Rowe pups

[jonson]

Has anybody here ever taken one of these babies apart. It's a Rowe ind. pup off the Roy Smeck Harmony from the early 60s. This is the closest I've got to one of these and couldn't strip it as it was working and had to go back on the guitar. Had a reading of 8.5k so I am assuming it was 44swg and the magnet ceramic. (ferrite or boron I think they called it back then) I've read here that rubber was used on some Rowe pups but a probe down the rivet hole said not this one to me. There was no sign of any bobbins, just 2 thin plates with the mag in between. So was the coil wound direct onto the mag or am I missing something I couldn't see.

[WolfeMacleod]

I have. know quite a bit about them. Done about 50 of them in the last several years for a local store.

[Possum]

Rowe DeArmond

There is a guy I got an email from who is writing a book about DeArmond and Rowe, I hope it makes it to print, probably the only guys who will buy it will be us. Basically those type of pickups are one of two things, rubber or alnico magnets, paper bobbins, thin guage wire. magnets are magnetized with poles on top and bottom, the base of the pickup is steel the top is paper. simple design that kicks butt if you like cool old tones. I make a version called Dirty Harry's after Harry DeArmond, they have a unique tone, a bitch to cram into a humbucker cover, a bitch to make but well worth it. I use alnico magnets i had made in A2 and A5, and no I won't sell them. The rubber stuff you can source pretty easily, haven't made one of those yet the alnico sounds so good....Oh and forgot the alncio magnets are weird they have holes on the ends for the rivets but open ended like claws, they are only 1/4 inch thick, alot of DeArmond stuff uses those thin magnets, some of his stuff is pure genius, look up his patents, Rowe was basically the marketing genius, Harry made pickups...

[David Schwab]

Those DeArmond/Rowe pickups are great! I love the foil tops, and I had one of those great archtop models once... Had it on my Rick bass even! Then the bottom unglued and the coil wire broke. Man it was thin wire! High DC resistance too.

[jonson]

Cheers guys couple of good directions there. I guessed the mags were notched around the rivets (thread grinding ceramics) but you think it may have been alnico Possom so have to see if I can grind that. The ammount needed does'nt warrant the tooling cost for production, and paper top well I thought stronger than that as the one I had to look at was very stiff but then Bakelite was only paper and resin really so should get round that somehow.
Foil tops next David as these are ther first ones I need to do and yes very thin and very powerful and you say thin wire so next bit is how thin. gonna be fun to wind I think.

[NightWinder]

That is sooo kickass.......45awg- by the way.

[John_H]

Roy Smeck in the house

Cool.. I was curious about the pickups in mine. I restored this one a couple years ago. I'd compare the sound to P90's. These things are wired like a tank. The scan is from a 1961 Wards catalog.

[NightWinder]

Damn!! Yours looks great!! Slide work should raise some hair on the arm

[jonson]

Cheers Nightwinder 45 it is. Just got ripped off by Electrosola in Switzerland but Spence has told me where to go in the UK so have to get going as this project is starting to drag on a bit and I want to complete the set before I finaly go fixing Jimi's guitars upstairs. Mind you it's warmer downstairs and I hear old Nick plays a mean fiddle.

[David Schwab]

That is sooo kickass.......45awg- by the way.

That's what I was guessing... 45 or 50 awg.

[David Schwab]

C...but then Bakelite was only paper and resin really so should get round that somehow.

Get thin paper laminate phenolic. Phenolic is paper and phenol resin, which is what bakelite is made from. Phenolic is also called garolite, but that's usually cloth laminate phenolic.

I make bobbins from circuit board, which is phenolic. I make bass fingerboards out of black paper phenolic.

Smelly stuff to work with though.

[jonson]

Silly me not thought of phenolic, yet got some in stock. Bit about 1/8" thick so i'll shove it through a drum sander and give it a whirl. I too have done a couple of fretless bass boards with it and ended up glueing it with resorsinal glue from the boat yard but if that works I can order some sheeting to size. Cheers David.

[jonson]

One more question guys, were these pups scatter wound or did they do them on auto with a traverse set up.

[Possum]

not phenolic

fishpaper is what you want, I just ordered some to try on my Dirty Harrys. McmasterCarr.com has it. Actually some of the Dearmond pickups do use thin cardboard tops, the monkey on a stick jazz type pickups use that. Are you punching those covers yourself? As for the magnets you can have them made, you're going to have to have them made anyway because humbucker bars are oriented the wrong way and too thin. Try Earth Panda to get a quote from, you need to provide them a mechanical drawing and be very specific about dimensions.

[jonson]

thanks Possum another avenue there, will track down fishpaper as well and as for mags not gonna be enough pups made for a special order but may get them mixed in with something else. Probably end up Stateside as over here UK small orders are a rip off. Friend does my Laser work from my cad drawings but made my own punches and so far so good. These are 3/8 wider than the origionals cus I'm building the guitars to a customer spec which is a wider neck and spacing than the Harmony's.