Is this artec pickup any good?

[eddiewagner]

Hallo Friends, I have this guy flying around. Is that a decent sounding pickup? Or is it a heavy metal screamer? I would like to install it into a Slideguitar. And how can I wire it up non- splittable? Some pictures, maybe that helps...

 

[AJBaker]

I haven't the foggiest, I'm afraid. I would guess it's more likely going to be high output, but that will also depend on how you wire it up (parallel or series).

Have you got a colour code chart for those wires? If not, start by measuring with a multimeter to find out which wires go together.

After that, I'd just install it and try it out in series and parallel to see what sounds best.

 

[eddiewagner]

I haven't the foggiest, I'm afraid. I would guess it's more likely going to be high output, but that will also depend on how you wire it up (parallel or series).
Hi ajbaker, i wonder if it’s worth the hassle at all....

Have you got a colour code chart for those wires? If not, start by measuring with a multimeter to find out which wires go together.

After that, I'd just install it and try it out in series and parallel to see what sounds best.

 

[NorthenLights]

The bare wire is ground and is wired on top of the volume pot. The white wire is likely the positive signal that connects to the volume pot connector, and the black wire is likely to go to ground together with the bare wire. If you don't need to split the humbucker, the red and green wires are connected to each other.

Not that this is just me guessing the function of each wire. Different manufacturers might be using different colour codes, and the only way to know which is which is by trial and error.

 

[micadoo]

You can use your multimeter to find the ends of the two coils. Connect one wire from each coil and the other two ends, one goes to ground and the other to vol pot input leg it will function as a non split pickup. Depending on how you wire the coils series/parallel they may not be humbucking, but you just reverse them if that is the case. It's basically a Chinese copy of a hot rail so it should be fine for lap steel.

 

[mijstrat72]

I have one of these in my "Punk rock" Esquire. It sounds like a pickup when played clean. Not good, not bad, it's got its own thing going on. Like most humbuckers. Mines dead silent while using a lot of distortion. It is splittable, I don't have mine split yet tho, but I've had others. Gives a nice strattishy tone.
For humbucker;
Connect the red\white wires and tape them off. Green and bare go too ground. Black to switch or vol. pot.
This will give you the full power of the the pickup.

 

[Jay Jernigan]

It should honk for slide.

 

[netgear69]

No expert on humbuckers but is it not the actual push pull pot that splits the pickup ? if that is correct just wire the ground and live to a standard pot

 

[mkdaws32]

A pickup a little on the hot side should be great for slide. I’ve used a few of those rail style pickups, including Dimarzios, GFS and generic Chinese made (maybe made by Artec - no sure).

The thing is they come in different winds - even the cheap ones. Something around 10k when wires in series is middle of the road and should sound both powerful and full with some good articulation (Dimarzio Chopper T and GFS Lil Puncher 10K fall into this territory). The lower winds (I have a genetic 6.5k) have even more top, bottom and are great for cleaner tones that sparkle a bit (less mid range). Awesome in a neck pickup, IMHO. The ones that go up to 15k or so are the metal screamers. Very hot and lots of midrange - they sound great with heavy distortion but are on the muddy side with cleaner tones.

Hard to say which version you have there without measuring with an ohm meter.

 

[VintageSG]

I've got one in the bridge of the guitar in my avatar pic ( which I keep meaning to update )
It's a fine pickup. Not too hot, tonally well balanced. It can sound clean, clear, detailed and articulate. Sort of halfway between a Tele single coil bridge and a normal sized humbucker. It retains the top end, for the most part, while having some whumpf.
Needs a 500K pot. Whatever capacitor was in there originally is still in there.

 

[jvin248]

.

Buy a $10 Harbor Freight multi-meter and you can measure out all the leads. Factories don't usually follow any convention. If that were an SD pickup then you tie red-white wires together as the common point between the coils.

I have another style humbucker, 16kohm hot, in a Tele Esquire that I split both bobbins out to a 4-way switch and I get a great separation of tones by having the pickup lower. 8kohm single coils is right about a traditional Tele wind. 4-way gives neck/parallel/bridge/humbucker.




.

 

[tintag27]

Looks like a Hot Rail - maybe this might help
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/artec-alnico-hot-rail-surprisingly-good.509058/

 

[medownsouth]

Not great, not bad. It’s usable

 

[Dan German]

A pickup a little on the hot side should be great for slide. I’ve used a few of those rail style pickups, including Dimarzios, GFS and generic Chinese made (maybe made by Artec - no sure).

The thing is they come in different winds - even the cheap ones. Something around 10k when wires in series is middle of the road and should sound both powerful and full with some good articulation (Dimarzio Chopper T and GFS Lil Puncher 10K fall into this territory). The lower winds (I have a genetic 6.5k) have even more top, bottom and are great for cleaner tones that sparkle a bit (less mid range). Awesome in a neck pickup, IMHO. The ones that go up to 15k or so are the metal screamers. Very hot and lots of midrange - they sound great with heavy distortion but are on the muddy side with cleaner tones.

Hard to say which version you have there without measuring with an ohm meter.

TRA73C should be 11.5K DCR. Without getting into the “does DCR matter” debate, I had a 10K GFS (possibly Artec made) and quite liked it. Whether the “hotter” nature of that one helps or hinders, I don’t know. I would think it would be a good slide guitar pickup.

 

[mkdaws32]

TRA73C should be 11.5K DCR. Without getting into the “does DCR matter” debate, I had a 10K GFS (possibly Artec made) and quite liked it. Whether the “hotter” nature of that one helps or hinders, I don’t know. I would think it would be a good slide guitar pickup.

Yep, the 10k GFS was the one I had too. It’s a very balanced sounding pickup that can work for most any style. At 11.5k, again not getting into the whole DCR debate and understanding that wire gauge, wire type and magnet strength also all influence the output and tone of a pickups, I would say it’s worth giving thi Artec a try for slide.

 

[littlebadboy]

I had the XL version of that pickup with alnico 5. I liked it for my playing. It's nice to parallel wire it too.

 

[mkdaws32]

I had mine wired for series/parallel switching. It work well both ways - both incredibly useful tones. But I ultimately went back to standard series humbucker wiring since I just didn’t use the parallel option much in practice.

I had the XL version of that pickup with alnico 5. I liked it for my playing. It's nice to parallel wire it too.

 

[stepvan]

I haven't the foggiest, I'm afraid. I would guess it's more likely going to be high output, but that will also depend on how you wire it up (parallel or series).

Have you got a colour code chart for those wires? If not, start by measuring with a multimeter to find out which wires go together.

After that, I'd just install it and try it out in series and parallel to see what sounds best.

I will start the rabbit hole trip.. why not wire it so you can switch from series to parralle?

 

[AJBaker]

I will start the rabbit hole trip.. why not wire it so you can switch from series to parralle?

You could, but OP said non splitable.

One will probably sound better than the other, but I have no idea which.

 

[eddiewagner]

Thanks for the info friends. I will use another pickup instead that I have: a Quarterpound.