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This informational file is designed to help you choose which Angeltone musical instrument pickup may be right for you.

Each link above describes what each of these listed variables does for the tone of a musical instrument pickup.
Just click on the links above or scroll down to reach the subject you're interested in.

To return to this area of the page, click on the <Back To Top> link at the end of each subject.

Also, for those of you who may be interested... the photos in this page are of actual Angeltone
musical instrument pickups or parts of same. Any brand names used on this page that are not actually owned by
Angeltone Electronics, such as Fender, Stratocaster or Fuzz Face for example, are the property of their
respective owners. These are mentioned here for purely descriptive or illustrative uses only.

The same goes for the names of any people either living or dead mentioned in here too...

MAGNETIC MATERIAL -
An Alnico V Slug

Angeltone musical instrument pickups use Alnico magnets, like the unfinished Alnico V slug magnet shown in the photo at left.
Alnico magnets are made of a alloy of the metals ALuminum, NIckel, and CObalt. Alnico, one of the world's hardest materials, is
available in different grades, listed from the weakest to the strongest in magnetic pull Grades 2, 3, 5, and 8. Alnico 2, the weakes5t
grade used in magnetic pickups, was commonly used by Gibson since the late 1930's in bar form in P-90 "Soap Bar/Dog Ear"
single coil pickups and since 1957 in humbucking pickups. Alnico III is slightly stronger, but since it does not actually contain
cobalt is sometimes called 'Alni III'. Grade 5 Alnico is used in most new pickups by many manufacturers, since it is powerful
enough to give a strong tone with good treble content. Grade 8 Alnico is considered by some too powerful to use in single coil
musical instrument pickups because it has an extremely bright tone and tends to 'pull' or attract the strings, creating 'wolf tones'
or out of tune sounding notes on the low strings. However, it is sometimes used in extremely powerful 'shredder' type pickups
because using a lower grade pickup would not give enough treble with the large amount of windings used on these pickups. Alnico magnets also tend to have a weakening or 'aging' effect with use. For example, a new Grade 5 magnet has the tone we associate with a new pickup - bright and strong. As the magnets weaken, a pickup's tone slowly becomes warmer and the pickup's magnetic pull on the strings becomes softer, so the pickup seems to 'break in' and seem more dynamic and toneful. This is one of the reasons that 'vintage' or original issue pickups sound different than new ones.

MAGNETIC POLARITY
    Alnico rod magnets for guitar pickups are polarized by length - one end is the North pole, the other end is the South pole. A pickup's magnetic polarity is usually measured from the top of the pickup. For example, a 'South' pickup is a pickup with all six magnets' South poles on the top face of the pickup.

    For compatibility with other manufacturers' pickups, Angeltone musical instrument pickups are made in either North or South polarity by customer request. This effect can also be used to help achieve a 'humbucking' effect when two pickups are used at the same time. For example, if a pickup with a south magnetic polarity and a clockwise coil winding direction (see Coil Direction below) is used at the same time as another pickup with a north magnetic polarity and the opposite (counterclockwise) coil winding direction, any hum picked up by one pickup is cancelled out by the other pickup. This is the same effect as a dual coil humbucking pickup, as one of the coils in these pickups will always have a north magnetic polarity and the other a south polarity.

    If you want to use an Angeltone pickup with a pickup that you already have, there is a couple of quick tests you can perform yourself to see which polarity you will need...

    First, is there already a 'humbucking' pickup setup in the guitar? To check, just plug in your guitar, turn on your amp, turn up your guitar's volume and tone controls all the way, and on Stratocasters and clones with five position pickup selector switches, just move the selector switch from pickup to pickup. Is there a decrease in the guitar's hum loudness in the #2 or #4 'inbetween' pickup positions? Or if you have a Telecaster or clone with two pickups, is there a decrease in hum when your pickup selector switch is in the center or 'both pickups on' selection? If not, you may not have a 'humbucking' wiring setup in your guitar. If you would like this effect, one of your pickups will have to be reverse wound and reverse magnetic polarity (RW/RP) from the others to work this way. On Stratocasters and clones, the middle pickup is RW/RP. On two pickup instruments like Telecasters and clones, it doesn't matter which pickup is RW/RP, but most people seem to have their lead pickup as the RW/RP pickup.

