Pickup Comparison Video With Studio Level Audio Capture

Scott Swartz · Post by **Scott Swartz** » 28 Dec 2021 6:43 am

I get lots of questions about the sound of my pickups relative to one another, so I thought I would make a video where everything is held constant except for the pickup - the parts played, the signal chain, the string clearance, etc. All details are explained in the video, steel is a Williams 700 Series D10.

The results can used to at least compare between the models and somewhat to extrapolate to other steels and signal chains.

I included my new humbucker models, one was developed working closely with a major steel manufacturer, and the other based upon a custom request. All the product pages are up at www.steeltronics.com .

I also added a comparison track of my tone touchstone 1969 ZB D10 for fun at the end of the video.

Heres the link

https://youtu.be/hyUgu0Bjpoc

Steve Sycamore · Post by **Steve Sycamore** » 29 Dec 2021 1:03 am

Hi Scott, Nicely done. Those pickups sound great. My favorite (apart from the gorgeous ZB) was the Z Series pickup which had quite a nice vintage tone and suited the Williams well.

Could you raise the volume of the demo tracks by 6 to 8 dB and the PSG audio an additional 3 to 4 dB?

I think that would make the subtle differences in tone and response stand out a lot more and balance well with the voice track.

Scott Swartz · Post by **Scott Swartz** » 29 Dec 2021 7:50 am

Steve, the balance of steel to track was set at the mixer at time of recording so I cannot change that.

I set the overall level so there was no digital clipping, I show absolute peaks of roughly -3 to -5 db in the mov files pre upload and average rms level of -19 to -20 dB on most of the tracks before upload. Youtube does normalize and/or compress if your content is too loud so I was trying to stay below where they are mucking with it but not be super quiet on playback.

I specifically avoided any mastering or post processing, the audio is exactly what entered the the iphone via the usb cable.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 29 Dec 2021 9:07 am

It's good to have choices and there are many there. To each his own, but I found the new PH10 w/individual pole pieces very pleasing with the demo gear.