Top and bottom bobbin tall

[Artur pickupmaker]

Hello gentleman, this is my first thread here. I hope to learn a lot about pickup making, I am already making my own pickups here in Brasil.

The question I bring is: the top of the bobbin of most pickups have 1,6 mm tall. I think it is too thin and don't like to see it wraped after wound.
There is any diference in tone if a make a Strat ou Tele single coil with a 2 mm tall top? I think that what matters is the hight os the AlNiCo rods top, since the top material is an insuling material just to hold the bobbin wire in place.

Question 2: is the bottom of a P-90 ou humbucker bobbins were 2 mm high, the magnet bar and shim will be 0,4 mm farther from the coil's wire. Will it change considerable the tone or is it a too little change?

[David King]

Hi Artur,
welcome to the pickup maker time-wasting and rumor-spreading zone.

If your bobbin top and bottom "flatwork" is deflecting that is usually because your wire guides are set too close to the edges or because your wire tension is too high.
Try moving the guides in 1/2mm so that the wire never touches the walls and see if you still have the same problem. (The wire will fill the bobbin completely but it won't push up so hard at the ends.)

I use 3/32" flatwork which is about 2.6mm thick. That was pretty standard for Fender I think but it will limit the amount of wire you can stack on the coil unless you go to a taller magnet as you mentioned. The magnets I'm getting now are 22mm tall so I never run out of room. I only make bass pickups so I can't help you with the P90 question.

[LtKojak]

Hi Artur,
welcome to the pickup maker time-wasting and rumor-spreading zone.

You left out the sheep-shagging...

[Joe Gwinn]

Hello gentleman, this is my first thread here. I hope to learn a lot about pickup making, I am already making my own pickups here in Brasil.

It would be useful if you update the Location field in your user profile with your city and country.

[Artur pickupmaker]

Update done.

Thanks for answering, guys. I will waste lots of time here since I've seen there are people who knows about pickupmaking, here in Brasil very few people make pickups, in fact most luthiers here don't even know how the pickups works, huehueuhe, just solder the wires in the places the diagrams shows.

Excuse me if I write something wrong, I don't use to write in english.

King, a taller bobbin sounds thinner and more treble than a less tall one with the same magnets, wire and amount of wire (DC resistance), right? So, I think this change in tone must be considered in the making of a bobbin.

[David King]

King, a taller bobbin sounds thinner and more treble than a less tall one with the same magnets, wire and amount of wire (DC resistance), right? So, I think this change in tone must be considered in the making of a bobbin.

Well if you say so. I can't say that from my limited experience. A taller bobbin keeps more turns of wire closer to the magnet which might result in a hotter pickup given same # of turns and wire diameter. The taller magnet will definitely have more gauss so hotter there too and the taller magnet will "throw" the magnetic field higher so the strings can be a little further away.

I think you will find that the thinner/thicker flatwork will change the tone but it might not be a change anyone else is going to hear.