Pickup Measuring Techniques
I often refer to (and recommend) Helmuth Lemme’s article The Secrets of Electric Guitar Pickups. The author succinctly describes the guitar circuit and discusses how each component of the circuit contributes to the resulting guitar tone.
Mr. Lemme recently got in touch with me, and forwarded me a new article Pickup Measuring Techniques that he wrote for Sustain Magazine. The author discusses methods of characterizing the quality of pickups- from the useful (inductance) to the not so useful (DC resistance). He also describes a Pickup Analyzer device for measuring pickups which generates an alternating magnetic field across the entire audible frequency spectrum and captures the results from the pickup, with a selectable load capacitance. Neat! Click here to read the article. Thanks to the author for permission to share his article here with you.
Helmuth Lemme also has written a book- Electric Guitar Sound Secrets and Technology.
October 27, 2014 @ 10:00 am
Thanks! I have Lemme’s book, which is really the best thing available on this subject so far. Looking forward to reading the new article.
October 27, 2014 @ 3:14 pm
I like Lemme’s clear-thinking approach to the material. Would love to try out that pickup analyzer 🙂
-John
July 30, 2023 @ 7:49 pm
How does one buy this?
July 31, 2023 @ 12:51 pm
Hi Jim,
If you’re looking for Lemme’s Pickup Analyzer (as pictured in this post), I think that might have be a one-off device he created. But you could try reaching out to him to inquire if he builds them for sale (his website is at https://www.gitarrenelektronik.de). If you’re looking for his book, you may still be able to find it by searching on Amazon, etc. But the link I had posted above (https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1907920137/planetz) is crazy expensive now. He also sells the books on his website (e.g. https://www.gitarrenelektronik.de/en/produkte/buecher/electric-guitar-sound-secrets-and-technology-detail)
-John