Post by antigua on Feb 9, 2020 16:57:26 GMT -5
I bought the BYO Storm set a couple years ago www.strat-talk.com/threads/byo-storm-analysis-and-review.454590/ and was confused and labeled them the Heat Wave set in that post. This is the real Heat Wave set. I don't really care for "hot" Strat sets, but looking at the details, I didn't think they really were in fact "hot" pickups, and sure enough, while the bridge is hot, the neck and middle pickups are collectively weaker than the BYO Storm's neck and middle pickup.
BYO spec'd 43 AWG wire for the neck and middle Heat Wave pickups, so if you judge by DC resistance you would think they were hotter, but they most likely have exactly the same turn count, because the inductance measures are very close. Here is a conversion chart I made by factoring nominal resistances per foot:
To convert 42 AWG to 43 AWG equivalent, you multiply the resistance by 1.29 ( 2143 / 1659 )
To convert 42 AWG to 44 AWG equivalent, you multiply the resistance by 1.56 ( 2593 / 1659 )
To convert 43 AWG to 42 AWG equivalent, you multiply the resistance by 0.77 ( 1659 / 2143 )
To convert 43 AWG to 44 AWG equivalent, you multiply the resistance by 1.21 ( 2593 / 2143 )
To convert 44 AWG to 42 AWG equivalent, you multiply the resistance by 0.64 ( 1659 / 2593 )
To convert 44 AWG to 43 AWG equivalent, you multiply the resistance by 0.83 ( 2143 / 2593 )
This set compares very close to the Seymour Duncan Antiquity set guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7746/seymour-duncan-antiquity-surfer-analysis or the Tonerider City Limits, in that the neck and middle pickups are basic vintage output pickups, but the bridge pickups are significantly over-wound, nearly as much as an SSL-5, much more wire than Texas Specials, to the point of matching or surpassing Telecaster bridge pickups. The loaded resonant peak of the neck and middle pickups are 4.27kHz which is like a 57/62 or a CS '69, the bridge pickups is 3.36kHz, similar to a typical Tele bridge. The difference in turn counts is enough that the bridge pickup puts out 3dBV greater output than the neck and middle pickups for a given input. This setup with the hot bridge is sort of like a pseudo HHS pickup configuration.
IMO this is a true "balanced set", where the neck and middle pickup are one of a kind, and the bridge pickup deviates significantly. The typical balanced set where the inductance of each varies by about 200 millihenries, you could put the pickups in back wards and you never notice the difference. The difference in voltage output between pickups 0.2 henries apart is well below 1dB and not audible.
These BYO pickups only cost $65 for the whole set and in every way are comparable to Lollars and the like, from the pickups to the packaging. I peeled the tape back on the bridge pickup, and the coils are obviously machine wound, but amazingly flat, and very clean. The cloth tape is cut vertically and always terminates at the ends, so the faces of the pickup looks spotless, even though this details will be hidden under two layers of plastic when all is said and done. The chamfer on the pole pieces is identical from pole piece to pole piece, and the stagger is identical. As far as pickups go, it's between BYO and Tonerider, and these are a notch above. They're a little cleaner, and look like they're made with extra care.
Like the Toneriders and unlike a lot of other Chinese pickups, the pole piece spacing is 52mm all the way across, so there is no problem swapping plastic covers.
BYO Heat Wave
Bridge
- DC Resistance: 9.250K ohms
- Measured L: 3.500H
- Calculated C: 80.56pF
- Gauss: 1050G south up (AlNiCo 5)
Middle
- DC Resistance: 7.442K ohms
- Measured L: 2.283H
- Calculated C: 90.94pF
- Gauss: 1050G south up (AlNiCo 5)
Neck
- DC Resistance: 7.274K ohms
- Measured L: 2.229H
- Calculated C: 93.49pF
- Gauss: 1050G south up (AlNiCo 5)
Bridge unloaded: dV: 15.0dB f: 8.75kHz (black)
Bridge loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 5.7dB f: 3.36kHz (blue)
Middle unloaded: dV: 14.1dB f: 10.3kHz (red)
Middle loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 6.7dB f: 4.27kHz (green)
Neck unloaded: dV: 14.1dB f: 10.4kHz (pink)
Neck loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 6.7dB f: 4.27kHz (black)
