Start and finish on gibson BB ?? help!

[SonnyW]

Yep, that's the (weird) way they're doing it. It's like they stuck the black wire through and taped off to the side along with the end of the winding wire, then soldered and taped things up later. Maybe that way the winder operator doesn't have to have soldering skills.

It makes for a weird lump on the end of the coil.

Based on my unwinding, that's exactly what they did - loop the wire through the hole and back out with the start wire laying next to it. Then solder and tape later.

I wound a set of humbuckers this way for a test a week ago. Had to drill the bobbins and make a clearance hole in my winder mandrel for that, so the lead wire would have a place to go. The lump on the end is a problem. One of them came out fine and looks quite vintage. But the other one had no continuity. I ended up causing a break in the wire on one coil out of 4 trying to push the lump back down to tape the coil. This might work better with smaller lead wire I used #26. I might try again with stranded #30. I think you are right the operator doesn't have to solder but the positive thing is that there is not as much of a way you are going to break off the start wire under the windings once it's taped and you start assembly. I have done that before and it is such a disappointment when it happens.