Help with a Hofner (hoefner) pickup

[BiBi]

Hello,

First off I should preface this by saying I know unfortunately very little about pickups. They have always seemed like a bit of the black art to me, however I'm in a bit of quandry on this one so I thought I'd ask the professionals.
The pickup in question is a Hofner (or umlaut on the o if you are proper about it) model 510. It was given to me by a friend who heard I needed one for another friend's Hofner Colorama guitar. So, I measured the DC resistance of the unit as being 150R. This seems extremely low to me. I am used to seeing something like 2-5k from pickups. I haven't tried the pickup yet as I'm not sure if it will be worth my trouble.
Could this be an example of a cheap microphone guitar pickup? That's about the only thing impedance wise I could compare it to. If so, is it possible that the pickup is actually meant to be used in an active circuit? I can't imagine the losses in any sort of unbalanced cable over a meter long.
Thanks for any responses.

[Yves]

This pickup is most probably dead and needs rewind.

It seems that it's a common thing with these models and 511 as well.
I rewound a couple of 511 which only 1 coils amongst the 4 (the 511 are dual coils) was still alive and showed 3.95k. I rewound the 4 coils based on this value.

The 510 is a single coil (despite its appearance)
I had a 510 which was dead as well (so I cannot tell you exactly which figure it should have shown): this one I totally modified it into a humbuker in the tiny space that is in there.

But the DC resitance value should be well above 150.
From the link below 4-5k,
Hofner Guitars Internet Community • View topic - The Sound of Different Hofner Pickups
from other members of the forum (who gave me adcice about them), up to 6k.
http://music-electronics-forum.com/t18551/
I guess the actual value may vary indeed.

[the great waldo]

Hi Bibi

It´s a regular problem with Höfner pickups, I think the flux they used seems to corrode the coil end. 44awg wire will work for a rewind, up to about 4.5 k ohms per coil for humbucking or a bit more if it´s only a single coil. The pickups sound quite good once rewound.

Cheers

Andrew

[Peter Naglitsch]

Hofner (Hoefner? Höfner?) used 0.050 mm wire, the same as 44awg but much easier to find in Europe using the metric name. Just like the guys above I have repaired a couple of those 510 and 511 pickups and your problem is very common. Your pickup is most likely in need of a rewind.

[BiBi]

Ah ok. Thanks a lot for the great replies although of course, it is a bit of a disappointment. I suppose I'll have to do a search to see if I can find some info on starting in rewinding pickups. I have a big bag full of broken ones collected over the years. Another hobby!

[Peter Naglitsch]

Or send them to one of the guys here to help you out ;o)

[BiBi]

Really? I'm in Germany, you are in Sweden, perhaps we could find a way...

I'm more than happy to work something out in trade or money if someone would be interested in looking at a few of these old pickups. I've got a couple of Gibson bass pickups that I butchered years ago as well that I'd like to repair.

[Yves]

Hofner (Hoefner? Höfner?) used 0.050 mm wire, the same as 44awg but much easier to find in Europe using the metric name

Hi Peter,

Yes I often read those are 44 AWG.
As a matter of fact the 511s I rewound showed something in between 44 and 43 compared to the 44 and 43 I have in stock (SPN) when checked with a caliper.
So I chose to rewound to 43 since there was enough room, this to avoid cutting too much highs.
Indeed it turned out to be very similar in shape to the original coil for the same value (as mentionned above I matched the only coil that was still alive, before rewinding it as well).
You can see the before / after coil size with AWG 43 for the same DCR reading (don't bother about the french text this is only for the picture of the coils: 2nd picture at the bottom of the page)

Rebobinage micros de basse Hofner® 511 | Bourvon Audio Design - Blog

FWIW.

[Peter Naglitsch]

Nice pictures Yves. My French isn't that good ( never had any formal training) but I got most of it. Interesting before/after pictures. The last set I did I used 0.050mm wire for and they ended up in the same range of thickness for the coils. I guess that wire specs changed a bit and that the wire gauge maybe wasn't that consistent. AWG 43 is so much more convenient to work with so I might try that next time.

BiBi, shoot me (or Yves, or anyone) a PM and lets see what we can work out.

[Sportbernd]

The last 511 I rewound were AWG43 (0,056). These pickups are very inconsistent - may be because of the from time to time changin´ pickup winders winding them for Höfner (Schaller etc.)
Sorry, only for the German speakin´ people:
Falls du weitere Info brauchst ruf´ mich unter meiner Geschäftsnummer an - ich ruf zurück wenn du mir auf die Mailbox sprichst.

[Peter Naglitsch]

Great info Bernd. It sound a bit like that they used whatever wire they could get their hands on, or what was cheepest at the moment. And that goes for early "big name" pickups too

[Helmuth Lemme]

Hi,
I have repaired many old Hofner guitars and pickups. Maybe I can help.
I wrote the book "Electric Guitars made in Germany" (together with Norbert Schnepel).
See GitarrenElektronik.de - Home
Helmuth Lemme, Munich, Germany

[Chickaboom]

Hello Helmuth !
very nice to meet you on this Forum. I am reading your very interesting book at the moment Guitar Elektronic and I am also registered for your newsletter oin your website.. . I hope you still read this thread from 2010. I have the same problem with an old Galaxy 176 - I opened up the pickups and 5 out of 6 coils are dead. I need to rewind them and because of the cost I will do this myself - I don't mind because I want to learn anyway. My question is - What is the best home-made machine for rewinding ? Using an electric drill ? - Thanks und Auf Wiedersehen

[Helmuth Lemme]

Hofner pickups

Hi Chickaboom,

I built my winding machine by myself. A turn counter is important. I use a
mechanical one from an old current meter or bicycle speedometer. You can
also use an electronic one. Furthermode my machine has slip friction clutch
which prooved to be very useful.

I would not recommend an electric drill as it is too fast and too strong. It
cannot be stopped fast enough if the wire breakes.

Hofner humbuckers have about 5,000 turns of no. 44 copper wire (0.05 mm)
on each coil.

Have success.

Helmuth Lemme
Author of the book "Electric Guitar Sound Secrets and Techology"
See:
www.elektor.com/Uploads/2013/2/Book-Review-in-audioXpress.pdf