Next, find a magnetic compass like the one in this photo at left. Place the compass next to the pickups one at a time with the
N (North) side nearest to the pickup, and look at the compass's needle. If the compass needle has the red (or North) side
pointing at the pickup, like the one in this photo, the pickup is a South polarity pickup, since 'opposite' magnets attract each
other.

    This photo has the South (white) side of the needle pointing at the pickup, so this is a North polarity pickup.



    Now, if you just want a pickup whose polarity matches what you already have in your guitar, just check the pickup you want to replace with the compass as above and order your Angeltone pickup with the same magnetic polarity. For this example, you just want a hotter lead pickup for your new Stratocaster. You checked the original lead pickup's polarity, and it's a South polarity pickup. All you have to do is order your Angeltone pickup with the same South polarity.

    If your guitar does not have the 'humbucking' effect with two pickups on at the same time and you would like this effect, just place your compass next to the pickup that you wish to replace. Look at the compass needle just like you did before, and order your new Angeltone pickup with the opposite polarity. For example, you just checked over a Stratocaster's pickups, and all of the pickups are South polarity. You want to have the 'humbucking' effect when you switch to the #2 and #4 positions of your pickup selector switch, so you want to replace only your middle pickup. All you have to do is to order your new Angeltone middle pickup with North magnetic polarity. Then, check your original pickup's coil winding direction (see below) and order the opposite coil winding direction from the pickup you already have. These two choices together will give you the 'humbucking' effect that you want.

MAGNET LENGTH -
Magnet length is critical to a pickup's tone - the longer a certain magnet is in a pickup, the closer the magnet is to its string compared to the other strings, and the louder that magnet's string is compared to the others in your pickup. The shorter a certain magnet is compared to the others in the pickup, the softer that string is compared to the others in that pickup. It may be easier to think of this effect like the way a 6 band EQ pedal works - that is, the higher or lower you move each of your EQ pedal's sliders, the louder or softer that specific frequency is compared to the other frequencies.

For example, here is a little history lesson....

Right hand staggered pickup

In the early 1950's Leo Fender was getting complaints from players about the Esquire/Telecaster's original 'flat pole' lead
pickup. With the string gauges available at the time, the original 'flat pole' pickup made certain strings seem louder than others.
In the 'precompressor' era this made some chorded notes seem to disappear. Since Gibson then owned the patent on the
'adjustable pole' pickup, Leo simply made his post-1954 Telecaster and Stratocaster pickup magnets 'staggered', just like the
Angeltone Strat pickup in the photo at left. He used different lengths of Alnico magnet for each string, so if a string was too loud
or soft it was now in balance with the others. However, he originally designed this pickup in 1954, when the usual set of guitar
strings was probably a flatwound 12-52 set, with a wound G string. Later, in 1961 or 1962, he redesigned his Stratocaster pickup
with a slightly lower G string magnet, since by then players were switching to sets with a louder plain G string. Today, most
players use a 9 or a 10-gauge roundwound set with a plain G string, and the vintage 'staggered' pickups today now have the
same volume unbalance problem as the original 'flat pole' pickups had back then. You can hear this effect yourself the next time you play a 'staggered magnet' guitar with a 9 or 10 gauge string set - play through a loud amp set very clean with no effects, and just play from string to string. For example, the B string will be much softer than the others, and the D and G strings will be louder than any of the others.

Also, for you 'lefties' and Jimi Hendrix fans out there...

For the most part, Jimi played 'right handed' Stratocasters upside down, and restrung them with the high E string closest to the floor like a 'regular' guitar would be strung. Due to the usual Stratocaster's 'right handed' magnet staggering pattern and his restringing, his pickups on his guitars probably looked like this photo of a 'left handed' Angeltone
Stratocaster pickup in a right handed guitar from his playing point of view... Lefty Strat Pickup

note that the low E and the A string magnets are now
the farthest from their strings, and the B and high E string magnets are closer to their strings than before. This makes a guitar
strung like this have much more treble than before, and less bass too since the magnets are now mismatched to their strings.
Now, this was actually a very good thing for Jimi, because vintage effects like Fuzz Faces and Cry Baby wahs back then didn't
have true bypass on/off switching. If you were plugged into these effects, they all drained some treble from your signal whether
you were using them at the time or not. If you had four or five effects chained together at one time like Jimi did, and used them all at once like Jimi did, then you usually ended up with a relatively muddy tone. Now, the cool (and totally unintended!) thing about his playing was when he played his guitars strung 'upside down' like this, the mismatched magnet staggering gave him a slight treble boost and also a slight bass string tone cut, which was enough to help him cut through the band and give him his tone no matter how many effects he used. This effect was a major part of Jimi's tone.

