Viking Wire

[Tonestack]

Has anyone ever used Viking 42.5 AWG magnet wire to wind pickups? I am somewhat of an electronics junk collector. If I find something of interest for sale, I usually buy it. I purchased several spools of this wire from a surplus dealer about a decade ago. I figured that I would get around to using it one day. I have several pounds of this wire that I would like to put to use.

[JGundry]

Viking is now AWC. Gibson Kalamazoo used Viking magnet wire among others.

[Jim Darr]

Tonestack,

I've had some older spools of Viking wire in the past and have had no trouble with it. You should be able to use the wire without any problem. On my older spools, I always first check for physical spool damage, insulation soundness (no signs of cracking), and any potential wire tangles. 42.5 AWG should produce a good pickup in both single & double coil configurations.

Keep us posted on your results.

[Tonestack]

The spools are still wrapped in protective paper. The stamp is faded on each spool, but I believe that it says 42-1/2 S ISO-POLY.

[Possum]

Unroll some of it and look for flaked off insulation, some of my AWC wire from 2003 has big pieces of insulation flaked off, their wire is usually overspec diameters too, mic it and see what it actually measures.....

[David Schwab]

Unroll some of it and look for flaked off insulation, some of my AWC wire from 2003 has big pieces of insulation flaked off...

Is that poly wire?

[Possum]

No its PE, poly wire just never seems to age, the 1965 TTops I dissected, the wire is still like new. Poly type wire was used way before then too, I have an old coil winding book from pretty early that lists it. AWC stuff is hit or miss, real inconsistent, can be good or not.