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Post by blademaster2 on May 29, 2019 9:28:00 GMT -5
I had a chat with a friend of mine, who is a professional metal guitarist, about his pickups of choice. His answer: Seymour Duncan Black Winter
When I played his guitar, equipped with one of these in the bridge position, it was far clearer and 'crunchier' than another guitar I had with me - of the exact same brand and model - with stock pickups. This was through the same amplifier at the same settings.
I see that these models use ceramic magnets and are wound quite 'hot' (16.9kohms), but that is all I know of their specifications. I saw nothing on their frequency response out on the internet.
Has anyone done any controlled measurements with these pups? I am very curious how they compare to, say, the DiMarzio Super Distortion or equivalent models.
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Post by antigua on May 30, 2019 15:10:27 GMT -5
You can see why the pickup companies are reluctance to share technical details. It might effectively be identical to Super Distortion, but since neither has an especially distinctive sound, how would you know? The fact that two pickups are marketed differently is reason enough for them to exist, even if they are otherwise identical. I'm hoping the price of LCR meters comes down to be similar to that of a generic multimeter, so that people who have Black Winters on hand can tell us what the inductance is, since the company that makes them would rather keep us in the dark.
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Post by JohnH on May 30, 2019 15:58:41 GMT -5
I'm hoping the price of LCR meters comes down to be similar to that of a generic multimeter, so that people who have Black Winters on hand can tell us what the inductance is, since the company that makes them would rather keep us in the dark. I agree, and they are available quite reasonably. My current multimeter was $50 AU, and has capacitance and inductance ranges that measure known coils and caps within spec. It seems to work at around 100hz which is ideal for pickups and cross-over inductors. |
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Post by blademaster2 on May 30, 2019 16:20:36 GMT -5
You can see why the pickup companies are reluctance to share technical details. It might effectively be identical to Super Distortion, but since neither has an especially distinctive sound, how would you know? The fact that two pickups are marketed differently is reason enough for them to exist, even if they are otherwise identical. I'm hoping the price of LCR meters comes down to be similar to that of a generic multimeter, so that people who have Black Winters on hand can tell us what the inductance is, since the company that makes them would rather keep us in the dark. Good points. In my case I also have a guitar that has DiMarzio Super Distortions installed in it. My impression from trying my friend's guitar with the Black Winters - although I never tried at the time that my friend was visiting to do a good A/B comparison - was that the Black Winter has more of a biting, crunchy tone through my Marshall combo than the Super Distortion pups do. Of course any differences in age/condition of the strings would also influence this a fair amount even if I had done that. Specification for the Super Distortion was around 10kohms resistance and 8.5H inductance if I recall correctly (published data when I bought them many years ago, not measured by me), so there is apparently a difference at least in the DC resistance compared to the Black Winter ones. What I heard was compelling enough that I might just get a pair and install them into one of my guitars to try them out. As pickups go they are not cheap, "but I'm worth it" (or so I will tell my wife!). |
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