Dumb question: why are the VB/HFS my least noisy pickups?

[Johnny Rigs]

Where I live, I get quite a bit of induced hum (I believe) from a transformer that's sitting on a concrete pad 15 feet from our exterior wall. Noise levels vary between pickups. I have a set of DGT, 58/15LT, 57/08, and VB/HFS in different guitars to compare. The VB/HFS are noticeably quieter than the others not only with high gain, but especially when my amps are set clean and the coils are split. Rotary positions 9, 8, and 7 have some slight hum, but are quite usable. The 58/15LT and DGT pups when split/tapped are like an old Strat in a fluorescent light torture chamber. The 57/08s weren't setup for splitting.

I don't think anything is wrong with the pickups - it's definitely my environment. But I'm curious why the VB/HFS performs better than the others. I would think higher output pickups (which means higher inductance) would also increase noise. But that doesn't seem to be the case here. Interestingly, the 57/08s were the noisiest - and the only pickup that squealed if too close to the amp.

 

[jak3af3r]

VB/HFS don't split to run one coil by themselves with the rotary switching. DGT uses a resistor to bleed some of the "grounded" coil back in to fatten it up. As far as I know, the 58/15 does a full ground split so you're left with no hum-cancelling.

Pickup output (DC resistance) and inductance (Henries) are separate measurements with the latter rarely being mentioned. A higher inductance with the same capacitance will have a lower resonant frequency than a lower inductance pickup. That's why a Tele bridge without a baseplate will be brighter than the same pickup with a baseplate.

 

[Black Plaid]

Here's my wild guess:

It may be that the VB and HFS pickups came from an era where identical winds mirroring each other was of utmost importance. Winds that match each other more closely will also cancel out each other's noise better.

Perhaps over the years, PRSh found that asymmetrical winds are actually what sound better, and now makes them that way. Preferring tone over noise. After all, lots of people happily record and play with single coils, preferring their sound over the lack of noise.