Emmons Pickups Wound at 22,000?

[Chris Bauer]

I played a LeGrande II that sounded unusually dark and uncharacteristically thin in spite of the guitar ‘ringing’ well. Turns out both pickups were wound at 22,000. Was that ever a factory option? (I also realize they might have been after-market pickups.)

I’ve always thought of 15,000 to 17,500 being the typical range for Emmons pickups but was that just for push-pulls or was that also LeGrandes as well?

[Bob Carlucci]

I will never understand that.. Guys adore the tone of the great old pedal steel guitars used in the 60's and 70's and then put pickups wound like line transformers on their guitars.. Many of those great tones with perfectly good sustain were produced by pickups that were maybe 13-14 k, and often much less.. My Fender steels were typically 8-9 K from the factory.. I personally have always used pickups wound at around 12 K, typically with a tap around 9 k... I will never understand the need for ultra powerful pickups on ANY stringed musical instruments.. Guitarists are the same way.. taking out great sounding, well made pickups and replacing them with "high output" pickups.. I usually do the exact opposite... bob

[Bill Ferguson]

Chris.
Is your Emmons pickup a 108N Humbucker? If so, mine are wound at 22,000 and I'm told when I play a show, the tone is 2nd to none.

[Jack Stanton]

Buddy Emmons once said to me something to the effect that you can thank Jimmy Crawford for those overwound pickups.

[Chris Bauer]

Bill - no idea if they’re 108Ns or not. Not even positive that they’re Emmons pickups. They have good string separation and clarity but sound oddly dark and thin. Sat it next to a couple of other guitars and the contrast was striking. The other guitars all had a significantly brighter and meatier sound.

Jack - that’s interesting. Jimmy did tend to play with a somewhat dark tone at times but I’d say his sound was anything but thin.

[Per Berner]

I will never understand the need for ultra powerful pickups on ANY stringed musical instruments.. Guitarists are the same way.. taking out great sounding, well made pickups and replacing them with "high output" pickups.. I usually do the exact opposite... bob

Couldn't agree more! Just turn up the volume knob a bit iif you need extra oomph.

[Donny Hinson]

Make sure the pickups aren't too close to the strings, as that will give a thin sound, too. The thickness of two U.S. quarters is a good starting distance (between the pickups and the strings), but many guitars sound better with three.

And yes, those probably are humbucking pickups if they measure that high.

[Mike Fried]

I had a pair of Emmons single-coils on a SKH LeGrande that measured that, from the factory (I was the original owner). They're up in my attic somewhere, I keep threatening to find them and have them rewound to 16k.