Quote:
Originally Posted by SinnerBoy61
Is this an acceptable way to measure a pickups output?
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Back to the original question. You are asking if doing a resistance measurement is a way to measure a pickup's output. The answer in a word is NO. I'm not sure how resistance became the "standard" for measuring a pickup, but it really doesn't tell you much. It is a valid check to know the windings are continuous and that the pickup is not electrically open. If two pickups have the same parts, size, magnets, design, and wire gauge, a higher resistance will equate to a higher output. It will not be a valid "output test" across various manufacturers.
I have measured various pickup's using a test pickup. I injected the signal from a sine wave generator into test pickup, and held it over the top of the pickup under test so their fields would interact. I made some plastic standoffs to space the pickup a repeatable height off the other pickup. I just measured the output of the pickup under test with an oscilloscope. I could have alternately used an AC voltmeter. I used 500Hz as the test frequency since it is unlikely that the resonance of any pickup/pot/cable combination would be anywhere close to a frequency that low. I didn't want to go too low as to get in the region where the magnetics poop out. Using a higher frequency would be in the resonance region and no two guitars would have exactly the same electrical resonant frequency. This would result in measurement error every time.
I had a friend claim his guitar output was low. After checking a few things (including resistance and string height), told him it was OK. It played plenty loud into my test amp. I did the test I described above and found his pickups were ~20% higher than any pickup I had in my collection. I think he's going deaf.
