My first pickup and MK1 pickup winder

[guitarsorguk]

Hello all

Newbie here!

I have been making guitars, taking them apart, fixing them and playing in a band for about 30 years now. Thought it was about time I would make a pickup. I made my first one a P90 style thingy with an electric power drill, started with a very old sewing machine, but motor burned out first attempt. (The stitching spacing was quite wide, also the cotton kept getting caught in the needle!)
After 5 goes at it I had a working pickup, I was now officially hooked! (image below) I made fit rom an old strat 3 ply scratchplate, I used 6 Alnico magnet instead of the way a ‘normal’ P90 is with a bar magnet underneath.
Ok, i admit its not a P90 just a big strat pickup, but it has to fit in a humbucker space.

Next on the menu.................
Decided i would make a pickup winder, as you can see from the photos i took the pedal and switch gear from the sewing machine, a 1/25th horse power electric motor, taken from a home made sanding machine that my father made years ago and the case was from a 1970s crazy type of kitchen air freshener (again made by my father, he had a shop and sold weird inventions he made, think I’m heading the same way!). I tried the motor from the air freshener because it had a small variac in it but the motor was not strong enough.

I have only tried it once and that was rewinding a squier tele pickup, i need to buy some more wire (and magnets, bobbins, beer, chocolate and nuts).
Good thing about it is that it has spindles on both sides, great for reverse winding, just take off the bobbin plate and push it on the other side.
It works very well and is nice a quiet.

I have plans (in my head) for the MK2 version. Have a motor with a gear box (better for slow speed startup I’ve found). Working on ideas for a counter with reed switch and step counter. It will be much bigger and dafter.

I have a website which has my progress so far.

I have found this forum to be very informative and a big help, am working my way through the pages, (very slowly, it's and age thing!) There are some very talented and knowledgeable people out there.

Thanks
John

[RedHouse]

Welcome home.

[Peter Naglitsch]

Welcome John and be warned: It sounds like you have been bitten by the PWB (pickup winding bug).

How did the pickup sound? I'm really curious as you have that thick metal base plate. It is made of ferrous metal or aluminium (aluminum for you Americans) or something else?

[guitarsorguk]

Hello

Sorry been a bit long repling to Peter (above), been waiting to put in a guitar i was finishing of at same time.

The pickup sounds very 'big', its in the neck position, with overdrive it is quite close to my T top gibo neck pickup.

Yes it has an Aluminium base, still sounds good though. The strange thing is that it reads 0.8k (yes that was zero, point eight). guess i should not get a sound out of it but it does! I had a couple of goes winding it and each time it was way below 1 k.

Dont think there is a short, could be because the windings are against the metal base plate has something to do with it.

Thanks
John

[chevalij]

Hey John,

I would have to think that 0.8k means it's shorted somewhere, unless you wound it with huge wire. But by the pic I don't think that's the case. Did you check your resistance from the leads to the aluminum baseplate?

[guitarsorguk]

Hi

Checked the leads to the base plate and nothing, i did use 40 awg wire though, it was all i could get at the time. (i've now found a source for 42 awg).

Won't be using Aluminium for a base plate again, thought it was a good idea at the time. Still first attempt and it worked so i'm happy with that, no idea how many windings, just did it till 'full'.

[Peter Naglitsch]

Hard to tell why the pickup only give you a reading of 0.8. I would expect a pickup with that size to have at last a couple of kohms. Just a thought: Have you checked your meter against any known resistance to calibrate it?

And there is nothing wrong in using an aluminium base plate. You just have to take that into consideration when designing the rest of the pickup.

[guitarsorguk]

Yes, meter is fine. I use it quite a lot on other pickups. Just made a humbucker, that was 12.5k

[DrStrangelove]

Originally Posted by guitarsorguk

Hello all

Newbie here!I

Let me congratulate you on joining our noble ranks.

Here, at the Pickup Makers Forum, we exchange all manner of craft and
technical information with the shared goal of advancing the Science of guitar
pickups so that the builders' Art has a better foundation and can be more
ambitious.

...but, By God!, it doesn't have to be that way!

As the forum Immoderator, I warn you that there are two rules:

1.) Do not post commercial ad copy unless it is for the purpose of dissection.

2.) Do not refer to the Immoderator as a sheep shagger. It demeans the sheep
and may even wake the Immoderator long enough to perform his assigned function.

--The Immoderator

[David King]

Hi and welcome to the swelling ranks of the crafty and bitten. I think 40AWG could give you a pretty low reading. How many turns were you actually able to fit on the bobbin?

[guitarsorguk]

Hi

Dont know how many turns, just till it as 'full', i would say it was fairly slack as well, only through poor technique. But it sounds nice and bright and fairly loud.
Have done a couple of others since with 42 awg and they were fine, little tighter as well.

Should had done this years ago on the guitars i have made, don't think i will ever buy another 'brand name' pickup again!