Angeltone musical instrument pickups are available in many different staggering styles... and here are just a few.

For example, in this photo from left to right... '57 Strat style (D and G string magnets the same height) right handed staggered, '57 Strat style 'lefty' staggered, flat pole Strat style (like a 1970's pickup), and 'flush+flat'. We also make the 1960's style staggered pickup with the G string magnet slightly lower than the D. For you Telecaster fans, we can make pickups with the same staggering patterns that were available for your guitar... flush+flat (like the pre '54 earliest models) or the later Tele style with the D and G strings higher than the others. We also can do custom staggering styles for those who want it... want to try a Tele lead pickup with a Strat's staggering style? Or a new pickup with 'radius staggering' like the pickups on a new 'Mexistrat'? No problem... we can do that too.

BOBBINS -

Angeltone Electronics uses real Forbon (Vulcanized Fiber) to make all of our own single coil pickup bobbins. Forbon is an interesting material... in fact, you may be interested to know that it is actually considered a 'green' material in the sense that it is actually a renewable resource made from tree cellulose. Forbon can be made from just about any recyclable wood or paper material, like cardboard, old newspapers, or even sawdust. It's even made like paper too - the only real difference is that Forbon is vulcanized (or heat pressed) after processing to make it hard. Forbon is also used to make insulating parts for high voltage electrical transformers, and those black circuit boards used in Fender amplifiers until the mid 1980's.

Anyway, all Angeltone single coil pickup bobbin parts are hand machined from Forbon sheets in our factory. All of our musical instrument pickups made since January, 2008 have the Angeltone trademarked 'tube n' halo' logo between the D and G string magnets on the top bobbin plate, like on the 5S7 shown at right. 2007 and earlier Angeltone musical instrument pickups may usually have light gray pickup bobbin plates. These pickups will have a serial number starting with the letters ANG on the left side of the bottom plate, and the winder's initials and the winding date on the right side. Some pickups made in late 2007 will have black Forbon bobbin plates, and will still have the serial number and other information written on the bottom plate of the pickup.

COIL WIRE -
Most single coil pickups from the earliest days used one of two wire gauges (sizes) in their coils, #42 or #43 gauge. For example, the very earliest Esquire/Telecaster guitars used #43 gauge coil wire for both rhythm and lead pickups until 1952 or so, and then the lead pickup was changed to a #42 gauge wire when the first Stratocasters
were made. The rhythm pickup coils on all Telecasters are still made of #43 gauge wire today, while the Stratocaster pickups were always wound since their introduction with #42 gauge wire.

42 gauge Plain Enamel wire

This photo is of a sample of 42 gauge 'plain enamel' insulated coil wire, which was used to wind early 1960's Stratocaster
pickups, Telecaster lead pickups, and pickups for most of the other Fender musical instruments.

42 gauge Formvar wire

    This is a sample of 42 gauge Formvar insulated wire. Fender also used 'Formvar' insulated wire only on 1950's Stratocaster
    pickups. This is a honey blonde colored wire with a slightly 'gutsier' sound than the plain enamel wire's sound.

    We use 42 and 43 gauge wire in Angeltone pickups, either in plain enamel or Formvar insulations depending on the application. Please see the Winds Amount section below for the effect each coil gauge may have on a pickup's specific sound. You may also contact us directly if you need more information...

COIL DIRECTION -

    A pickup's coil winding direction is very important... this along with the pickup's magnetic polarity has a very strong impact on what a pickup will sound like when it is used with pickups from other manufacturers.

    First, another history lesson...

