What is this loop?

[Faux Hog]

I recently ordered uncharged Alnico 5 magnets from a company I hadn't used before and 2weeks later I recieved finished bobbins with charged mags. (not much help) Anyway, these bobbins have a small loop of magnet wire through the eyelet and around the outside of the bridge side portrusion on the bottom flatwork. I've seen this on maybe half the single coils I've come across. It doesn't seem to be a practice used by either lowend or highend builders exclusively. So what is the purpose of this loop?

[Magnut]

Is there solder on the eyelet? It sounds like a recycled bobbin.

By finished do you mean it's already wound? Passing the magnet wire through the eyelet a few times is common to hold the magnet wire in place during winding and to secure the finish wind before soldering.

[Faux Hog]

don't think so

I was a little unclear, by finished I meant that the mags were already set within the flatwork (evidently with some great force, a sledge hamer perhaps) but they are not wound. There is solder in the eyelets but it looks pretty clean so I wouldn't suspect that they are recycled, maybe, but the mounting holes are untapped as well.

I have seen this many times before on completed pickups and assumed, like you said, that the loops were winds from the actual coil to secure the ends to the bobbin. (although I can't see how this would be beneficial)

I recieved a decent bulk of these and they are all the same. Allow me to make another assumption here based on my impression of these builds. I feel like these bobbins are intended for small number builds with limited tools and knowledge, so that someone who wanted to build a set for a guitar they were building could buy a .5 lbs of wire, mount a drill, heat up the gun and have at it. Easypeezy. Now if this assumption is at all correct and they are intended for ease of use then what do the loops benefit to the process or the finished pickup? The rest of the build is best describe as basic; six charged mags pushed through rough flatwork and two dabs of solder on the eyelets. Why the extra step in manufacturing and to what avail?

[chevalij]

Sounds like they were previously wound. There's NO reason to have bits of magnet wire in the eyelets. I wind mine like that, as do probably most winders out there. Magnet wire goes through the eyelet a few times to hold it and then soldered in place.

[J S Moore]

Probably buying them wholesale from Billion Pickups for $1.00 a set and cutting the wire off them, then selling them for a couple of dollars each. There's no other reason for solder in the eyelets except that they've been used already.

[Faux Hog]

There seems to be a concensus here.

That's a little disheartening. Here I am, some poor schmuck tryign to save a buck and a quarter on a coil's worth of magnets and I get some other scmucks stripped rejects instead. Well, you get what you and buyer beware and don't believe the and all the other addages. Same lesson diffrent day.

[J S Moore]

Not too expensive a lesson I hope.

If you have a small enough drill bit you can drill out the solder in the eyelets. Then it'll be easy to use them if they look okay.

[Faux Hog]

...

I could drill them out, but what I pain in the ass!
I ordered unmagnetized rods and received these rejects with a letter.
But, I wasn't intending to make standard strat pickups, so they're completely useless. I bought 4 old 70's sears speaker cabs at a garage sale and was goinging to use the fiber board backing to make some diffrent shaped bobbins for some coil shape experiments.
I wanted unmaged, unstaggered to try to standardize the magnets as much as possible.
Instead of paying 5 or 6 bucks/6 I tried these for 3.50 per.
$70 wasted on pickups I'm olny building to F around with. I've certainly made more expensive mistakes.
Thanks for the concern.

[David Schwab]

$70? Why not just buy everything from Stew-Mac? They have uncharged alnico rods of various lengths, and the most expensive one is $2.14 if you buy six or more, and they have fiberboard for $7.95 for a 6X6" sheet.

[Faux Hog]

Stew Mac

I wanted the rods as long as I could practicaly get them and stew-mac's longest rods are something like 2.13USD per. The ones I intended to get were 3.50 per set of six. I use MOJo most often. They go $1 per rod and have a couple diameter choices, I think forbon sheets were abit less then Stew mac too. But, I have 9 square feet of this fiber board speaker backing. I was trying to save a little on some testers. Live and learn.

Speaking of the forbon sheets, how are yall cutting this stuff?
Just as a point of intrest. The only time I've cut it myself so far was rough cut with a jewlers saw and finishing it with a sanding cylinder on my dremel with the forbon nailed to the bench. I had only used it to raise a set of tele pickups I mounted on a dano. This was before I had a router table. I'm planning to route the flatwork for this batch and tapping the rod holes with a tmplate for spaceing and a drill. Any pointers, suggestions, warnings besides watch your fingers?