problems with pick up making

[jay77]

hi everybody,
i'm a new one in pick up making and i have problems with noise after installing!
i have a stewmac winding machine, i bought a bobbin of enamel awg43 from elektrisola(grade 2 coating for heat resistance up to 220°F) and used both forbon and bakelite flatworks...as usual i wax the picks in 80/20 paraffin and beeswax solution heated not more than 150°F, but my picks are still noisy!!!
the fact is that as soon as i mount the pick up i can hear grounding problem also on the strings even if with original pick ups there wasn't( even if the whole cavities are grounded with copper shield), i'm thinking that the insulation on the copper isn't that good, because the very first picks i made had continuity from hot to alnico poles(!!) by measuring with the tester (or by touching the pole with one string the sound was off!) and i had to put some insulating tape on the poles before winding! but what happens with the other windings?(i don't think i solved the problem!!)
i know here i can find people who can really help me in solving this problem so please do it

[Magnut]

Have you grounded your bridge? It sounds like it did not get grounded.

Try measuring resistance from the hot wire to all of the magnets. Use a low meter setting like 200ohms. If you use a megaohm setting you may get false readings.

Did you use a tight wire tension when winding? You may need to wind them a little looser. It does take some time to get the hang of it. We have all experienced what you are experiencing. Just keep trying and you will get it worked out. I don't think your wire is bad. How do the pickups sound through the amp. Normal volume, tone...?

[Magnut]

Have you grounded your bridge? It sounds like it did not get grounded.

Try measuring resistance from the hot wire and then the ground wire to all of the magnets. Use a low meter setting like 200ohms. If you use a megaohm setting you may get false readings.

Did you use a tight wire tension when winding? You may need to wind them a little looser. It does take some time to get the hang of it. We have all experienced what you are experiencing. Just keep trying and you will get it worked out. I don't think your wire is bad. How do the pickups sound through the amp. Normal volume, tone...?

[jay77]

thank you for your reply.
well i tested by putting the tester on 200 ohm, but the fact that warried me more was that the sound went off when touching one pole with one string and playing the others! no the bridge is well connected to ground. the tension ...well i always tension it the more i can do isn't it good? the sound is great, but sometimes i noticed a difference in ohms by checking two identical pick ups(doen't that mean some windings are lost!?) . ohhhh i'm getting mad!!!

[David Schwab]

If they are single coil pickups they are going to hum. Foil shielding wont stop that at all. However you said:

but the fact that warried me more was that the sound went off when touching one pole with one string and playing the others!

Your coil wire is shorted to the magnets, so the magnets are now part of the hot connection. This would explain the noise, and why touching a string to the magnet shorted out the sound, since the string is grounded. It touched the magnet is is now "hot" and then you get no sound.

It's a good idea to wrap some tape around the magnets first before you wind, or at the very least dip the whole bobbin in some lacquer or similar finish and let it dry.

[jay77]

It's a good idea to wrap some tape around the magnets first before you wind, or at the very least dip the whole bobbin in some lacquer or similar finish and let it dry.

thanks david,
but i'm putting the tape around the magnets, as i said before, but what's about the rest of winding? if the insulation comes off (i don't know how and why)on the very firsts windings near the poles and shorts the pick up, why shouldn't the rest of wire?
then..once i winded a pick up and,without waxing it, with the tester i saw it was shorted, so i excluded the fact that i could have melted the insulation with too hot wax...it comes out shorted and the tapes only helps me not to let the guitar voice off while playing...but i didn't solve the problem!!!

[David Schwab]

thanks david,
but i'm putting the tape around the magnets, as i said before, but what's about the rest of winding? if the insulation comes off (i don't know how and why)on the very firsts windings near the poles and shorts the pick up, why shouldn't the rest of wire?
then..once i winded a pick up and,without waxing it, with the tester i saw it was shorted, so i excluded the fact that i could have melted the insulation with too hot wax...it comes out shorted and the tapes only helps me not to let the guitar voice off while playing...but i didn't solve the problem!!!

If the sound cuts out when a string touches a magnet, that means the magnet is hot. So tape or not, your wire is shorted to the magnets.

If your windings short together that will create other issues, but not the problem with the noise or hot magnets.

You wont melt the insulation on the magnet wire by putting it in wax.

Either way, your wire is shorted to the magnets. It doesn't take much to have the wire go up where the magnet passes through the flatwork, and there is no tape up there.

[jay77]

so david,
how can i do not to have that kind of situation?..do you think that the poles are the real problem? or what?

[Mark Hammer]

For tape, I would recommend teflon plumbers tape. It is cheap, widely available, contains no adhesive that might decompose over time, and will not be damaged by any heat applied. It is also VERY thin allowing the coil to be pretty much as close to the polepices as it would normally be, and is generally just the right width for our type of needs.

[David King]

Just cut all the wire off your bobbins with a sharp chisel, replace the tape and wind again using the minimum tension that will keep the wire on the bobbin. Wind at a slower speed. Keep the tension as even as possible and put your tensioner far away from the bobbin, 30-60 cms if possible.

[jay77]

thanks a lot david, i'll try the way you said.

[madialex]

Just cut all the wire off your bobbins with a sharp chisel, replace the tape and wind again using the minimum tension that will keep the wire on the bobbin. Wind at a slower speed. Keep the tension as even as possible and put your tensioner far away from the bobbin, 30-60 cms if possible.

Hi David, just wondering about this statement. Can you explain what keeping it that far away does and why?

[David Schwab]

Hi David, just wondering about this statement. Can you explain what keeping it that far away does and why?

I'm a different David, but I think it absorbs some of the bouncing from the oblong bobbin.