Couple of new Pickups I built

[automan]

Here are a few pickups I made today. One is a P-90 with a Cocobola top and bottom with a Purpleheart core. The other is a single slot humbucker. There is a solid base that you cant see in this pic also made of forbon.

[automan]

Here are a few more pics. All taken with my cell phone.

[David Schwab]

Nice looking pickups. I've always liked cocobolo, except when I have to glue it.

[SkinnyWire]

Very nice looking work.

[automan]

I always glue it with 2 part epoxy. I resaw a fingerboard blank I made from a piece of lumber in half down the tall skinny side, plane them smooth, cut the core from purpleheart, shape the core, then clamp it all up with epoxy at the end of the night.

I had a problem with the core sliding around so i made a couple of spacers that went from the core to the outside edge where the wire goes. I wrapped them with wax paper. That way I could clamp from all sides if I needed to.

I spend a lot of time shaping the purpleheart core to have half circle edges where the wire went around, but when I took apart the single blade humbucker side winder, the mags were set in a square hole in the bobbin with the edges just broken a little where the wire runs. Next time I am going to try not spending so much time on those edges and see if it makes much a difference in terms of shorts.

If I wanted to go full speed production, I would plane and joint a piece of lumber to the outside diameter of the pickup, then use the table saw to cut the long edges, cut the blanks, then make the short side cuts. Then Maybe take a small file and knock the points off the core.

The problem I am having with that production style is it seems very wasteful of a fine exotic wood. To saw out that much of the board and turn it into dust just seems wrong in some way.

[belwar]

Nice work! They look great!

[ShannonH]

Split strat

How does that split strat sound?

[David Schwab]

I always glue it with 2 part epoxy.

Me too. I've still had some come apart once, but most of the time it works fine. Wiping on some acetone before you glue helps too.

I made these covers from bloodwood with a cocobolo top.

[David King]

My rule of thumb for gluing cocobolo is fresh surfaces, no acetone and fresh titebond 1. For something like this I wouldn't bother with titebond at all as CA works perfectly well and takes a couple of seconds to bond.

[kevinT]

nice work.

[ShannonH]

Wow

Me too. I've still had some come apart once, but most of the time it works fine. Wiping on some acetone before you glue helps too.

I made these covers from bloodwood with a cocobolo top.

Those are beautiful man! An inspiration. I used to work for American Woodworker magazine and have loads of exotic scrap I dug out of the trash. The thing is, you've got to have a beautiful guitar to put them in.

[David Schwab]

Those are beautiful man! An inspiration. I used to work for American Woodworker magazine and have loads of exotic scrap I dug out of the trash. The thing is, you've got to have a beautiful guitar to put them in.

Thanks! I used to read American Woodworker.

These were ordered for a bass the customer built himself. He supplied the wood scraps. I resawed the tops so they match. The pickup bobbins were made on a SLA (3D lithography) machine.

Here's the bass. Now he's making his own pickups for his instruments. I believe he posts here too.

[automan]

How does that split strat sound?

It sounds a lot like a vintage clean strat, just without hum. I was meaning to wind it pretty hot so one coil is 4800 42awg and the other is at 5000 awg. Of course I didnt take into account that each wrap was way shorter than normal. Rookie split coil mistake. I wont make it again. From the space Still between the coils, I could squeeze in another 1000 winds. I will try that on my next wind and A/B then to see what I like.

I'd really like to get some 40, 41, 44, and 45 AWG wire to play with.

I really dig making pckups. It's keeping me busy while I get this new repair shop off the ground. It's keeping me from going stir crazy at the shop.

[David Schwab]

I'd really like to get some 40, 41, 44, and 45 AWG wire to play with.

I have 40, 42, 42H, 43, 44, 45H and 46. The 46 is really freakin' thin!

I have a boatload of 44 because I was going to use it for a project, but didn't end up using it.

[belwar]

If that 40 is single build, and you want to offload it, let me know. I might take it off your hands.