Post by antigua on Jan 8, 2018 1:00:51 GMT -5
Product URL: www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-Quality-Nickel-silver-Alnico-5-lp-guitar-pickup-PAF-style-with-Nickel-cover-baseplate/32838947638.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.265.DLpQW4
Donlis is a company that is making (or at least branding) reasonably good knock-offs of domestic pickups that sell for a small fraction of the cost of the domestic pickups they're modeled after. Based on the wiring color codes, it appears that they model their humbuckers after Seymour Duncan's humbuckers.
This set is one that goes for about $45, has closely resembles Seymour Duncan's "four conductor wire", short leg humbuckers, such as the Jazz set. The magnets used are said to be AlNiCo 5.
With products that come from China under "no name" brands, you can't always be sure you're getting things as advertised, but the bode plots below show a strong resonance that is in fact associated with nickel silver covers.
How does it measure up to expensive pickups? This set differs from Seymour Duncan's in a number of trivial ways, but is substantially similar in two ways that are of utmost importance: the use of a nickel silver cover and base plate, and coils that match the electrical values of "P.A.F." inspired sets, such as the '59 or the Jazz. The nickel silver is important because it reduces eddy currents, which when made of brass, will knock off 3dB to 5dB at the pickup's peak resonance. The inductance values of the Donlis set are 5.6H for the bridge and 4.4H for the neck. A Seymour Duncan Antiquity Bridge measured 5.2H, and a Seymour Duncan '59 neck measured 4.3H, so the Donlis set falls very close to the marks that guitarists generally come to expect from premium pickup sets. The magnets have also been installed "correctly", so that the screw's polarity is south up.
The more trivial differences are ones that won't impact the sound, such as placing two plastic spacers along the edges of the base plate, instead of one plastic spacer and a portion of the hookup wire (in truth though, two inches less of hookup wire means about 10pF less cable capacitance). The base plate has two hookup holes at either corner, even though only one hole is required and used, which is a common characteristic of humbuckers from the East. As can be seen in the picture below, the hole that is used depends on whether the pickup is intended to be used in the bridge or neck position.
How does it differ from a vintage P.A.F.? As for further differences that separate this from a true "P.A.F.", those differences are inert as well; the plastic used it most likely not butyrate, the spacer(s) is not maple, the magnet wire does not use enamel insulation, and the particular grade of steel used for the pole pieces is unknown, but the bode plots show that the steel's performance doesn't deviate from what is found in premium domestic pickups. Some also say that AlNiCo 5, despite being popular, is not "vintage correct", though magnets are particularly easy to swap out. Vintage P.A.F.s also had "long legs" and of course, two conductor braided wire.
One notable thing, as seen in the pics below, it gets right is the use of wax paper tape around the coils, rather than cloth tape, which is nice but not "vintage correct", nor does it use vinyl electric tape, which is ubiquitous with Chinese pickups in the lowest price and quality tier.
In the ways that are most important, the use of low conductivity metal and wind counts that lend to a clear sounding neck pickup and a substantial sounding bridge, these $45 Donlis pickups are perfectly "P.A.F.".
Little problems? There are a couple small issues, but it's hard to demand perfection when you get nickel silver humbuckers for $45. In one of the pics below, it can be seen that the slugs were inserted with slightly uneven heights. Some of the slug protrude more than others. As a result, the cover doesn't clamp down tightly to the top of the humbucker, and so there is a about half a millimeter of extra clearance that is filled with wax. I've opened up several domestic humbuckers that were not tightly claimed either, though, so this isn't all that unusual. The slug alignment is also something that can be easily fixed.
Another strange thing is that, as can be seen in the pics below, there are what appear to be saw marks where the cover is soldered to the base plate. It looks as though the cover was soldered once before, then the solder was sawed away, and then it was soldered again. This has no impact on the performance of the pickup, it's just a manufacturing curiosity.
Another small thing, they pre-soldered the chasis wire to the black lead instead of the green lead, which would be typical of Seymour Duncan, but that's easily corrected.
For the price point, none of these issues are really "issues". You can fix pre-soldered wires, but you couldn't fix a brass cover and base plate, or an undesirable coil inductance.
Should I buy a set??? Should I buy a set??? The $45 set is a very good deal. Two nickel silver covers alone costs about $40 from domestic suppliers. Stewmac sells ONE unassembled nickel silver P.A.F. kit for $30, containing unwound bobbins, magnet wire not included. So in addition to be a good value for pickups, it's a killer value for the parts, alone.
Probably the worst part of the deal is that it took two month for the set to arrive from China. If time is an issue, the next best option would be the BYO Blizzard set, which goes for about $70, more closely resembled domestic P.A.F. clones in the handful of ways the Donlis humbuckers don't, and will usually arrive within a week.
Measurements:
Donlis DLS51 Bridge
- DC Resistance: 8.52K ohms
- Measured L: 5.591H
- Calculated C: 134pF (144 - 10)
- Gauss: 200G screw
Bridge unloaded: dV: 4.6dB f: 5.61kHz (black)
Bridge loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 1.6dB f: 2.50kHz (red)
Donlis DLS51 Neck
- DC Resistance: 7.34K ohms
- Measured L: 4.366H
- Calculated C: 118pF (128 - 10)
- Gauss: 240G screw
Neck unloaded: dV: 3.7dB f: 6.73kHz (green)
Neck loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 1.7dB f: 2.93kHz (gray)
Hookup wire protrudes out the different holes:
Sawing / grinding marks under the solder:
Wax paper taped coils:
Two plastic spacers:
Uneven slug protrusion:
