New Mojotone Butyrate humbucker bobbins. How accurate are they ?

[the great waldo]

Hi All

I just picked up some of these Vintage PAF Butyrate Humbucker Slug Side Pickup Bobbin Cream 49.2mm (1.94'') and was wondering if any one had a photo of the inside moulding on an original PAF . The mojo one has a smooth inside as opposed to the semi hollow versions of some of their other bobbins. Iīm not sure but I think I remember PAFīs also having the semi hollow inside. (I may well be wrong on this as itīs about 25 years since I last saw the inside of an original paf.) Externally the mojo bobbins look great and nice cream on the the light bobbins.

Cheers

Andrew

[Jim Shine]

I don't have any PAF's to compare, but I can say they are nearly identical to the Butyrate bobbins Seymour Duncan has. The only difference is these have some additional round mold marks on the bottom the Duncans lack. The Duncans I have here are slightly more "pale" in color. It is so slight that they would probably look the same photographed side by side.

They seem to be brittle like the Duncans as well. I had to glue up a couple cracks in the Mojo bobbins right out of the package. Duncans usually show these cracks underneath, or on top between poles.

[the great waldo]

Hi Jim

Thanks for the note, hopefully one of the forumites can post a picture of a PAF bobbin without the coil on it.

Cheers

Andrew

[David Schwab]

Unless you are tying to make a counterfeit, why does it matter?

[Jim Shine]

I like the way the Butyrate ages. The way it discolors and and the way it feels.

[JGundry]

P.a.f. Bobbins have solid cores. Duncan bobbins are much glossier than monotone. Duncan has a different core also. Mojotone bobbins are pretty close to Paf spec. but are cosmetically a bit different. The gate and parting lines are also different from a Paf bobbin on the mojotone. But dimensionally they are close to larger spec. Paf bobbins. My feeling is accuracy in dimension, construction and material matter tonally if you are not potting the pickup. Cosmetics matter if you are making a repro.

[captcoolaid]

They are a reproduction of a reproduction. That is all i can say. I know the story but that would be giving up some privy info, that unfortunately could get me in deep dudu. But they are close.

[J S Moore]

I was able to get measurements from an early 60's patent sticker pickup. The bobbins had solid cores and the measurements are within a few thousands. Close enough to be shrinkage variation.

[belwar]

Realistically, does it really matter? odds are you're going to use them anyways just because they are butyrate. As far as I know they are the only butyrate bobbins available to small makers.

[big_teee]

Realistically, does it really matter? odds are you're going to use them anyways just because they are butyrate. As far as I know they are the only butyrate bobbins available to small makers.

The StewMac bobbins are nice and nearly vintage, but they are 50mm.
StewMac Has a nice kit, with nice parts, it's a shame they don't sell a 49.2 Kit.
Terry

[Possum]

The StewMac ones are way off from being vintage, there are others even further off, but those have nothing to do with PAF coil design....

[belwar]

The stew mac bobbins are the same as the allparts bobbins. The both come from the same japanese company. Plenty of people use them. Last time I checked they were not 50mm, more like 49.4 - which in the grand scheme of things, is .2mm of pole space going to make a lick of difference to most people?

If you want to make a dead knock off of a PAF, you'll have to make your own bobbin (i.e. buy a mold). Even then, do you make your mold the size the the bobbin was in 1959, or the shrunken size that it is today? because that is two seperate things all together.

No one sells an off the shelf perfect replica PAF bobbin - however that doesnt mean that the vast majority of bobbins are not acceptable, or better quality than the originals. The original bobbins are nothing special, they were poorly molded to begin with.

[Possum]

StewMac Allparts bobbins are a Japanese "rock" coil design, almost everyone uses them, some even claim they are making PAF repros using them and their accompanying wrong alloy metric slugs, etc.etc., pretty funny. They don't make good neck coils because of their design, yuk......
I don't think butyrate shrinks, there is no proof of this, it DOES shrink when it comes out of the mold and your mold has to be made oversized to account for that. Sloppy injection molding set up will give you various shrinkages if not done right. Temperature and pressure have to be just right.....

[the great waldo]

I don't think butyrate shrinks, there is no proof of this,

Try sticking them in extra hot wax and see what happens !!! I did this a while ago on a DiMarzio paf (an old one) and ended up with a coil on its own. Luckily a customer of mine had pity on me and gave me an old spare one he had, saved the day !!!

Cheers
Andrew

Ps You can make fine pickups from stewmac parts, itīs not much different from making good acoustic guitars with wide grained tops instead of fine grain, itīs just a matter of adapting to whatever materials you have and adjusting accordingly.

[David Schwab]

Ps You can make fine pickups from stewmac parts, itīs not much different from making good acoustic guitars with wide grained tops instead of fine grain, itīs just a matter of adapting to whatever materials you have and adjusting accordingly.

I've made some very nice sounding humbuckers with StewMac parts. And they don't sound like "Japanese rock" pickups either. Just nice bright snappy humbuckers.