Pickup Windings

[andy]

I can't believe that I never thought about this before, and I'm sure it is has a very simple answer, but why do pickups not short circuit themselves?

They seem to be a compactly wound bundle of wire, all touching, with each end running to a contact. How do they continue to act as a 'coil', and not one round blob of conductive material? The wire does not appear to be insulated in any way at all.

Please alleviate my ignorance/lack of common sense!

[stratotak]

Is'nt the wire coated with a thin film of something..enamel or some poly coating...atleast this is what this brand coats theres with..
www.schattendesign.com/coilwire.htm

[kuzi16]

if i am not mistaken (and i may be mistaken, i too am new to this) the pickup itself is effectivly a magnet with two wires comming out of it. the wrapped wire is PART OF THE MAGNET, not part of the wire. when the string vibrates it creates an electrical charge. (in my head an electro magnet generator has three elements: electricity motion and magnetism. you need two to make the third) the charge then leaves through the poles of the magnet as electricity.

thats off the top of my head. i hope that was at least close.

maybe someone can explain it better than myself

[andy]

Actually, the magnet and wire are different entities- the string moving in the magnetic field causes electrons to move in the coils of wire. The string itself does not create a charge, but its disruption of the magnetic field causes electricity to move in the coil, and out to whatever it may be attached to, ultimately, in this context, the output of the guitar.

I was wondering how the coils of the wire, whilst touching each other still functioned as a coil rather than just act as one solid conductor, but as stratotak's link shows, the wire seems to be insulated, but extremely finely, so you (I) wouldn't know it to look at it!

Thanks for chipping in, you were on the right track with the working of the pickup- hopefully my description is clear (and completely correct- we'll see!) and cheers to stratotak for pointing me at the answer.

[ChrisK]

A good start;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_field

Electrodynamics is key;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_electromagnetism

For really small guitars and pickups;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_electrodynamics

IMHO, a good book on the subject;
www.doverdirect.com/0486654931.html


Don't forget our own thread on electronic theory;
Help, I don't Understand Electronics

This is a good link on pickup theory therein;
www.buildyourguitar.com/resources/lemme/