Need humbucker covers quick...sources???

[Possum]

Guitar Jones is out of 50mm string spacing covers for 3 weeks, Stew Mac looks like doesn't have any for a month, I only have 6 covers left and too many orders over that. Andy doesn't answer his email so far, anyone got a source for nickel silver covers. I need about 20, also looking for another wholesale source to buy a large lot of them. Dave

[JGundry]

The last order of All Parts humbucker covers I got looked just like the Guitar Jones covers. The old All Parts covers were taller than they needed to be but the top side looked closer to vintage covers that the Guitar Jones covers. Now they appear to be the same as the Guitar Jones Covers.

[WolfeMacleod]

I need about 20, also looking for another wholesale source to buy a large lot of them. Dave

I've got 'em, but they're almost $100/pair.

[Possum]

$100 a pair, I think I'll pass on that. All Parts are 1 15/16" string spacing, Stew Macs are 1 31/32" and they are out of them for a month. I guess this stuff must all come over on the same boat, curious they would all be out of them at the same time. I think I'll hook up with Andy, don't know what his are like, but don't have much choice here. It blows my mind that no one in America makes this stuff, what a country.....
You all realize of course that if North Korea nukes S. Korea we're all out of business instantly.....

[TD_Madden]

These any good?

http://www.bestguitarparts.com/guitar-category/Pickup_Covers

http://www.wdmusic.com/pickup_covers_13623_ctg_1.htm

http://www.guitarpartsusa.com/cat--Guitar-Pickup-Parts-Rewinding-Supplies--MAIN22

[JGundry]

A heads up to anyone that orders bobbins and covers from All Parts. They now carry the Guitar Jones size cover and it will not fit the All Parts bobbins but it will fit the Guitar Jones bobbins perfectly. I placed a large order with All parts a couple of weeks ago and I noticed that the covers were shorter. I still have some of the old covers that I am using. This thread prompted me to check the new All Parts covers against the old. The new All Parts covers will not work at all with the All Parts bobbins. Why would they do this? I have no idea. I called them today and they said that I have to ask for the old covers and that they are out of them but will get more.

So does anyone have another source for the taller old style All Parts covers?

[Spence]

It seems like we all perodically run into problems of part supply. I'm starting to wonder if this is a ploy to stop us competing with the likes of Seymour Duncan etc..

AllParts in the UK are utterly hopeless. They can't tell me if the bobbins they have are F spaced or not. This is partly because they employ people as part of a 'Care In The Community ' program designed to alleviate the overcrowding in British mental institututions.

I emailed AllParts in the US and they didn't bother to reply. This maybe because the guy who types had the week off. Actually since posting this, they have got back to me. So they're no longer available. No further info was offered so I'll just go elsewhere in future.

A few of these suppliers seem to think pickup makers are just a bunch of mis-fits to sell over-priced and incorrect parts to when, and only when it suits them.

It's about time they showed some respect.

[Sock Puppet]

Probably no use whatsoever to you over there but for the benefit of U.K. readers:

http://www.axesrus.com/axepupcovs.htm

S.

[Sweetfinger]

A while back, Lollar was offing some old Allparts covers for good prices. He had since gone to his own supplier and no longer used the Allparts.

[WolfeMacleod]

[QUOTE=JGundry;5559]A heads up to anyone that orders bobbins and covers from All Parts. They now carry the Guitar Jones size cover....QUOTE]

I screamed at Steve about this back when they first got them. I'd ordered several gold covers, and they didn't fit right. I was not happy, and let Steve know it.
Yes, when there's an issue, I'm not the nicest about it...

Just another heads up: Anyone using the Allparts base-plates that have been re-tooled to take out the dents along the "walls" better check the location of the mounting in the feet. I've had to send back 200 base-plates to Steve. I'm super pissed. Pissed does not even begin to describe it. ALL of the retooled base-plates are PHUCKED.

Anyone wanna go in for tooling soon?

[JGundry]

Great now I have to check the base plates.

I would seriously be in on any effort to get tooling for humbucker parts that all fit together correctly. I like the All Parts bobbins but I have to assume that they will be switching the bobbins soon as their new covers do not even let the pole piece screws pass through the covers. All Parts does not even carry keeper bars. What's up with that? Stewart Mac has the same bobbins as All Parts but the Stewart Mac keeper bar does not work the All Parts bobbin if you use the All Parts screws. But the Guitar Jones keeper bar works with the All Parts bobbins even thought Guitar Jones covers won't work with the All Parts bobbins, at least this was the case the last time I checked. It is absolutely insane! It's like they are begging us to put them out of business when it comes to pickup parts.

