A newbie attempting stacked pickup

[St00kie]

As the title states Im attempting to assemble and install a stacked single coil pickup with little experience. Ive wound 3 or 4 of my own coils and they turned out fine no significant problems. Recently on my telecaster my neck pickup failed (not mine). I set about winding a new one only to find the only guage wire I could muster is 40. 2 sizes or so too large. I expected a pickup wound with this heavier wire to have low output, but hit upon the idea of the possibility that I might get enough output from a stacked coil. I had spare bobbins from an old humbucker pickup, and although I could have probably tried winding like a regular HB I would have had to route cavity width at the neck etc. Plus Im uncomfortable having only ever done single coils before.
OK so I wound one pickup and being from an old HB pickup there are no eyelets. So I left plenty of start and end wire hanging. The thing is when I wind the second one and stack it. I will then have 2 hot 2 ground which im totally lost about how to go about wiring, and am really unsure about the magnet placement. Its a ceramic bar magnet. Should it just sit beneath the bottom coil? Ive measure the routing at the neck and with them being shallow coils from a HB they will just squeeze in. Can anyone give me any tips or pointers about wiring/magnet placement or their thoughts on the feasibility of this approach and whether sufficient output can be achieved. I know it would be easier to buy single coil bobbins and the right size wire and do it properly but I have seen a guy do a humbucker stacked one on youtube though the specifics as to how its wired etc arent clear.
Thanks.

[copperheadroads]

A stack design is not going to help with your 40 gauge wire , A stacks output is deceiving if your relying on its dcr ,They are pretty much only as loud as the top coil ,They mostly use smaller gauge wire because theres just no room to get the number of turns with the desired wire
The most common wire used in a tele neck pickup is 43 gauge because if its very tiny bobbin
if i was going to try to make a tele neck pickup & only had awg 40 i would make a very tall bobbin

[St00kie]

That was my thinking behind a stacked pickup. Im not looking for a humbucking effect or anything like that, I was basically trying to achieve what you said i.e with the thought that I could make 2 coils work as 1 large (TALL) coil.

I had hoped reattaching the end of the wind onthe bottom coil to the start on the top coil would effectively make it one big tall coil. But I am not up on magnetism/conductance or anything there abouts its just not my thing once you get outside the basics.

Oh well. I honestly thought it might have worked.

[David Schwab]

Why use two coils to make one? If you are going to stack it, make it a humbucker. It's very easy to do. I did one and would about 5,500 turns of 43 on each coil. It was very bright and vintage sounding. For something hotter you need thinner wire. You can switch a stack to a non humbucker stack for a hotter tone. In my case the pickup sounded very muddy when not a humbucker.

You can get normal pickup gauges from many sources. If you want just a little wire try Mojotone

Pickup Wire

If you want more try BAE Wire on eBay:

BAE MAGNET WIRE items - Get great deals on Electrical Test Equipment, Industrial Supply MRO items on eBay Stores!

There's nothing wrong with using 40 gauge wire, but it works better for neck pickups, unless you are going to a very clean tone.

[St00kie]

Why use two coils to make one? If you are going to stack it, make it a humbucker.

There's nothing wrong with using 40 gauge wire, but it works better for neck pickups, unless you are going to a very clean tone.

Id be clueless what to do with 2 hot and 2 ground outputs. Even though I fumbled through refitting new pots and caps etc the wiring really does confuse me and its a miracle Ive had these single coils out so many times replacing parts without issue yet.

If I went the humbucking route whats the deal with wiring as its wired now there is a hot and ground lead through into the neck that would go onto the pickup. Im assuming these wires alone are insufficient and the whole thing would need rewired at the switching level. Also would the wind direction matter in relation to the stack and would the stack matter in relation to the bridge?

I think it might be starting to sound like more bother than its worth and might leave the tele with no neck pickup for now and invest in some new wire. Im in the UK so as well as those links you gave there is another one called wires.co.uk that seem reasonable and seem to have the right kind of wire, quite varied coatings etc.

Thanks

[St00kie]

Just an update on that. The humbucking thing would be a piece of cake if it the two coils I have laying around from a humbucker didnt have their start winds cut to the point there is barely any of it showing. Its a shame too because there is just enough to get a reading with a multi meter which show the coils are still intact and reading around 3.5k each.

Theres just no way I can see remedying this even with a soldering iron theres just too little amount of the wire showing. Enough to grip on one coil, which is a possibility to be brought back to life but the other coil is really nipped in close. I couldnt see any feasible way to extend from that tiny piece of magnet wire showing. Hence the route to winding my own.

[David Schwab]

The way you wind them is out-of-phase with each other; start -> start or finish -> finish. This tends to make the pickup very bright sounding. I make a stacked Tele lead pickup and wound 5,500 turns each coil of 43 AWG wire which came out to 11.36K. I was expecting it to be hotter than it was, but in hum canceling mode it sounded like a vintage Tele pickup. If I switched the wires to have the two coils in phase it was like a loud P-90. To make the stacked humbucker louder and fuller sounding they tend to be overwound quite a bit. It's not uncommon to see them wound to 24K.

I used a single blade going through both coils, and two ceramic magnets on the bottom like a P-90.

[St00kie]

OK thanks for all the advice and tips. I think Im going to order the right wire, buy some bobbins (which I have no clue where to source in the UK) and wind my own standard SC's and HB pickups with the right gauge wire, and try different pickups in my tele neck. Its a lovely sounding guitar. A bit battered to look at, but its sturdy, stays in tune, has plenty of sustain and just sounds like a far more expensive guitar than it was (well its actually the best parts from 2 guitars.

So I really want to invest the time getting a good neck pickup. The bridge coil is fine, just the combination of pots and capacitors took me a while to get right, especially from having no electronics background. It had 500k pots originally and I know some people say thats correct and standard, but the guitar had too much high end. I mean it was shrill and not good to listen to. It wasnt just shrill, the sound was very thin. Not the tele twang I had hoped for. Anyway 250k pots and days of experimenting with capacitors and I arrived at a nice balance of twang and depth. I struggled with the pot taper changing constantly with different caps too. But muddled through and it was a good learning experience.

Excellent site BTW.

[copperheadroads]

Well you can probably get the correct gauge wire here
Brocotts items - Get great deals on 1KG WINDING WIRE MAGNET WIRE 0.56mm 24SWG 23AWG items on eBay Stores!
they are in the UK
heres 43 gauge
500G ENAMMELED COPPER WINDING WIRE /MAGNET WIRE 46.5SWG | eBay

[David King]

Allparts.co.uk must have the same lousy bobbins as they sell in the states.