Yet another potting question

[Stan H]

Hey Guys. When potting how do most of you do it, the individual coils after winding them or the whole pickup after assembling it? I usually do both but now it seems doing it that way is pretty redundant and probably over pots. Of course I'm talking about humbuckers.

[copperheadroads]

I pot them after there fully assembled , especially high output stuff .
You don't need any thing vibrating ,squealing or moving around
Also i have had humbuckers flip over in the wax pot without me noticing & the bobbin facing the bottom of the wax pot ( which is the hottest & closest to the heating element ) causing a sweet sounding zebra bucker to warp like a skate board .................doh...........so I'm thinking ,just a plastic bobbin alone in the wax pot might have the same affect ..maybe my wax was a degree or two, too hot

[David Schwab]

I pot the coils before assembling.

[copperheadroads]

I was considering using closed plastic humbucker covers for a taller forbon humbucker bobbin design i have been working & i was thinking about just potting the bobbins i was afraid the EMG style cover would warp - i don't want a K.A candle (did anyone ever see the picture of the candle?)
So I popped the cover off my Kent Armstrong and........ - Telecaster Guitar Forum

[David Schwab]

I was considering using closed plastic humbucker covers for a taller forbon humbucker bobbin design i have been working & i was thinking about just potting the bobbins i was afraid the EMG style cover would warp - i don't want a K.A candle (did anyone ever see the picture of the candle?)
So I popped the cover off my Kent Armstrong and........ - Telecaster Guitar Forum

Don't pot the pickup in the covers. Just pot the bobbins and then assemble the pickups. That's what EMG does. There's no benefit to potting the assembled pickup. The wax is to secure the windings.

The reason the Kent pickup was like that was it has a metal cover. This is not unheard of. Here's a G&B humbucker with the cover off. The wax prevents the cover from becoming microphonic.

[Joe Gwinn]

Also i have had humbuckers flip over in the wax pot without me noticing & the bobbin facing the bottom of the wax pot ( which is the hottest & closest to the heating element ) causing a sweet sounding zebra bucker to warp like a skate board .................doh...........so I'm thinking ,just a plastic bobbin alone in the wax pot might have the same affect ..maybe my wax was a degree or two, too hot

Make a little shelf of metal screening that sits in the wax pot and holds the pickup up off the bottom of the waxpot?

[fieldwrangler]

I like to shield the pickups pretty completely, so in order to keep the copper foil as far away from the windings as possible I line the plastic covers, Then I put a little piece of foam between the top of the pickup & the top of the cover. I've learned the hard way that having the foil mounter on the flexible diaphragm of a plastic top (and sometimes sides) can form a pretty good resonant microphone at high gain/high volume settings.

Bob Palmieri