Guitar Pickups have been in production for nearly 100 years, and the question of how exactly one pickup is tonally superior to another is still subject to a high level of debate. This paper is the first in a set demystifying the production of guitar pickups and introducing a level of scientific procedure to the conversation. Previous studies have analysed commercial off-the-shelf pickups, but these differ from each other in multiple ways. The novelty of this study is that dedicated experimental pickups were created, which vary only one parameter at a time in order to allow scientific study. The most fundamental qualities of a single-coil pickup are investigated: in this paper, number of turns and gauge of wire. A set of single-coil stratocaster-style pickups were created, with the number of turns of wire varied across the commercially available range (5000-12000 turns), and this was done for two widely used wire gauges (42 and 44 AWG). A frequency response analyser was used to obtain impedance across a frequency range. It is shown that resonant frequency decreases exponentially with number of turns, while the magnitude of the resonant peak increases linearly with number of turns. The wire gauge used has a significant impact on both parameters, with the thicker wire giving higher resonant frequencies and higher magnitudes than the thinner wire for the same number of turns. These impact the sound associated with the pickup: the resonant frequency is linked to the perceived tone of the pickup, and the magnitude to the output amplitude and hence 'gain.' Increasing the number of turns will give a higher output pickup with a darker tone, and thicker wire gives louder outputs and brighter tones - consistent with what can be observed in commercial pickups.

翻译：吉他拾音器已生产近百年，但关于某一拾音器在音色上究竟如何优于另一拾音器的问题仍存在高度争议。本文是系列研究的第一篇，旨在揭示吉他拾音器的制造原理，并为相关讨论引入科学化的研究方法。以往研究多针对市售成品拾音器进行分析，但这些拾音器在多个参数上存在差异。本研究的创新之处在于专门制作了实验用拾音器，每次仅改变单一参数以实现科学化研究。本文聚焦单线圈拾音器最基础的特性：绕线匝数与线规。我们制作了一组斯特拉特卡斯特风格的单线圈拾音器，绕线匝数覆盖市售常见范围（5000-12000匝），并针对两种常用线规（42和44 AWG）分别进行实验。使用频率响应分析仪获取了拾音器在频率范围内的阻抗特性。实验表明：谐振频率随匝数增加呈指数下降，而谐振峰幅度随匝数增加呈线性上升。线规对这两个参数均有显著影响：在相同匝数下，较粗线规（42 AWG）比较细线规（44 AWG）产生更高的谐振频率和更大的谐振峰幅度。这些特性直接影响拾音器的声音表现：谐振频率关联感知音色，幅度关联输出振幅即"增益"。增加匝数可获得更高输出但音色更暗的拾音器，而使用更粗线规则能产生更响亮输出与更明亮的音色——这与市售拾音器的实际观察结果一致。