Really Nooby Question

[jonahthevegetarian]

I'm winding some p-90s on a sewing machine.
I have some stew mac wire 3 or 4 feet away hanging the way it's supposed to be hung.
I'm guiding the wire with my hand about 8-12 inches away from the bobbin.

Except the wire keeps breaking.

I've had about 8 tries now and none of them have gotten that far.

Am I doing something wrong, or do I need more practice.

Is there any video of somebody doing this right?

Anything helps

-Jonah

[Bill M]

A little more info would be helpful such as where is the wire breaking( between the spool and your fingers? between your fingers and the bobbin?)

Tell us exactly how your spool of wire is positioned, what gauge of wire, etc.

Most probable causes are too much tension, and/or to fast of a winding speed. You don't need to grip the wire to tight between your fingers, just enough so the coil is not loose.

[pete n]

Hi Jonah, I had the same kind of problems when I first started this. You need to use something to put tension on your wire. I use a felt block and a pinch clamp. I also run it under a nail on edge hooked to a dowel to help with backlash. I also place my spool in a tupperware container with a funnel over the top to help with backlash breaks. Keep trying and experimenting you will eventually find something that works for you. I hope this helps, Pete P.S. If you are on face book please consider joining my fan page, just search for ( scatter wound guitar pickups) Thanks!

[Bill M]

One thing I forgot to add. Lightly sand the inside edges of your bobbin to remove any possible burrs that you may get snagged on and break your wire.

[ForcedFire]

I've only wound a few humbuckers so far but I had the exact same problem as you. While there are a lot of possible sources for the breakage my problem was my fingers. I made a little tensioner with some felt and a couple of bolts and I've never had a problem since. The bolts press the felt together and the wire passes between them.

[Bill M]

A felt tensioner will work, but now you need a method of guiding the wire on the bobbin where your fingers did that before. There's a certain satisfaction to guiding and tensioning the wire by hand, plus it allows you the ability to vary the tension at will. It worked for fender in the 50's. Also, the more you practice at hand winding the better you will get at it. When I first started winding and rewinding in the 90's I used an old sewing machine. They tend to spin pretty fast and I used to break wire. I then slowed the speed of the winder down and lightened up on my finger tension and no more breaks. A good winding speed to start winding with is about 500 to 700 rpm.

[David Schwab]

I've had about 8 tries now and none of them have gotten that far.

Am I doing something wrong, or do I need more practice.

I broke wire the first few pickups I did. Try winding slower at first and put the spool or wire on the floor in front of you, and then up to your fingers, etc.

You will get a feel for the wire.

[tonedeciple]

Wire breakage at the spool

Sometimes, I get a problem with wire breaking between the spool and the bobbin because the wire became pinched between the spool of wire and the bottom of the spool's flange. I hope that makes sense. Wire manufacturers try to spool the wire so this won't happen, but it does. Usually, I can free up the wire by gently pulling it straight out from where it's getting pinched. But, then I have to start my bobbin over from the beginning.

[jonahthevegetarian]

Done

Alright, i finally fixed my problem.

The wire was breaking in my fingers which i used as a guide.

I built a tensioner which didn't seem to do that much, so then i taped some felt to the tips of my fingers.

The felt is more slippery then my skin so the wire went straight through.

I was actually able to hold the wire quite tightly.

So in the end i finished my first p-90 pickup earlier today.

Thanks everyone for your help,

-jonah

[Bill M]

So tell us, how does it sound? I've also heard of people using baby powder on their fingers.

[jonahthevegetarian]

Well the how does it sound leads to the second really nooby question.

Whats the best way to solder the pickup leads?

I did wrap the end of the coil around some solid core wire and tape that t eh bottom of the pickup, but when i plugged it in to test it, i got lots of buzzing and humming (with some output).

Also when i measured it with the multimeter it came up as 4.38k, which is about half of a p-90's normal output. I thought this also might have something to do with the badly soldered leads, because the size of the coil seemed to be about the same size as some professionally made p-90s.

Again, any thing helps

-jonah

[jonahthevegetarian]

And here's some pictures of the pickup







not great pictures, but the best i could do in 5 minutes

[Bill M]

First off, are those brass pole screws, or gold plated steel? Brass will not work as they are not magnetic. Second, 4.38k is low. By the look of your coil I'd expect to get around high 7k to 8k, but its hard to tell from your pic. If you taped your start wire to the top of the bobbin before winding you could have developed a short mid wind to it. Take a tooth pick, and with your meter connected, gently prod where that start wire exits the coil and see if your meter reading goes up.

[David Schwab]

What are the pole pieces screwed into? If they are just going through the flatwork, and your wire has contact with the screws, then you will get a sort, and even a broken coil if you turn the screws.

And as Bill said, you need magnetic steel screws.

You can get the P-90 parts here:

Mojotone Guitar Pickup Parts

[jonahthevegetarian]

Actually i did get my screws form mojo music

these are the ones

Mojotone Humbucker/P90 Polepieces Gold / 6