    Fender pickups at different times were made with different magnetic polarities, while still wound with the same coil winding direction. In the mid 1950's, Stratocaster pickups had a North magnetic polarity (see Magnetic Polarity above), and all Stratocaster pickups' coils were wound in a clockwise (CW) direction. But in the late 1950's, the same pickups were made with a South polarity while still wound in the same CW direction. What this means to you is... If you had two pickups of the same magnetic polarity (like two North or two South polarity pickups) and you played both of them at the same time, you would get a good strong tone that unfortunately wasn't 'humbucking'. If you had a North polarity pickup and a South polarity pickup that was each wound in the same winding direction, and tried to use both of them at the same time, you would get a thin, tinny 'out
of phase' sound because the pickups would try to cancel each other's tones out.

    In the 1970's, some manufacturers experimented with 'reverse winding' certain pickups - winding these pickup coils in a counterclockwise (CCW) direction and also reversing these pickups' magnetic polarities at the same time. These were the first 'RW/RP' pickups for creating a humbucking (hum reduction) effect in guitars that could use two pickups at the same time.

    Now, here are photos of two Angeltone pickups to illustrate this point...

    The pickup on the left is wound clockwise (or CW) which is the direction that most commonly available pickups are wound in. If you look at the small copper colored coil wires next to the lead wires on this pickup, you will see that the wire on the left side of the pickup is very short compared to the one on the right. The shorter wire is the beginning ('ground') of the coil, and the longer wire on the right side of the pickup is the finish ('hot') end of the coil.

    The pickup on the right is wound counterclockwise (or CCW), which is used with other 'clockwise wound' pickups to make a 'humbucking' pickup effect when two pickups are used at the same time. Note that the small copper wires on this pickup are reversed compared to the ones on the pickup at left - the short 'beginning' wire is on the right side, and the long 'finish' coil wire is on the left.

    The pickups in these photos are 'mirror images' of each other... the magnetic polarities and the coil winding directions of each of these pickups are reversed from the other. In a two pickup guitar, one each of these will give a 'humbucking effect' when they are both used at the same time. In a three pickup guitar, there should be two of one type and one of the other. For example, in Strats and clones the center position pickup is usually the reversed (RW/RP) pickup in the set.

    Now, all you have to do to choose a winding direction for your Angeltone pickup's coil. To do this, remove the pickup that you want to replace from your guitar and compare your own pickup's coil leads to the pictures above. Your pickup will match one or the other of these pictures. If you want a new Angeltone pickup with the same winding direction as the pickup you have, just specify what direction you have already. If you want a pickup that will have the 'humbucking' effect with your other pickups, compare your pickup to the pictures and select the direction that DOES NOT match your own pickup. Then, find your pickup's magnetic polarity (see 'Magnetic Polarity' above) and select the polarity that does not match your pickup either. Then you will have chosen the reversed pickup (RW/RP) pickup for your application.

    Since most manufacturers generally use a South magnetic polarity and a clockwise coil winding direction to make their single coil pickups, Angeltone single coil pickups are usually available in the same style. However, you may special order your Angeltone pickup in either winding direction or magnetic polarity at no extra cost for your application. For example, if you have a 1950's Stratocaster with North polarity pickups and CW coil windings and want the 'humbucking effect', you can order an Angeltone middle pickup with South polarity magnets and a counterclockwise winding direction for your instrument. This will give you the same humbucking effect as a set of modern pickups, while still allowing you to use your guitar's original vintage pickups!

    The easiest way to tell which coil winding direction your Angeltone musical instrument pickup was wound with is simply to look at the pickup's hookup wire colors. Angeltone pickups use the same color coding system as Fender does, which is white or yellow for the 'hot' wire and black for the ground wire. Clockwise wound 'CW' pickups have a white 'hot' wire, and counterclockwise 'CCW' wound pickups have a yellow 'hot' wire. This makes Angeltone pickups easy to wire, just solder the black wires from the pickups to your instrument's ground connection and the white or yellow wires to your pickup selector switch terminals and that's it.

WINDS AMOUNT -

    This is probably the single most important variable in what a pickup will sound like...

