How long?

[Spence]

I HATE dealing with the hookup wires myself, I can never get the wire to sit straight in the bobbin so I can wind over it without a lot of lumps in my coils.

Ken

Maybe your 'pigtails' or hookup to each bobbin are too heavy a gauge. It's quite possible to lay that wire inside the bobbin and tape it in place like David Schwab said. Your coil wire will flatten it out to some extent.
This is something you should conquer if you want your pickups to look like PAFs. Otherwize I wouldn't worry about it.


As regards to the speed with which anyone can make a humbucker, it's not a competition. Quality, not quantity. that's a hard and fast, unshakeable rule.

[David Schwab]

It's quite possible to lay that wire inside the bobbin and tape it in place like David Schwab said. Your coil wire will flatten it out to some extent.

I have a damn difficult time doing that... I always had this big lump that made it hard to get enough wire on the bobbin... I suppose everyone's winding style varies, but it doesn't work well for me.

On the Shaw pickup, they left the lose ends of the coil outside the bobbin, then soldered the hookup wires on after it was wound, and left them taped to the outside of the coil.

Not vintage, but it's easier to deal with. This is how I do my bass pickups too.

[ken]

I was thinking with doing mine that way too, with the hookup wire attached outside of the coil. With my luck, I'd break the inside wire right next to the bobbin too. I guess I can live with 'the lump'.

Ken

[David Schwab]

With my luck, I'd break the inside wire right next to the bobbin too.

... yeah, and when I break it it's the inside wire too ...

[Achiles]

David,soap may atack metal parts.I use wax ,samed used to pot.

[David Schwab]

David,soap may atack metal parts.I use wax ,samed used to pot.

The reason I started using soap (ivory or dove brand) is because this is commonly done in woodworking circles.

It's been done for decades, and I really can't see how it can attack metal... it's just fat...

[JGundry]

Soap is fat and lye, which is caustic.

[David Schwab]

Soap is fat and lye, which is caustic.

Yes, but the lye (sodium hydroxide for hard soap, and potassium hydroxide for soft soap) is no longer caustic after you combine them (saponification) ... otherwise you would burn your skin, right?

have you ever burned your skin on ivory soap?

It's the same way with common table salt. Both sodium and chloride are poisonous, and sodium will explode with contact to water! Combine the two and you can eat the stuff!

[Spence]

Gibson started putting the coil hookup wires on the outside of the coil after the PAF era. It's much easier but a bit cheezy really. It was easier to do that when machine winding the bobbins. You should persevere with doing it right and walk tall.

[Zhangliqun]

My way (start lead vertical against the inside of the end of the bobbin and down through the hole) has its drawbacks in somewhat limiting the amount of wire that end will hold, but the advantage is durability. The tension of the coil wire holds it solidly in place which is a bonus if you find you cut the start lead too long and you need to shorten and re-strip it.

I get nervous with pickups that are too delicate -- too easy for a customer to screw them up and blame it on you. Plus during construction I get a little hamfisted from fatigue after about 10 p.m., so hookup wires soldered to the magnet wire on the outside of the coils would lead to a LOT of rewinding for me! Yikes! But anyone who is able to make it work that way, more power to you.

A similar thing with P90's. They are traditionally made with one of the lead connections hanging below the baseplate and mounted to one of the big bobbin mount screws. I prefer to drill a hole in the end of the baseplate, solder the braid wire to the hole on the inside and have the hot lead connected to the center lead on the inside and the ground lead soldered directly to the baseplate. This makes a P90 tough enough to swing around over your head like a lasso and still get 50 years of rock-n-roll out of it. (Also, some P90 guitars have kind of tight vertical space in the pu cavity and having everything on the inside gives you a little more clearance.)