as i've never had a bass with a series parallel switch in such a long long time. That would make more sense as i vaguely remember someone mentioning that you can do that with a jazz bass by fitting a switch giving more depth. Dave Edited March 17 by dmccombe7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmccombe7 Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 On 16/03/2024 at 07:39, Phil Starr said: Hi Dave, most of the 'hot' pickups are going to have a lot more windings in the coils. You'll often see this in the specs with the higher impedance or DC resistance of the PUP's. More wire and thinner wire=more resistance. This has a secondary effect, coils have something called inductance where the impedance (resistance which is frequency dependant, sort of) rises with frequency and acts as a low pass filter. More turns means less treble and a darker sounding pickup. That may be what you are hearing. yep that does seem like a good description of the tone but i do like it. Just means i need to boost the Hi-mids a bit on the amp. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 (edited) 18 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said: yep that does seem like a good description of the tone but i do like it. Just means i need to boost the Hi-mids a bit on the amp. Dave Yeah it's a good stage tone, most of the top end will just end up competing with the guitarist and vocalists part of the frequency range, so with a bit of high mids added in you'll sit nicely in the mix. Who needs extra string noise anyway Edited March 17 by Phil Starr 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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