Turd Polishing 101?

[Superferrite]

So I got some Epiphone and Squier buckers really cheap to experiment on, but now you guys tell me that the cheap plastic bobbins, brass baseplates, and chromed brass covers are what might have made them suck in the first place!!!

UGH!!

Well, if I scatterwind them to more reasonable (less stupid hot) specs, am I going to realize an improvement in tone, or should I just scrap them?
I have both ceramic and alnico V magnets to play with and a coil of 42 awg.

PS, to me an improvement in tone = greater harmonic clarity and less mooooshiness when overdriven.

[David Schwab]

Yeah, give it a try. I have some no name Dimarzio clone humbuckers with brass baseplates and ceramic magnets and all, but wound to about 8K, and they actually sound very nice.

I have a boat load of those Squire humbuckers. I've rewound a few and they come out OK too.

[LtKojak]

So I got some Epiphone and Squier buckers really cheap to experiment on, but now you guys tell me that the cheap plastic bobbins, brass baseplates, and chromed brass covers are what might have made them suck in the first place!!!

I have two Epi HBs that sound decently after I took off the covers, all the excess wax, changed the baseplates AND the screw polepieces.

The neck p'up was wound to 8.13K and was alright sounding after I've changed the magnet to an A4... even though was nothing to write home about. With its A5 magnet was too bright in a non pleasant way.

The bridge p'up was wound to 8.5K and got it actually sounding quite well after putting an A8 magnet in it.

The "both on" position sounded quite well, really cutting through the mix.

[Plucky]

Hi Superferrite,

If you want to experiment, and have lots of time and copper, by all means, go nuts.

However, if you are trying to learn via rewinding, it would be a wiser use of time and materials if you rewound better-made pickups. They may be fewer and far-between than Epi and Squier specimens, but the results have more potential, and will give you a better understanding of how wire gauge and turn count affect the sound on a more appropriate(or correct) platform; you need to have 'the goods'.

Having said that, both gurus David and everyone's favorite Lollipop-Cop are right in pointing out that a de-waxing(and a rebuild) with a rewind can bring these things back to life, although I'm
sure it's a life I would'nt want to live...

Anyway, wind 'til yur blind...

-Ron

[ShannonH]

welll...

... less mooooshiness when overdriven.

That's the problem I had when polishing turds, the mooshiness. Smeared all over everything.

I think the amount of wire you'll use is small, and any practice you can get winding is helpful. Replace the baseplates with nickel if you can. It will help tremendously.

[ken]

Never mind the mooshiness... using an electric polisher flings it everywhere.

Seriously, I would rewind the pickups you already have using all the parts you have. Once you test and play those pickups, replace just one part (like the baseplate) and replay and retest. Then, change the magnet and repeat. Then change a different part.

Why? Then you learn how every part of a pickup is interconnected and also how to change pickup parts to make a specific sound.

Ken

[Superferrite]

The Scientific Method!

Woah, I thought all there was to pickup winding was voodoo and mojo and several men named Bill Lawrence!