Poor pickup makers only: Replacement lead wires...

[OFM]

Hi Guys,

I remember a few months ago you were looking for a cheap replacement for Stewmac lead wires. A few days ago, a guy told me: Why don't you wrap a network cable and use the little wires as humbucker hookup wires?

I looked carefully and I was surprised with the results:

PROS:
-Same consistency as stewmac leadwires
-Very good quality
-Heat ressistant
-14703 times cheaper. With a single meter of network cable you can assembly 500 humbuckers aprox.

CONS:
-Stewmac wire is about 0.7-0.8 milimeters wide. This one is about 1mm...
-There's no black cable, just white, blue, red and brown.

What do you think about it?

[Spence]

Alarm cable has all the colors.

[OFM]

Alarm cable has all the colors.

I really don't mind about the second color. I always use White + "Something"...

HEHEHE...

"Something" for start, white for the end...

The advantage of network cable is that white is always tied to a second color... So there's a lot of white wire...

[SkinnyWire]

No reason not to go this route really. Until recently, I used 26 gage for the small pieces of wire attached to the start/finish of my humbucker bobbins. I'd buy a spool of 4-conductor phone cord from Radio Shack and strip out the red/green/black/yellow wires. I mainly used the black and green - found the spools on closeout for something like $6. The insulation is not very heat resistant (PVC?) so you have to be quick with the iron. I use silver tinned Teflon insulated wire now, mainly for the heat resistance of the insulation. YMMV.

[parentheticalfact]

I've actually settled on hosa midi cables.
They have green, red, white, and black (almost the right 4 for 4 conductor wiring!) and the wire is very flexible. I get a little bit of pullback on the insulator from heat, but it's at a very manageable level. I'd rather have that problem than the issue of trying to tuck away the stiff wire that stewart macdonald sells. Far too stiff in my opinion.
I have several blue midi cables from hosa that had damaged ends that were given to me so I'm hooked up until I run out.

[Mark Hammer]

Depending on what you want and what sort of pickups you're talking about, those cables that connect a CD/DVD drive to your soundcard can be just what the doctor ordered. They have two conductors of suitable gauge, plus shield and insulation. Thick enough to be sturdy, thin enough to fit in tight spaces, long enough that they can reach pretty much anywhere on any guitar, and cheap enough that you don't mind clipping the ends off. Plus, if you have the option, they can be plugged into headers for quick connect/disconnect.

[OFM]

I really loved the fact of heat resistance of network cables, and the "White + Something" distribution.

In my own pickups (never in my customers pickups) i used a couple of times the non-heat resistant wires and i didn't like the results, you have to be really quick with the soldering iron and you'll eat 2 or 3 milimeters soldering the lead wires most of the time.

I'll borrow a caliper to measure exactly the difference between stewmac wires and network cables and i'll post them here to be sure about the difference.

[soundmasterg]

You guys are going through way too much trouble to get your wire. Just order 26 gauge or 28 gauge wire in whatever colors you want from a wire supplier. You can get spools of 50 feet each for under $10 each color. Teflon wire will be a little more money and won't melt the insulation. The cheap wire Radio Shack sells has crappy PVC insulation and it melts easily. If you get good wire like Beldon, then that doesn't happen as easily.

Try OTS wire like I posted a couple months ago, or a place I used to work at called Squires Electronics (http://www.squires.com/). I got Possum some wire from Squires when I worked there and it works fine for him. If you know what you want you can just call them or email them and order it. Their site isn't set up to order from yet. If Possum could look on the spools I gave him, he could get the stock number from them for you. I'll ask him tonight about it.

[soundmasterg]

Ok, I talked to Possum and got the info off the spools (which were 250 foot spools btw). For authentic Gibson style hookup wire that you would use inside the coil to solder to the beginning and end wires of the coil, you want to use 28 gauge 7 strand stranded wire with a UL 1061 insulation on it. If you call or email Squires Electronics or any other wire suppliers and ask for UL 1061 28ga/7 wire in whichever color you want, they can supply it to you for pretty cheap and 250 feet will last you forever. I think for two spools of the stuff it was under $30 but that was several years ago. Since metal prices have gone up, it may be a little more but it sure is a lot easier to go this route than to strip network cable wire or some other method.

Greg