I made an active pickup

Here's the mess'o'wires prototype vs. a "known manufacturer"

Thoughts? The preamp is attached to a handwound 9.9k DC res. alnico 5 humbucker.

Different pickup, same preamp. The previous one had way too much low end.

Made a completely new pickup so I can adjust the height better. The one I used previously had a base with long legs.

6000 winds of 44 AWG wire, 13.4k DC resistance. Ceramic magnet, hex screw pole pieces.

What I've learned so far it's the pickup itself that makes 99% of the sound. The op amp is very clean, just gives it that active pickup feel and output.

So the rest of the work mostly just making a good balanced pickup to pair with it.

It's a possibility, but more of a bandaid fix. Better to have the source tone right first.

The more I listen to it the second one seems to work really well in a mix. I'll need to do a couple more test pickups to see how a lower wound pickup works, and a really overwound.

Made another new pickup, everything else the same as the previous one but 42AWG wire, 6.4k DC. Maybe not so surprisingly this one has a tighter low end and less low mids.

The 44AWG 13.4kDC pickup has more lows and low mids.

One more for the road. Same pickup as previously, just swapped the magnet for alnico 5. Ceramic has more 100Hz, and the mid peaks are slightly lower than on the A5.