Need some help

[Devon8822]

hey could someone tell me what open poled, covered, calaberated and non-calberated covers mean?

and whats the differnce between 2 braided conductors and  conductors?? is that the wires that connect to the pots?

 thanks

[TwilightOdyssey]

Open poled = You can see the coloured bobbins of the pickup
Covered = It has a [metal] cover; some manufacturers use materials other than metal, however
Calibrated = A set where the neck is voiced to match the bridge pickup

[PhilKing]

All the differences in conductors are covered in the FAQ on the BK site.

[Devon8822]

so for example an open poled would just be a humbucker with out the cover? like this...http://www.guitariste.com/articles/img/637-dimarzio-pickup-picker.gif


Could I also please have a better definition of calaberated.
and ill check out the FAQ for the conductors.
thanks alot

[Fourth Feline]

For a set of pickups to be 'calibrated' generaly means they are a matched pair who's output is proportionate to each other. The same applies to when buying pairs or quads of output valves for your amplifier. For example my original (Gibson) pickups were not correctly calibrated and thus had very different outputs from each other and did not balance well when both were switched on together. My BKPs however, were much closer to each other in impedance ( coil resistance to alternating current i.e. output signal ) and so worked more tonefully in tandem and had no noticable jump in volume between them as singles.

It basically means that Tim has taken the time to put like with like before despatching. The bridge pickups within a set will always need to be slightly 'hotter' (i.e. higher impedance) - due to the fact that the strings vibrate less at that point and therefore need more amplification from the pickup.

Regards,

Derek.

[Devon8822]

Do people ussually get this done? or no? So does he acctually take the pickups and modify them to calabetrate them. Does it also mean like... when theres a pickup say you want the nailbomb in your neck and bridge, calaberated would be a nailbomb specificaly for neck and anailbomb specifically for the bridge.. and than un calaberated would be the exact same nailbomb in bridge and neck? is that what it means? thanks

[gingataff]

No.
A neck pickup is different to a bridge pickup. If you put a bridge pickup in the neck and vice versa it would sound bad (or at best 'interesting'). CALIBRATED means that the bridge and neck pickups are designed to work together, like two brothers who share the same charateristics rather than complete strangers who hate each others' guts.

(of course brothers may hate each other's guts too, this is where my analogy falls down  :)  )

[Fourth Feline]

When sending out more than one pickup for the same guitar, BKP auto automatically send out a calibrated set. These do not need to be requested specially, they are pre-boxed in pairs this way.

This matching does not require special modification to any pickup after first winding/building them, because there are always going to be slight variations in impedance between what set out to be 'identical' pickups when hand building them.

To make the bridge pickup more powerful than the neck pickup, (as is necessary) one selects one that is approx. 600 - 1000 ohms higher impedance than the neck.

What Tim will therefore do is build a few pickups for stock, test all of them for output and impedance, then put a pile of almost  identical ones together of each value. He may have a pile of close to 7,800 ohms, a pile of 8,200 ohms, a pile of 8,800 ohms etc.

Then he sends out two slightly (but not hugely ! ) different ones to the same customer marking the slightly higher impedance one 'Bridge' and the slightly lower impedance one 'Neck'.

As a pair they will however have fairly similar values to each other, i.e. he will not send out a mis-matched pair such as one  very weak one with a very strong one As I found on my original  Gibson pickups.

Please note that on a vintage type pickup such as the Stormy Monday or Mule, the impedance of both will be much lower than a pair of modern 'high gain' pickups such as the Nailbomb etc. As a result the Stormy Monday will sound cleaner and sweeter, whereas the Nailbomb ( with many more windings) will push the amplifier a lot harder. I mention this so you will not fear that your pickups (who's impedance values are written on the warranty card ) read far different from mine. I have taken the above approximate ohmage readings from pairs of BKP 'Vintage' type pickups.

Hope that helps clarify.


  :D

[Philly Q]

say you want the nailbomb in your neck and bridge, calaberated would be a nailbomb specificaly for neck and a nailbomb specifically for the bridge.. and than un calaberated would be the exact same nailbomb in bridge and neck? is that what it means? thanks

Just to clarify the last point, if you ordered an "uncalibrated" set of Nailbombs, it wouldn't  be the exact same pickup in bridge and neck - unless you actually ordered 2 bridge models or 2 neck models!  The Nailbomb neck and Nailbomb bridge are two different pickups.

Although the pickup "pairs" share the same name they're constructed differently.  For example, the Miracle Man and Cold Sweat bridge models have ceramic magnets but the neck models have alnico magnets (the Painkiller is the only neck humbucker with a ceramic).

[JamesHealey]

as far as im aware Tim Designes the Bridge model then makes a neck version of the same pickup design using different magnets or winding to make something that sounds like a neck version of that bridge pickup with the right output..

it's nothing clever or different it's just simply being sensable! although not many other companies offer this option that i know of..

[Devon8822]

If i am getting to different humbuckers for neck and bridge can i get them calaborated or is it only when u have the same pup in both neck and bridge? because int he shop it doesnt give me the option to calaberate with othe rpups?

[Kilby]

The calibrated pickups refer to they they are built, so the neck & bridge pickups complement each other.

It will reduce the jump in volume when you switch changing between pickups and also stop the neck pickup from being too domanant when you are in the middle position (assuming a gibson style guitar).

A the pickups in a calibrated set may have different magnets, a different thickness of wire in the coils, number of turns of the wire or even all of the above.

BKP have been known go to the distance as far and will tweak the pickup build to best suit the materials your guitar is constructed from.

So it's unlikely that a guitar store can calibrate pickups but what they can do is to move then closer to / further away from the strings to reduce the difference between pickup volumes.

Rob..