What I'm thinking of doing... (convince me I'm not nuts)

[prisonrodeo]

This is my first post here, though I've read some of the threads related to what I'm posting. I'm a guitar player; I play mostly jazz/fusion, R&B/soul, and funk.

I recently acquired a(nother) electric guitar specifically for the purpose of modding. What I'd like to do is make a pickup for it -- just one -- as part of the mod. My plan:

- The pickup will be a single coil, probably based on an Alnico-5 magnet,
- I want to do something lo-z, possibly using AWG28 or 32 or 36 wire. This is partly because I like the idea (and -- hopefully -- the sound) but also because...
- ... I am going to wind the thing by hand. Completely. No machine at all; just hands. (I'd consider a setup based on a hand drill or the like, but no machines).

I do not care much at all about the output of the thing; my main amp (a JC-120) has lots of headroom, and I avoid anything other than a purely clean tone like the plague. It will be a neck pickup in a strat-style setup, used mostly for clean jazz work, and in the worst case I can always use a pre-amp. However, I'd like something that didn't *require* an on-board preamp, if possible. Bear in mind that I have some experience working with things electrical, but this would be my first guitar pickup.

So... Is this insane? Will it work? Should I consider ceramic magnets instead? Is winding completely by hand batty?

Thanks!

[SJE]

I wouldn't bother!

After accidently usings 42SWG wire (it's a long story!) which is the equivalent of 38AWG I can tell you that a FULL (and I mean FULL) single coil start sized bobbin will only have around 1.1k.

Wire bigger than this will you'll be well under the 1k mark which will be essentially useless.

[LtKojak]

The pickup will be a single coil, probably based on an Alnico-5 magnet,
- I want to do something lo-z, possibly using AWG28 or 32 or 36 wire. This is partly because I like the idea (and -- hopefully -- the sound) but also because...
- ... I am going to wind the thing by hand. Completely. No machine at all; just hands. (I'd consider a setup based on a hand drill or the like, but no machines).
my main amp (a JC-120) has lots of headroom, and I avoid anything other than a purely clean tone like the plague.

So... Is this insane? Will it work?

Insane? No.

Will it work? Well... it might. Just bear in mind that to connect your Lo-Z p'up to your Hi-Z amp's input you'll need a trasformer or better yet, a preamp.

Will it sound well? With the recipe you have in mind it'll probably be too bright, harsh and even icepicky.

My guess is you'll be doing a lot of prototypes until "getting it right". It's a lot of time and money to spend. If you can afford it, go ahead. Use the seach engine to look for old threads about Low-Z p'ups, including the one about the Les Paul Recording LowZ p'ups. A lot of information contained everywhere in this forum.

OTOH, there are quite a few products out there that could fill the bill.

Keep us posted if you decide to carry on with your project. In my case, I avoid Low-Z p'ups for guitar like the plague myself!

HTH,

[paulgarstki]

Should I consider ceramic magnets instead?

I'd suggest trying all sorts of magnets. To a certain extent, using a more powerful magnet will compensate for an otherwise low-output coil. If you use design where the magnet is separate from the coil (P-90, HB, most non-Fender pups) you can swap magnets in a matter of seconds. Experiment! Don't believe everything you read about the magical tonal qualities of certain types of magnets.

Is winding completely by hand batty?

Well, yeah, but that never stopped any of us. I don't know what 28-36 AWG wire is like, but with the finer stuff, you should expect to break it from time to time. So get your soldering technique down before you start (i.e., make sure you can make a reliable splice that conducts, because you won't have a simple way to check continuity)

BTW, if you are winding by hand because you don't want to make a winder, consider using an LP turntable (...Long Play, not Les Paul...)

Good luck, have fun. I bet it'll sound great.

--Paul

[salvarsan]

My plan:

- The pickup will be a single coil, probably based on an Alnico-5 magnet,
- I want to do something lo-z, possibly using AWG28 or 32 or 36 wire. This is partly because I like the idea (and -- hopefully -- the sound) but also because...
- ... I am going to wind the thing by hand. Completely. No machine at all; just hands.

So... Is this insane? Will it work? Should I consider ceramic magnets instead? Is winding completely by hand batty?

Not to worry. You're complete batshit nuts ... but in a good way.

Keep the stock magnets. They'll work fine

You can fit about 300+ winds of #32 on a strat bobbin. This means that the voltage output will be around 1/10 a standard strat, but the current will be up by roughly the same factor.

Insert a low-Z impedance matching transformer at the amp and enjoy using a single coil pickup that is inherently wideband and low hum.

The volume and tone pots need to be smaller as well, but you can burn that bridge after you've crossed it.

-drh

[prisonrodeo]

Thanks, everyone. It may be a while before I get to this -- the project guitar has a few other more pressing needs to be dealt with -- but I'll try to keep everyone posted. My original thought (based on my poor initial understanding of how such things worked) was to use a seriously powerful magnet (neodymium) to help the output, but some earlier posts put me off that idea.

I'm open to building my own bobbins, and I don't care much what the final product looks like (for example, it doesn't need to fit a "standard" Strat/s.c. pickguard opening), so that might open up some options. Also, I'm thinking of putting a Neovin preamp (up to 25db boost) in-line.

As far as the tone of the thing goes... I'm really curious about the frequency response of such an animal. I always play through an EQ, so I could dial-in some changes as necessary, if it's really annoying. OTOH, "icepick" might be just the thing for playing rhythm behind a horn section...

Cheers!

[StarryNight]

Insert a low-Z impedance matching transformer at the amp and enjoy using a single coil pickup that is inherently wideband and low hum.

-drh

hey Salvarsan, can you give an example of what this might look like? Is this some kind of low Z to high Z transformer? What is it matching? I don't know much about this stuff - sorry for being obtuse.