    The amount of winds in a pickup's coil has a direct bearing on how powerful the pickup will be. For example, in the 'preCBS' days, pickup coils were wound on a winding machine with a belt driven revolution counter much like one on an old 1/4" audiotape recorder. This was a very inaccurate way of counting turns - in fact, these original pickups had a tolerance range of + or - 20%. This meant that the usual 'Strat' pickup was suposed to have about 8000 turns of wire in its coil, but any pickup with windings of from roughly 6400 to 9600 turns was considered OK to put in a guitar. There was no real matching of pickups in guitars either, since the pickguard assemblers used whatever they got from the pickup winders.

    What all this means is... a pickup with many winds in its coil is usually much louder and more powerful than a pickup with fewer winds. For example, SRV's 'Number One' 1961? Strat had very overwound 'dark' pickups with larger diameter coils, while Buddy Holly's original 1955 model probably had very underwound pickups with smaller diameter coils and a very chimey 'bell like' tone. It's basically a tradeoff, as a pickup with more winds in its coil will be louder but will have less trebles and detail in its tone. A pickup with less winds in its coil won't be as loud, but will have more of what is now considered a 'vintage' trebly tone. Usually, 'rock' players like pickups with many coil winds, because this makes amplifiers easier to overdrive. 'Country' and 'jazz' players who don't use much distortion usually like a more underwound pickup, because these pickups have more tonal detail than the stronger ones.

    For some reason, 'ohms' became a way to show how much power a pickup would have. Wire used to wind pickup coils is very small in diameter, and has a resistance property called 'ohms per foot'. Since different diameters of coil wire has different resistances, a piece of 42 gauge coil wire a foot long will have a different (less) resistance than a piece of 43 gauge wire, because the 42 gauge wire is larger in diameter than the 43 gauge wire. This is important because a lot of wire is used to make a pickup coil - in fact, if you were able to unwind a pickup's coil turn by turn without breaking it, you would probably end up with a piece of wire about a quarter of a mile long!

    Now, because of this, pickup coils that are physically larger than others will have more wire in them, and will have more resistance, and resistance is measured in ohms, so people used to look for coils with higher 'ohms' resistance thinking that equalled more powerful pickups. This is not really true... I have wound coils many times, all with the same amount of turns, and have had their coil resistances vary by 500 ohms or more! This is because hand wound coils are not exactly the same in winding tension, and coil wire is very easy to stretch, increasing the resistance if the winder is not very careful. This is just another reason why 'hand wound' pickups are as individual as people are, and no two are exactly alike.

Here is a list that may help you choose how many winds to have in your Angeltone pickup...

    WIND COUNT           "TONE"

      Under 7600               Very 'bright', lots of transient detail, considered the 'vintage' or 'bell' tone
    7600-7800                   1970's 'flat pole' pickup wind - a little stronger but still 'clean'
    7800-8000                 Around the middle of the 'vintage range' - good midrange and power
    8000-8350                 A slightly 'hotter' vintage style pickup with more power - 8350 once
                                            considered the Strat's 'magic number' of coil winds
    8350-8800                 A stronger 'hot' pickup, losing high frequency detail but gaining in overdrive
      8800-9600?                A very hot pickup, higher winds will overdrive very easily but losing treble
                                            and getting 'muddy' in tone. These pickups have lots of midrange and bass

POTTING -

Many Angeltone musical instrument pickup coil windings are potted (solidified) during the manufacturing process to protect the coil windings from damage, as well as to keep the pickup from becoming squealy or 'microphonic' at high volumes.

Partially Potted Coil

    This is a partially lacquer potted coil removed from a donor Angeltone pickup. The outside windings of the coil is solidified to
protect the coil from damage, but the inside windings are unpotted or 'as wound'. This style of potting is preferred by many
players who use a bare minimum of effects, because some believe that this style of potting preserves high frequency transient
details.

Saturated Coil

    This is a photo of over 9000 turns of coil wire that I had removed from an Angeltone pickup after wax saturation potting to test
the potting equipment. The coil came off the pickup's bobbin in one solid block with the potting compound saturating all the
way to the center of the coil.

WIRE LEADS -

Angeltone musical instrument pickups are available in either 22 gauge stranded cloth 'vintage push back' style (used from 1950 to roughly 1968) or the same gauge of modern thermoplastic hookup wire (used from 1968 to present) per your application. Extra wire of either style is available for $1.00 US per foot, specify black, white, or yellow.