Ideas for pickup covers

[jbforrer]

Greetings!

I am making some slimline pickups as shown in the picture.
These are much like a vintage DeArmond-Rowe humbucker designed for archtops and I am very happy with how it turned out and how they sound.

These are mounted in a machined acrylic shell and now I'm looking for a cover. The pickup is only 1/4" thick and I dont want it much thicker than that to work in confined spaces.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.
-JBF

[big_teee]

Looks good.
It looks self contained.
Couldn't you just put a nice pretty piece of Pickguard material, on top of it.
The color combos are endless.
Good Luck,
Terry

[David Schwab]

Couldn't you just put a nice pretty piece of Pickguard material, on top of it.

Yeah, I was thinking a thin piece of plastic over the top. I would go with something thinner than a pickguard blank, but that same idea.

Cool pickup. I'd like to hear how you would the coils.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

LMII (and others) have thin pieces of the really nice tortoise pickguard material. It would probably need a solid color back to look right, but it shouldn't end up being much thicker than .050"-.060". Going with ACOUSTIC pickguard blanks instead of electric will give you the thinner stuff.

Also, eBay has some insane deals on veneers. I don't know how or why, but at any given time you can pickup good looking hardwood veneers that are nice and thin (around .020") that would otherwise be more expensive. That could work really well for an archtop. Heck, you could even tint them or do a small sunburst! They'd need a harder backing though. I've also seen really good deals on abalone, too.

[Arthur Dent]

An ebony or rosewood veneer would look good. Back it with your choice of thin ridgid plastic.

If you really want as thin as possible, you can get black delrin under 1/32" thick. There's also carbon fiber, if you're into that sort of thing.

[jbforrer]

Hi,

Thanks for much for the ideas. The wood veneers crossed my mind too. That would look nice.

A few pictures that tells how I made the coils. Needs a bit of patience working with 45 AWG.

All one need is a way to hold the wire temporarily in place while spinning the coil. I used a simple jig. The bottom flange of the pickup is made from thin PCB. That also holds the magnets (epoxied in). Note the black anchors spaced around the circumference of the coil. These anchor "flaps" are small pieces of electrical tape with the sticky side facing the outside of the coil. These are placed before any wire goes on. The temporary top flange here is an empty bobbin (sturdy enough not to warp).

After the wire has been layed down and the assembly removed from the winder, the anchor flaps are bent back and stuck together to fully enclose the coil wires as a bundle at each spot. Once all anchor flaps has been secured, there is sufficient integrity to remove the temporary top flange. A bit of finger dressing to push things in place and finally wax potting to protect the delicate coil.

Sidebar: The two coils here are almost identical in all respects. The PUP is quieter than any of my other conventional humbuckers.

Regards.
-JBF.

[marku52]

Nice work! AWG45? Ouch, that's gotta be tough to work with. Ceramic magnets I assume?

another thought might be nickel silver, you can get it in .016", .020", and .032 from McMurray metals in TX. you could do up an old timey swirly design in a paint program, and then take it to an engraver to get it put on the nickel silver, then shear it to final size, and polish it up.

[jbforrer]

Thanks for the interest.

Great ideas ... I'll have to get some of that thin nickel silver stock. Since I dont need very deep drawn covers, perhaps I can try my hand at making a shallow die and use a hand press. I've made a modest attemp that I might try embossing thin heated acrylic sheet. See picture below for the mockup. The material underneath is card stock that one get in all sorts of colors and embossed patterns.

In another DeArmond-Rowe replica that I'm making, the cover worked out well. Similar materials and fabrication, just a single coil design ... kind of resemble the looks of a humbucker. Attached pictures shows the idea. These have a lovely full tone and quite hot an output, almost comparable to a vintage humbucker wind.

Right, the magnets are hand-selected ceramics.

Thanks.
-JBF.

[marku52]

I make my own humbucker covers out of .020 NS in a press tool I made myself, it requires more force than I think you can get out of an arbor press, I use a 6 ton bottle jack at probably half capacity. I then trim off the excess with a cutoff wheel in a drill press. I posted on this about 6 months ago, if you search on my name I'm sure it will come up. another poster named "jonson" also does it, he gave me the impetus to give it a shot.

It is very do-able. Nice looking DeArmond.

[jonson]

All looking good there and like the way you have used the tape to hold the coil in place after winding that's nifty. Now you need to cut that White bucker ring in half, remove a bit and glue it back together. Polish it and take a rubber mold and make some bucker rings that fit and finish the job completely. Well done.