Post by antigua on Jan 31, 2021 22:19:16 GMT -5
As an Oasis fan, I've had positive thoughts about Epiphone from day one. This weekend I happened to be messing with two Oasis themed guitars, the 90's Supernova and the limited edition Union Jack from a few years ago.
Supernova:
The Supernova model came with humbuckers that are both labeled
57CH(G)
DOT: NECK, BRIDGE
LP: NECK
They're not identical though, one has a red lead and the other black, as can be seen the black lead was assigned to the neck spot. The magnetic polarity of the back lead neck is also reverse, north at the screw tops instead of south. They sounded in phase, so the pickup with the black lead must be wired reverse underneath.
These are the electrical values I measured :
Epiphone 57CH(G) #1
- DC Resistance: 8.643K ohms
- Q @1khz: 5.827
- Measured L: 4.987H
- Calculated C: 142.63pF
- Gauss: 300G (AlNiCo 5)
Epiphone 57CH(G) #2
- DC Resistance: 8.994K ohms
- Q @1khz: 1.614
- Measured L: 4.948H
- Calculated C: 184.5pF
- Gauss: 300G (AlNiCo 5)
The 57CH's have brass covers, so the treble was never prominent, also the inductance being almost 5 henries is a bit on the high side. Even though they say real PAFs had specs all over the place, these days a new "PAF neck" pickup is usually closer to 4.5 henries, and a "PAF bridge" is closer to 5 henries, so both of these pickups are more like bridge pickups. I just replaced them with SD Antiquities I happened to have, they have electrical values that I think make for a better sound. If I had to do over, I'd buy something cheaper, such as BYO Blizzards, at a fraction of the price.
I would have created bode plots for these pickups, but working through the f-holes was very tedious, and now I'm too warn out to set up the USB oscilloscope, but in this case the metal types are known, that's probably the one thing that the bode plots are most useful for, if one has already determined the capacitance and the inductance.
Union Jack
This guitar is not officially associated with Oasis, but unlike the Supernova, this model is a more true recreation of the actual custom Union Jack Sherton I that Noel Gallagher played. It's essentially a Sherton I reissue with a cool paint job. They were
The pickups are actual Gibson mini humbuckers. These are the electrical values I took:
Gibson LP Deluxe
Lead
- DC Resistance: 5.355K ohms
- Q @1khz: 1.091
- Measured L: 2.304H
- Calculated C: 220pF
- Gauss: 400G
Rhy
- DC Resistance: 6.252K ohms
- Q @1khz: 1.730
- Measured L: 3.035H
- Calculated C: 255pF
- Gauss: 400G
Given that they're Gibson pickups, the base and cover are probably nickel silver, and they sound very bright, I don't have cause to suspect otherwise.
The strange thing is that the 2.3 henry bridge pickup is lower wound than the 3 henry neck pickup, which is sort of backwards, usually the bridge is wound hotter than the neck. I don't know if this was intentional design, of just a fluke. I switched them around after having discovered this.
I've seen people speculate that the mini humbuckers are like the full sized versions, but smaller, but it looks to me like they used 42 AWG wire, like a PAF, but used less of it. Both the DC resistance and the inductance are much lower than a PAF. The electrical values are a lot closer the a Strat or Telecaster pickup. Some have said they sound more like single coils than humbuckers, and that could owe to the fact that they're narrow, but the low inductance is also a plausible explanation. I don't know if all mini humbuckers have similar electrical values, or if these are a special case, but if you see a mini HB with a DC resistance around 6k or less, as is the case here, it's very likely that the inductance is similarly low.
The "Lead" pickup always sounded thin to my ears, it was hard to use this guitar for "rock", but I'm hoping that will change, having switched the neck and bridge pickups around.
Supernova:
The Supernova model came with humbuckers that are both labeled
57CH(G)
DOT: NECK, BRIDGE
LP: NECK
They're not identical though, one has a red lead and the other black, as can be seen the black lead was assigned to the neck spot. The magnetic polarity of the back lead neck is also reverse, north at the screw tops instead of south. They sounded in phase, so the pickup with the black lead must be wired reverse underneath.
These are the electrical values I measured :
Epiphone 57CH(G) #1
- DC Resistance: 8.643K ohms
- Q @1khz: 5.827
- Measured L: 4.987H
- Calculated C: 142.63pF
- Gauss: 300G (AlNiCo 5)
Epiphone 57CH(G) #2
- DC Resistance: 8.994K ohms
- Q @1khz: 1.614
- Measured L: 4.948H
- Calculated C: 184.5pF
- Gauss: 300G (AlNiCo 5)
The 57CH's have brass covers, so the treble was never prominent, also the inductance being almost 5 henries is a bit on the high side. Even though they say real PAFs had specs all over the place, these days a new "PAF neck" pickup is usually closer to 4.5 henries, and a "PAF bridge" is closer to 5 henries, so both of these pickups are more like bridge pickups. I just replaced them with SD Antiquities I happened to have, they have electrical values that I think make for a better sound. If I had to do over, I'd buy something cheaper, such as BYO Blizzards, at a fraction of the price.
I would have created bode plots for these pickups, but working through the f-holes was very tedious, and now I'm too warn out to set up the USB oscilloscope, but in this case the metal types are known, that's probably the one thing that the bode plots are most useful for, if one has already determined the capacitance and the inductance.
Union Jack
This guitar is not officially associated with Oasis, but unlike the Supernova, this model is a more true recreation of the actual custom Union Jack Sherton I that Noel Gallagher played. It's essentially a Sherton I reissue with a cool paint job. They were
The pickups are actual Gibson mini humbuckers. These are the electrical values I took:
Gibson LP Deluxe
Lead
- DC Resistance: 5.355K ohms
- Q @1khz: 1.091
- Measured L: 2.304H
- Calculated C: 220pF
- Gauss: 400G
Rhy
- DC Resistance: 6.252K ohms
- Q @1khz: 1.730
- Measured L: 3.035H
- Calculated C: 255pF
- Gauss: 400G
Given that they're Gibson pickups, the base and cover are probably nickel silver, and they sound very bright, I don't have cause to suspect otherwise.
The strange thing is that the 2.3 henry bridge pickup is lower wound than the 3 henry neck pickup, which is sort of backwards, usually the bridge is wound hotter than the neck. I don't know if this was intentional design, of just a fluke. I switched them around after having discovered this.
I've seen people speculate that the mini humbuckers are like the full sized versions, but smaller, but it looks to me like they used 42 AWG wire, like a PAF, but used less of it. Both the DC resistance and the inductance are much lower than a PAF. The electrical values are a lot closer the a Strat or Telecaster pickup. Some have said they sound more like single coils than humbuckers, and that could owe to the fact that they're narrow, but the low inductance is also a plausible explanation. I don't know if all mini humbuckers have similar electrical values, or if these are a special case, but if you see a mini HB with a DC resistance around 6k or less, as is the case here, it's very likely that the inductance is similarly low.
The "Lead" pickup always sounded thin to my ears, it was hard to use this guitar for "rock", but I'm hoping that will change, having switched the neck and bridge pickups around.
