Pickup coil tape question

[Mark Hammer]

The "aggressive adhesive" properties of tape is precisely why I like, and have advocated, the use of a layer of simple teflon plumber's tape on the outside of the coil. It's paper thin, grips nicely without adhesives, conforms well to the coil itself, is dirt cheap and widely available, and can be pulled tight to make the coil more snug. And if that wasn't enough, you can then stick whatever tape you want on top of that, for cosmetic purposes, without any fear that the adhesive of THAT tape will damage the coil, because the teflon acts as a sort of adhesive insulator.

The way I look at it, you can drive yourself crazy trying to find a tape that combines the intended cosmetic and adhesive properties, or you can use the teflon to "un-yoke" those two factors, and simply concern yourself with the cosmetic side without having to worry about adhesive properties.

Seems like a no-brainer to me, but then I don't make pickups for a living so there may well be something I've overlooked.

[belwar]

That seems like a very good idea!

I dont pot the pickups I make because I want a hint of harmonic squeal in there. The outer layers of the pickup tend to be the squealers, so I press them in pretty darn good.. The adhesive on the tape I use sort of "cures" (not an intended thing).. As your're taping the coil, you can pull it back without damage if you break your stop wire, but after a week or two you're hooped. Just the way I like it!

Bel

[David Schwab]

The problem with cloth tape is it just screams "DiMarzio" uggggggghhhh....

And screaming "Gibson" is better?

Just do your own thing. If the pickups sound good, that's what matters. Idiot guitarists will get over it.

If someone was making a killer "PAF" sounding pickup, with blades and red tape with yellow polka dots, people will still use them, unless they are really insecure and think that the way their gear looks has anything to do with the way they play. In that case they need a new hobby.

Reminds me of the idiot that asked for closed cover jazz pickups, made with gray forbon! WTF! I asked him to explain why he wanted that, and he didn't have an answer. I said no.

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Possum....... you just need to stop trying to recreate old pickups. If you take what your pickups are doing with weird metal chords and work with it, they'll be improvising with whole tone scales before you know it. No one has created a truly great acid jazz pickup yet, but you're very close. You just need that coil tape to stretch evenly. The stretching affects the distance between each tone of the scale. Because you are stretching it too much around the ends it emphasizes the tonic and dominant of the scale (being at opposite points of the coil), i.e. a perfect fifth, a basic element of the guitar "power chord". Pull it a little tighter on one end than the other, you get a flatted fifth.... pretty gnarly, but useful. Keep stretching it consistently, you are taking the guitar places it could only have gone if Thelonius Monk played on six strings.

See? It is just simple science.

[RedHouse]

...As for being PAF accurate....

Roll me another one ... just like the other one...

And screaming "Gibson" is better?

Just do your own thing. If the pickups sound good, that's what matters. Idiot guitarists will get over it.

If someone was making a killer "PAF" sounding pickup, with blades and red tape with yellow polka dots, people will still use them, unless they are really insecure and think that the way their gear looks has anything to do with the way they play. In that case they need a new hobby.

Reminds me of the idiot that asked for closed cover jazz pickups, made with gray forbon! WTF! I asked him to explain why he wanted that, and he didn't have an answer. I said no.

I must concur. Do your own thing, whether it be JasonL, TimW (was), Rolph, SeymourD, WolfeM, LarryD, Kinman, WCR, Lawrence, Lace, Fralin, ...etc...etc...etc...everyone has/had their take on PAF's or there-of and truith be told, there are just as many variations in vintage (real) PAF's.

There are a lot of great pickup tones out there to be had without claiming (or focusing) on some peculiar PAF. Gibson/Lover may have started this whole thing but we (yes you Possum, and me, and others here) can surely take it to another level, better than the mis-hap that it was when invented. We know better now, and to paraphrase the old 70's show "we have the technology, we can make 'em better"...

Original metal? we can do better, original plastic, we can definately do better, original magnets were all over the place we can do better if we try.

The pickup that came out was not the one Seth wanted, the '58 and '59 production runs didn't make them all the same, no consistancy, and the years to follow made quite a few after-market replacements the pickups of choice, ...but there is still to this day much ground to be taken with great tone'd pickups ...be they PAF style or "better".

There is much better things to be hung-up on that tape!

[Possum]

...

Funky, I told you to never post those secrets in public, now I'm ruined. Now everyone is going to copy my acid jazz pickups and claim they came up with it on their own.

Seriousy though,,,ha..... I probably spent $500 looking for the optimal tape and trying to find a perfect match for the old #4 stuff that 3M refuses to make anymore. We had one chance that 3M was actually thinking of making that stuff again, Wolfe was talking to them and told them to read the pickup forum and see how much incredible interest there was in bringing it back. Unfortunately the only one who showed any interest at the time was me. Damn. I'm sure if Gibson and Duncan made an effort they could get 3M to do it in black again, the story I heard was Duncan bought a huge batch of that stuff that lasted for years. They finally ran out and are now using this stuff with death grip adhesive. There is a black paper tape that is real close but the adhesive is really weak, you put the tape on, it won't grip on the coils and doesn't really stick to itself either, not sure why they even make it, its useless for anything. One thing to be careful of in looking for black paper tape is some have electrically conductive adhesive and dyes. I bought some stuff that might have been a good choice but you'd put the tape on the coils and it would dull the entire pickup down from being conductive. I don't like the stewmac stuff, it tears too easy if you try to wind it tight, some of the ones I got were conductive, it does look pretty authentic though once you put a couple layers on.

Well, got to get back to work, I'm recreating yet another weird vintage pickup that I'm sure will sells in the TENS yearly, but you can be sure its done right