Stocking parts is a headache with effect pedals simply due to the quantity and variety of parts. It seems like it should be a piece of cake to have a decent reliable source of the few purely mechanical parts that are needed to make an authentic PAF style pickup.

So anyone that is interested in getting the tooling done count me in. Email me, somebody, please, I'm quite serious about it. I only want to make humbuckers and it seems like the hardest part of the job should be making the pickups, not running in circles because of stupid decisions by suppliers.

[Stan H]

I usually buy all of my parts (or most) from Alex. They may not be ultra high quality but they all do seem to fit together ok...so far. The only problem that I have run across is the protective plastic that they put on the tops of their bobbins sometimes leave a oily stain. Seems to only affect the white bobbins.

-Stan

[WolfeMacleod]

Great now I have to check the base plates.

All Parts does not even carry keeper bars. What's up with that? Stewart Mac has the same bobbins as All Parts but the Stewart Mac keeper bar does not work the All Parts bobbin if you use the All Parts screws. But the Guitar Jones keeper bar works with the All Parts bobbins even thought Guitar Jones covers won't work with the All Parts bobbins, .

Absolutely dead perfect keeper bars made from 1018 steel can be got from a company called Merlin5 in California. Fully machined, perfect. They're $2 each, fit the Allparts bobbins and bases perfectly, and are the correct thickness and lenght so as not to pinch the lead coming out the leadout hole. (GJ keepers are not...)
At 2000 pieces, they drop to about $1.90 or $1.80 each.

[Mystic]

I don't make many (yet) but I would be interested as well.

[Possum]

This idea of sharing in the tooling or buying of parts has been talked about alot before but seldom has anything happened. A couple weeks ago I emailed a few of the commercial members of the forum asking if they wanted to buy into a lot of 10,000 pole screws made vintage correct with correct alloy. No one even answered my email except for one guy who said he would go in but never sent the money. Most on the forum are hobbyists who just aren't going to pony up a couple hundred bucks because they just don't use much.

Dr. X swore he was going to make all these parts available and make them himself and do everything right, but nothing happened, its been over a year or more now and nothing.

StewMac has told me they are going to make more cohesive and better parts availalbe next year, this will be good but they only sell at retail prices, some of them are good most are horribly expensive and no wholesale discounts to builders. some of their current parts aren't so great. They told me they don't make much money on pickup parts.

I wonder if they'd be open to expanding their pickup parts operation to making alot of this stuff and selling wholesale to those of us who need ALOT of parts all the time, and a retail price for the hobbyists. Doubt it but maybe if a group of us talked to them as a whole they might pay attention. I don't know if they'd make enough money selling wholesale to be of interest to them. They own a big ass machine shop and pretty much can make anything they want to.

Buying as a group is tough, who owns the tooling? Who decides what specs to use? Who gets shafted if the product shows up and is crap? I'm always willing to share in a buy of a big order of parts that I am going to get, but sheesh, no one was even interested in good pole screws, and I don't really know who on this list are the real commercial makers who would spend a couple hundred bucks and be good on their word to send me the money on time. I found a local luthier/pickup maker who went in with me on this buy and we're splitting it up so its gone and done.

This parts thing is real discouraging, the only way to get ahead is to sink all your money back into having parts made rather than relying on the boat from Korea or AllParts and their seemingly total lack of knowledge about what it actually is they sell. I find it hard to believe that no one in the USA can make humbucker covers and sell them at a competitive price to Korea. This is depressing stuff, and I am glad I don't make my total living doing pickups, its insane, there's no reliability, suppliers don't think ahead, their parts change unannounced and they don't tell you till you open the package. Aaaargh....

[ken]

I have also gotten my share of headaches from trying to make a good HB pickup.

For example, I have had soft brass pickup screws that twist their heads off when you try to screw them into the same maker's bobbins, bottom plates from another maker with bobbin screw holes that don't line up quite right with the same maker's mounting holes in the bobbins (so the screws go in crooked if you don't redrill the holes), another maker's bobbins were actually pretty good... except for the color. You get the idea.

I can see why some of you are so proud of your pickups, because just finding good parts is a royal PITA. I can't see having to just order spacer bars from one maker, covers from another, and bobbins from a third. The searching for parts alone was driving me sane.

I can't really afford to order the 10,000 bobbin screws Possum mentioned below, but I would be interested a 'co-op' with others who need the same parts that I do. I can see the value... a parts maker who wouldn't bother making 1000 screws would just LOVE to make 10,000. However, IMO Stewmac isn't the way to go... if they can justify selling their own winder for $350USD and people will buy them, why should they give anyone a price break on anything else?

