Hello all,
I prefer to do my own research rather than to hound people with questions, but sometimes I just can't find the answer. This is another one of those times. that I can't seem to find the answer to anywhere, so I thought I'd put it to you electronics wizards and beg for an answer. Will the low-z characteristics change the values of caps, pots, resistors, etc., needed to make a good sounding LM386 amp I guess the question is, can you tune an amp to best performance with low-z pickups or other types? Will low-z pickups work well with these setups, or should there be adjustments?
Thank you in advance for any help you guys can offer.
Ray
Replies
Something to take into mind is when Les Paul & Seth Lover were doing their pickup experiments, everything was tube driven, including mixing boards & recording equip, not solid state, like the modern LM386. A lot more power, plus they used output transformers & chokes on most speakers back then, which worked in favor of Lo Z . Did you know there are over 7,000 winds on a Strat pickup, actually between 6,000 & 8,000, depending on what model you get? I was amazed when I first learned about that? I say build the amp & see what it sounds like, there’s only one way to find out? I have 3 I’m working on right now: a point to point build, stripboard build & perfboard build- lil’ gem, minty & smokey amps. They’re way to easy after you build a few?
I hope to someday build a tube amp or two in the future. I have a healthy respect for electricity and won't be rushing into that sort of thing until I get some experience in this. As far as winding counts go, I saw some a while back that had something like 10,000 winds. Staggering.
Thanks for all the info and good luck on your builds!
By the way, thank you for the help!
I've done quite a bit of studying on the low-z pickups and how to use a buffer or a microphone connector or some kind of effects pedal with a buffer. I was intrigued after reading about the beginnings of the magnetic pickup and how Les Paul built the first studio LPs with Low-z pickups and how he started doing lots of research on it. Also read how the guitar community pretty much just went the Hi-Fi route. Some people think they went the wrong way and should have gone the other way. I wanted to do some experiments since I am curious about almost EVERYTHING. Mostly though, I chose making pickups from wall-wart wire because of the cost. I just couldn't afford 42 or 43 wire. I have since been given a small unused roll of Remington 42. I twisted a pickup up last night and should be finishing it in the next day or two when I install it in an unassembled guitar. I'll post a sound file on my page when done. I got about 3200 winds out of it before I chickened out and stopped winding.
Forgot to add, the Lo Z has nothing to do with the tone of the components, it has to do with impedance & output? Generally you want a pickup with at least a 2K resistance to get proper output?
One question, why did you build Low Z pickups, commonly they’re used for getting fat sounding bass & use an active system? You could use a preamp or a Lo - Hi Z line matching transformer like they use for microphones? Lo Z will always give you lower output, so you’ll need something to boost & balance it? My advice, more windings on future pickups. You should be alright with a Ruby since it has an impedance boosting buffer in the circuit?