Beginners guide? (Beginner as in 100% uneducated)

[fronkpies]

Well im glad I found this forum, as ive wanted to start winding my own pickups for a while now.

But I cannot find a guide/tutorial/FAQ anywhere (apart from the lollar book)

I know absolutely nothing about about making your won pickups, and very little about the technical side.

Is there a guide anywhere? maybe somebody should write one?

Anyway any help appreciated.

[Mouthurst]

Years ago I made one once from a cow magnet,its a thing given to by farmers and vets cows swallow them to collect nails.
first I ground a groove on each end then I simply hand wrapped hundreds of turns of thin copper wire around it,
I taped it to a guitar cord and as if by shithouse luck and magic...IT WORKED!

Granted not very well.
Id say learn a bit about why and how it works then get some used cheapies and rewind them.

[Possum]

very little....

Unfortunately there is pretty much no information on making pickups out there for beginners. Lollar's book is really good if you can find one on ebay for reasonabe. For hobbyists it would be the best choice, StewMac has some how to do it articles on their site in the pickup kits section. You can get passable results using their parts etc. If you get into it deeper than that there really is no technical guide to making good sounding pickups, you just have to spend a bunch of money on wire and magnets and all that stuff and wind alot until you figure it out, and that takes a couple years to get a handle on. It can be a very deep subject to get a handle on for sure. Having good test gear helps, hanging out on the forum helps. Easiest thing to do is buy some cheap crap pickups and rewind them to your taste. it can be a real money pit the deeper you get into it. My advice is go to StewMac and just have some fun and don't drive yourself crazy :-)

[Spence]

I have a long term plan to write a comprehensive guide with a DVD set to accompany the guide but there's no substitute for the 'suck it and see' approach. The Japanese industry has long held the view that you should copy something already proven before improving on a design. It's certainly worked for them.

[Possum]

copying....

yeah, I used to be so against doing vintage repro pickups and did everything my own experiments and designs. Now I would recommend that you start by trying to replicate vintage designs, its a form of schooling thats pretty valuable. After all if you can't make a strat or tele set thats outstanding, nothing else you make will be either. I now make vintage inspired sets that are very close to the originals and they were alot of fun to work with and taught me things I didn't know too.

But I also think coming up with your own unique pickups, even if based on old designs is just as valuable and will teach you about how and why pickups sound the way they do than anything else will.

The good thing about Lollar's book is it teaches you how ot make pickups from scratch. You take a couple pieces of forbon and some plexiglass and make traditional designs and anythng your mind can imagine. Most hoobyists don't have a clue how to do that, Lollar's book will give you the fundamentals to build on.

Just being a copyist pickup regurgitator would be real boring to me, I like to do pickups based on old ideas and see if I can make them do what I want to hear. Unfortunately the reality is that these pickups are really unprofitable being mostly hand made :-) Sometimes I dread getting orders for those because they are slow to make, but you can't get those kinds of tones out of any other pickups either, so call me crazy :-)

[Ruel]

Well im glad I found this forum, as ive wanted to start winding my own pickups for a while now.

But I cannot find a guide/tutorial/FAQ anywhere (apart from the lollar book)

I know absolutely nothing about about making your won pickups, and very little about the technical side.

Is there a guide anywhere? maybe somebody should write one?

Anyway any help appreciated.

Be forwarned!! This thing could get addictive!! I've just about got started with pickup winding and I can't get it off my mind. I am worried that I will not find the "Holy Grail" of killer tone. Pickup winding is the last thing I have on my mind before I go to sleep. It is the first thing that pops into my mind when I wake up in the morning.

[corduroyew]

I have a long term plan to write a comprehensive guide with a DVD set to accompany the guide but there's no substitute for the 'suck it and see' approach. The Japanese industry has long held the view that you should copy something already proven before improving on a design. It's certainly worked for them.

Thats what I was doing untill about a month ago. It got me to a point where I could make a good sounding pickup but I still really didn't have any idea what would happen when I started changing stuff around. I tried asking a question about it here but I fear my questiong was too BIG and it got no replys. So I started changing stuff, taking reading, puting them into guitars, and taking the guitars to the local music shop of oppinions. It's slow going but the only real expence is the wire because.

[jason lollar]

for buy it now of 7.00

http://cgi.ebay.com/Basic-Pickup-Win...ayphotohosting

guy doesnt know they go for $200