I am in a co-op for other things, and the whole thing is a matter of trust... trust for the 'little guys' who only buy 500 of something at a time that they won't get screwed if somebody bigger wants more than their own allotment, and trust for the 'big guys' who need the little guys' $$$ to at least partially justify a purchase in the first place.

Ken

[David Schwab]

I can't really afford to order the 10,000 bobbin screws Possum mentioned below, but I would be interested a 'co-op' with others who need the same parts that I do. I can see the value... a parts maker who wouldn't bother making 1000 screws would just LOVE to make 10,000. However, IMO Stewmac isn't the way to go... if they can justify selling their own winder for $350USD and people will buy them, why should they give anyone a price break on anything else?

Stew-Mac doesn't make that winder. It's made by Schatten Design in Canada. Stew-Mac just sells it for him.

The other thing is Stew-Mac for the most part just buys tools and stuff and resells them. Some of their stuff is custom made, either by them, or for them, or just modified... you see a lot of it in wood working catalogs for a lot less money.

I bet they buy their pickup parts from some Asian supplier like everyone else.

The thing about screws is pickup parts makers don't make screws... these are just common screws. In the case of humbucker adjustable poles, they are Fillister head machine screws. Your best bet is to order things like this through someone like McMaster-Carr.

I've been buying stuff from Stew-Mac for over 20 years now, but I know what stuff to look elsewhere for!

[WolfeMacleod]

I bet they buy their pickup parts from some Asian supplier like everyone else.


I know who they get those parts from. I'm the reason that Stew-Mac has them at all - I hooked them up.

[ken]

I knew about Schatten making the winder for StewMac, I was just making the point that anyone who could mark up a winder (or anything else) by that much and still manage to resell it would not be interested in lowering the price of anything for us at all. Some of the parts they have are cool, but the prices are absolutely nuts.

I get catalogs from all kinds of places, from wood shops to electronic salvage
catalogs to used machine tool catalogs. I get so many that my mailman asked me once when I was mowing my lawn if I ever heard of the Internet.

I know parts sellers don't make screws, I was just amazed that I never saw brass screws so soft they broke off their heads in plastic before. I tried to order 5,000 HB pole screws once from my boss's screw supplier, and he said he couldn't get filisters that small from his company. He actually suggested a Chinese supplier.

Ken

[Spence]

stew Mac isn't in business for other manufacturers to get a blinding trade price. they are there for the weekend warriors who only want what they need to complete one job. That's why you'll never get their stuff cheap.
The only way to get what you want reliably, that is parts that fit and are correct for the application, is to have them made yourself. Take a trip to China or India with correct parts and get them made there. make sure you see a real engineer not a salesman.

[jason lollar]

youd be suprised then to hear that stew mac will discount if you arrange to purchase a large order.
it has to be large enough to make it worth thier while and yours.

A couple months ago stew mac was enquiring about having pickup covers made, i told them what I could about it, I dont know if they completed the task or if thier covers are still outsourced but everyone is sick of the current supply level.
.

[soundmasterg]

And they screwed you over on that deal didn't they Wolfe?

[David Schwab]

I know who they get those parts from. I'm the reason that Stew-Mac has them at all - I hooked them up.

Oh that's right... I remember you mentioned that before.

I knew about Schatten making the winder for StewMac, I was just making the point that anyone who could mark up a winder (or anything else) by that much and still manage to resell it would not be interested in lowering the price of anything for us at all. Some of the parts they have are cool, but the prices are absolutely nuts.

Interestingly Schatten sells it for the same amount... but I guess that makes sense, because if he sold it for less, who would buy it from Stew-Mac? I see his new model has a plastic case for the "winding tower"!

I'm pretty happy with the winder, but if I were to do it over again, I would make my own. I'll be out growing this one soon.

Some stuff Stew-Mac is ridiculously over priced. I had first noticed this with their swivel jaw vice (Guitar Repair Vise). I had found the exact same vice, but in a different color at Woodcraft (http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=3961). At the time the Woodcraft version was much less expensive. These days it's only $4 cheaper.

Another example is Stew-mac sells 2-pole, 6-position rotary switches for $10.48, and you can buy pretty much the exact same switch in Radio Shack for $2.99. I just bought one today. The only difference I see is the Stew-Mac version has a knurled split shaft. They both look like Alpha switches.

Some stuff they sell you just can't get anywhere else, and a lot of pros use their tools and stuff. You just have to shop around for the best prices. :)