problem with Hofner pickups

[spy]

Hey guys, I'm just wondering why on the other Hofner the neck pup measures 9K and the other two, 5K? The volume is just fine and close to the other two but it measures higher....

[spy]

I think it's time to rewind those Hofner pickups! I forgot them on the shelf!

Ok the old wire is AWG 42 and I have a spool somewhere in my lab... but I'm not sure about the number of turns. What do you suggest me? Anyone know how many turns to wind?

[Spence]

Although I have seen these in 42 guage they are usually 45 guage with one or two bobbins under the covers.

[spy]

These are with two bobbins. I'll try to post pics...

45? I don't have the super-accurate meter but I measure 0.06mm (AWG 42).
Any idea about the turns? Any advice?

[the great waldo]

Hi spy

The wire on the old Höfners is thnner than 42 awg, I just rewound a couple with 0.050 mm wire, I tried with 42 awg but there was no way to get enough wire onto the bobbin. The guitar in question was a 6 string. I managed to get 1 humbucker by using 1 working coil from 2 pickups and rewound 2 coils for 1 complete pup. I think the total reading was just over 9k.
Some of the old Höfner pups had only 1 coil under the cover. Most of the Höfners have fairly confusuing circuitry to go with the pups, however when switched full on they do have a good sound.

Cheers
Andrew

[spy]

I measure with my meter the AWG42 and I read 0.07mm! This means that the Hofner pup has thinner wire... I don't have thinner wire!

Here's a foto of one of the pups. There is some free space at the bobbin or this is not enough to fit a winding with AWG42?

I managed to get 1 humbucker by using 1 working coil from 2 pickups and rewound 2 coils for 1 complete pup. I think the total reading was just over 9k.
Some of the old Höfner pups had only 1 coil under the cover.

Now I understand why I measure 9K at the neck pup and 5K-4.5K at the middle and bridge at the other Hofner! It's exactly the same with the Hofner I'd like to rewind the pups! It has two coils at the neck and one at the middle and bridge! I'll take them off today....

Here's a pic of the other two pups that are still on the pickguard...

[the great waldo]

Hi Spy

You have exactly the same scratchplate and electronics that I recently repaired, you won´t be able to get the right amount of windings with 42 awg wire, I tried this and only got about half the dc resistance. I´m afraid you`re going to have to use 0.05 wire, I got mine from WIRES.CO.UK 0.032mm to 0.090mm Solderable Enamelled Copper Wire
If you are in Europe I think Conrad in Germany can ship small quantities. Wires.co.uk are a reasonable firm to deal with. Being so thin you will have to be carefull winding, I managed without to much trouble although slower than with 42 awg wire, I used Tamiya yellow masking tape to hold down the inside wire on the bobbin with very thin soft insulated wire for the lead outs. Höfner used heavily laquered copper stranded copper wire originally. Good luck.

Cheers

Andrew

[spy]

Hi Andrew, thanks for the link! I'm going for 0.050mm...
I'm from Greece so I prefer European stores to save from taxes.
Today I found a great ebay UK store!
Brocotts
Great prices and low shipping! I'll check Conrad too.

I didn't find time to take off the other two pickups. Are they with one coil or with two?

[the great waldo]

Hi Spy

All the pickups were humbuckers. The Brocotts wire is dual layer and might be a bit thick, the wires uk was solderable enamel. Brocotts price is ok so it might be worth a try and the thicker enamel might make it a bit easier to wind without breaking.

Cheers
Andrew

[spy]

Ok I'll buy the wire from wires.co.uk !
As I have some future plans to wind some strat and tele pickups (awg42-0.063mm and awg43-0.056mm), is the solderable enamelled wire great for these pickups? Or Brocotts dual layer is better?

[the great waldo]

Hi Spy

I have used wires uk their plain enamel wire for some strat pickups and they sounded fine, I have also used the formvar wire from mojotone which sounded really good. I´m not sure how much difference the wire makes, both wires sounded good with the mojotone just a bit better, but thats just personal taste. Friends liked the plain enamel from wires.uk. The thin 0.05 is only available from wires in the solderable form. I all honesty I have a feeling that how you wind the pup is more important than the wire. I have tried 3 different 42 awg wires and none sounded bad.

All the best

Andrew

[spy]

Ok , I got a little bit confused.
Plain Enamel is different than Solderable Enamelled wire, right?
Plain Enamel is the same with Standard Enamelled Copper Winding Wire...

So if I'll make an order is better to order 0.050mm Solderable Enamel for the Hofner pickups and 0.063mm Standard Enamelled for the Strat pickups.
Emm, what about the AWG43 - 0.056mm? It's only available in solderable enamel. I need it for a Tele neck pickup....

[the great waldo]

Hi SPY
You will have to use the solderable 0.050 as it´s the only wire thin enough from wires uk for the strats use standard enamel 0.063 as for the tele you will have to go with the solderable wire which is the only one they stock in 0.056. sorry about the late reply,my hard drive died and I had to reinstall everything.
Cheers

Andrew

[spy]

No problem Andrew, really thanks for your help!
That's too bad with your HD, hope you didn't lost important data...

[spy]

ok I bought a new wire 0.050 mm - 45AWG from wires.co.uk and I have the spools allready on my table to wind the bobbins for the Hofner pups!

Edit: I rewinded the two bobbins of one pickup at 4500 turns /each as suggested... I measure 5.20K/each.
This means that I'll have total 10.40K. Keep it there or un-wind them a little and get down so I'll have total 9K?