Pickup winding has to be the most inexact science there is.
Every attempt at reproducing vintage pickups (discussed at length here in the past) has always been a failure to some degree.
I've spoken with many winders about this and the art of winding.
As the Hendrix tech quote above seems to indicate, pickups are just spools of wire. How hard could it be? Well, I'd argue that with high gain or fuzz, the subtleties are lost.
That coil of wire is a very complex thing when it comes down to math and physics. Different coils behave differently and have different resonant peaks (pickups behave better at different frequencies). This is well known to EEs (Electrical Engineers), but it's a bit beyond the typical non-EE to be honest because there's a lot of math involved and the complexities of what otherwise appears to be a simple circuit are huge. Why does a high-value pot make the guitar brighter? Because it changes the behavior of the LCR circuit in regard to filtering. Here's a nice article on that:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/t...ersus-500k-pots-going-deeper-into-the-subject
The "secret" of a pickup is the recipe according to every winder I've talked to. How they're wound in what pattern for how long with what wire, etc. etc. Yes, the bobbins, the magnets, and all the parts play a part, as does how tightly wound the wire is going back to the Franz microphonic thing. I firmly believe that pickup winding is as much art as it is science. I've had a lot of pickups and I know what I like and I know that some sound better than others. For example, I like Guild HB1s because the seem to consistently deliver the sound and performance that I love. What's the secret? I have no idea. That's why I keep buying them. :wink:
The problem is compounded by the fact that these super-secret recipes are trying to replicate a standard that probably didn't exist. PAFs are notoriously inconsistent and may have different windings between any two pair since they were wound on machines controlled by humans. Plus age may play a factor. Bobbins deform, magnets degrade over time, and who knows what else may have happened to make a perfect pickup become perfect.
Check out this video about ThroBak using a Gibson Vintage Winder with the secret sauce covered by a towel.