How much money do I need to invest?

[Nostalgia]

I want to start making my own Pups for my 8 les pauls. I know that the guitar and pickups should nick together to produce the sound that I want for each guitar, How ever this process is so costly in the long run If I were to buy from boutique winders. My question is how much money will I invest for decent equipment such as pickup winders and some other stuffs to start winding my own pups.

_ Nostalgia_

[LtKojak]

how much money will I invest for decent equipment such as pickup winders and some other stuffs to start winding my own pups.

A lot more than buying eight sets of boutique p'ups, that's for sure.

And this without any guarantee of you'll be able to nail the tones you're after. EVER.

If you're looking to save money, you've chosen the wrong path, mate.

HTH,

[Jim Shine]

Kojak is right. There is a learning curve and it is not predictable how fast you will grasp the techniques. The cheaper the winding setup means more of the characteristics of the pickup depends on you and your technique. You can spend thousands and buy a automated winder (and still not know the best sounding formula). Or a hundred and use a drill, but burn through unknown amounts of wire and time getting a technique down that creates a pleasing sounding pickup. You may never really get it..some people just don't.

There is a lot more to a pickup than sum of their parts. The windings are applied deliberately and have a real affect on the tone of the pickup. When you are buying any pickup, boutique or mass production, you are paying them to use their expertise in acquiring the sound you want. The boutique guys do this by listening to what you are seeking, and making a pickup just for you. They have to charge more than a pickup wound to a generic spec on multi bobbin machines.

[big_teee]

Ditto +1 Here.
You can wind on a budget, if you control the urge to buy all the fancy stuff that is used here.
It is Like Reloading Ammunition.
I've alway been a Hunter, & Shooter, and reload my own ammo.(I live Rural)
You can make some superior Ammo, and superior Pickups IMO, but saving money is not the reason to do it.
I probably have $1K in magnet wire sitting around, not to mention the magnets, bobbins, base plates, etc.
So Good Luck in whatever you decide.
I'm retired and work cheap, drop me a PM if I can help!
T

[SonnyW]

I want to start making my own Pups for my 8 les pauls. I know that the guitar and pickups should nick together to produce the sound that I want for each guitar, How ever this process is so costly in the long run If I were to buy from boutique winders. My question is how much money will I invest for decent equipment such as pickup winders and some other stuffs to start winding my own pups.

_ Nostalgia_

It isn't about money. I thought that too at first, like I could save some money on pickups by winding them myself. Well I did do just that the first couple of them, but it was beginners luck. I started as a collector and restoring old guitars.

Here's a rough number kind of answer to your original question.

Meters: You will need a good LCR meter and the Extech is the best by far. You will also need a decent multimeter Lets say you can get these for a total of $300 if you shop around including shipping.

Charging: You will at least need a couple of decent sized neos for charging. Call that $40. If you want to put them in a vise, (recommended) add $20+ If you want a commercial charger expect to pay $650 and up.

Winder: Most make their own. The minimum commercial winder would be the Schatten, which is around $350. If you modify a sewing machine or make soemthing like that you might be able to get a winder under $100. If you want a CNC winder expect to pay upwards of $2000 for anything decent. You might be lucky and find some old mechanical winders around but they are both scarce and expensive. Call this section $350.

Gauss meter. Not totally essential, but I wouldn't do without mine. Cost ranges from about $75 to over $300..

Parts: depending on what you want to build, the parts will be a startup expense. To make humbuckers, you are going to need baseplates, wire, screws, slugs, bobbins, covers, lead wire, etc. I will let you do the work on this but I would expect a minimum starting investment of $500 for enough parts to experiment. You will waste some wire and buy some parts that you will end up not needing. Everyone does. This is also assuming you already have a soldering station and basics like that.

Now we are looking at a minimum investment of $1190 not including your time. I would say my initial investment was closer to $2000, and now I have over $10,000 invested at least, if not much more. It would take too much time to research it and count it all up.

Would I do it all again? Yes without a doubt. Do I have pickups I like? Unquestionably. Is it cost effective? Not in the least.

