someone said: There's a lot of love for the 'scatter wound' theory. I'm not sure myself, my money is on wire gauge and magnet quality
Fran,
We have been doing a lot of experiments with scatter winding and with an LCR (Induct./Capacitance/Resistance) bridge and you can measure the relationship between the amount of scatter and how much capacitance you will get in relationship to the "Q" (bandwith) and resonant frequency.
Scatter wound coils consistantly have a different inductance/resistance to capacitance relationship. Now, whether you believe it makes a difference in the sound is another story. For me, after listening to many machine wound coils compared to hand wound I beleive I can hear the difference in a big way. I don't fully understand the physics but the more the scatter the lower the capacitance but how that relates exactly to inductance and circuit "Q" numbers we get...haven't quite figured it out.
With single coils we have found that the fatter and shorter the bobbin (like P90's or Jazzmasters) the deeper/warmer and richer the tone and the taller and narrower the pick up is the brighter and crispier the tone will be even to the point of twangy like the Tele has. Alnico V's seem to be brighter/stronger with a more sudden attack and III's and II's seem to come out mellower and maybe with more sustain? Seems like the II's sound more like a older aged pickup. II's will only take a magnetic charge of about half of what a V will (V~about 25 gauss and II's and 12.5).
So I guess if one has a cheaply made Jag coil that doesn't have enough wire on it, or somehow the spacing of the bobbin is a little tall, it is going to be brighter and thinner and if you have one that is wound heavy (with good tension maybe the right amont of scatter) it is going to be warmer and and less bright/spanky. I think the lower C with a scatter wind adds to the warmth.
I would agree on the magnet quality and wire comment for sure. Some of the wire we have seen has had just a little to much insulation which makes it hard to wind up to the desired number of turns and DC resistance. Some magnets like the Alnico V's from one of the better know luthier supply places are a little big in diameter which also changes the amount of wire that can be served on.
Back to the topic, if I didn't have a winder and a pile of wire I would probably be using something hand wound like the Antiquity. I like the Antiquity pickups I have heard and SD seems to have some gifted winders working for him.
Sorry for the long post but I can't help myself. I am fascinated with what makes a pickup sound a certain way.
