Sound test of Wide Range Humbucker conducted by GITEC

[antigua]

The German guitar research group called GITEC www.gitec-forum-eng.de/ sent me a message telling me that they're finished their 3rd article on the Wide Range Humbucker. This article discusses a listening test between an authentic CuNiFe WRHB and various clones, the Lollar version, the Creamery version, and stock pickups from a Fender Mexico reissue:

www.gitec-forum-eng.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/TZ-Fender-Humbucker-Pt-3-WKM.pdf


With these things I often like to jump right to the conclusion, and then read from the top, so that it's easier to follow along, so here is the conclusion of that article:



An interesting aspect of this article is the observations about listening tests in general, and the importance of double blind testing, as well as normalizing variables as much as possible:

"When the player turned away so that the listeners could not see which PU was in operation (i.e. a kind-of "blind-test" scenario), it turned out that it became very difficult to distinguish between the PU types."

"To our surprise, the differences in sound between the pickups did actually all but disappear when we compensated for the difference in output level."


For reference,

Part 1, technical details of the original WRHB: www.gitec-forum-eng.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/tz_fender_wide_range_humbucker_pt_1.pdf

Part 2, technical details of some clones www.gitec-forum-eng.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/tz_fender_wide_range_humbucker_pt_2.pdf

[ms]

When there were "stereo stores" where you could listen to different systems and pick out the best you could afford, a smart salesman knew that you played the one you wanted the customer to buy just a little bit louder while pretending to adjust the volumes the same.

And that is so simple compared to to a situation where distortion is intentional, and a player is adjusting to a given set of conditions.

[antigua]

Yeah that's something I hadn't considered. We might expect people to say "it just sounds louder", but instead we say "it sounds better". And this is yet another example of how identical pickups can result in non identical listening experiences.

[ms]

Aug 10, 2020 4:23:20 GMT -5 antigua said:

Yeah that's something I hadn't considered. We might expect people to say "it just sounds louder", but instead we say "it sounds better". And this is yet another example of how identical pickups can result in non identical listening experiences.

I think that this listening test is telling us that there are enough variables in the process that controls how an electric guitar sounds so that really small differences in the pickups are swamped by other factors.  This is pointing in this direction: you can make measurements that are more sensitive to pickup differences than matter in practice.  I am not saying not  to measure, but rather saying that in the design process, proceed with measurements for the best way to establish differences, and then see what really matters using good listening tests.