[SonnyW]

Ditto +1 Here.
You can wind on a budget, if you control the urge to buy all the fancy stuff that is used here.
It is Like Reloading Ammunition.
I've alway been a Hunter, & Shooter, and reload my own ammo.(I live Rural)
You can make some superior Ammo, and superior Pickups IMO, but saving money is not the reason to do it.
I probably have $1K in magnet wire sitting around, not to mention the magnets, bobbins, base plates, etc.
So Good Luck in whatever you decide.
I'm retired and work cheap, drop me a PM if I can help!
T

Some of the reloading and gunsmith stuff has a double use for pickup making and guitar stuff. Like the tumblers for magnets. Or the bluing solutions for blades. Or the gunstock finishing solutions as used on fretboards. I have found an unusual amount of similarities here. I do both things as well. And you never know what time will bring. Nothing like being prepared though these days.

[David King]

Listen,
I think we can all say to a person that we thought our first pickup sounded great. I'd just buy a stack of Allparts, Stewmac or Mojotone HB kits and wind with an electric drill and a simple mechanical counter. You'll get a great deal of satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. If you get hooked then you can start down the long path of tooling up but if you just want to wind up the required 32 coils and move on to the next project an electric drill is more than adequate. Half pound spools of PE will probably cover 4 sets of pickups if you are careful.

[jonson]

Listen,
I think we can all say to a person that we thought our first pickup sounded great. I'd just buy a stack of Allparts, Stewmac or Mojotone HB kits and wind with an electric drill and a simple mechanical counter. You'll get a great deal of satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. If you get hooked then you can start down the long path of tooling up but if you just want to wind up the required 32 coils and move on to the next project an electric drill is more than adequate. Half pound spools of PE will probably cover 4 sets of pickups if you are careful.

Very encouraging I like that.

[WolfeMacleod]

Gauss meter. Not totally essential, but I wouldn't do without mine. Cost ranges from about $75 to over $300..

I think my Gauusmeter ran me about $1300.
FW Bell #5180

[SonnyW]

I think my Gauusmeter ran me about $1300.
FW Bell #5180

That FW Bell brand is the very best I know of, those were the first ones I looked at. I decided I couldn't afford it and picked the Alpha Labs Model 1. I would have liked the datalogging. Mine has not as many features, but pretty accurate 1%. For an extra charge you can get it traceable. Mine is not made anymore but the replacement model they have is this one. $315
DC Gaussmeter Model GM1-ST

If you look at the video they have on their site, it shows the older model that I have in the video.

Also to David King and Jonson - not trying to be discouaging at all - sorry if it sounded like that, just trying to lay out the range of answers to the OP which was asking about the cost of a "decent equipment" setup

[Possum]

I agree, winding pickups yourself to save money is something you'll end up regretting if that's your only motive. My motive in the beginning on day one was to do it as a business, because I bought boutique pickups and hated what I got. The factory pickups in guitars were worse. If you spend a bunch of money on parts and wire and sit down to wind, the first thing you're going to discover is that you're going to ruin alot of coils before you ever get one that winds right and doesn't break from beginning to end, and you may invent some new cuss words along the way. So your little two pound spool of wire will get used up fast, and the money you'll spend just trying to get started will pile up fast, I mean go down the drain fast ;-) I built my first gaussmeter, the Radio Shack super cheapo, but bit the bullet for about $450 for the AlphaLab DC gaussmeter which I've used ever since, and really the best bang for the buck with customer support.

There are newbie winders on Ebay who sell hand wound bucker sets for real cheap if you want to save money, but honestly hand winding buckers might give you a good sounding bridge pickup but hand winding isn't good for neck pickups. Hand winding is great for giving smooth resonant peaks, a great thing for Fender single coils, but a drawback for humbuckers.

[big_teee]

We have not heard back from the O P.
Apparently he's not too interested in Winding?
But, then again he may be working?
T

[Possum]

Well, the reality check may have scared him off. When I started I vividly remember about 7 months of pure hell trying to learn the basics, plus I was making all my own parts Lollar's method. Not for the faint of heart and it helps to have a lot of woodworking power tools at hand which I had to buy too....

[big_teee]

What's this Crap that you can't wind a decent neck Pickup By Hand?
That is Bunk.
There is lots of us that do it Daily!
T
** Here we go Again!

[Possum]

I think the OP may have wanted to start an argument, LOL ;-) I didn't say "decent." Get a machine winder, build your own, you will be astounded at the increase in clarity machine winding buckers will give you, you have my personal guarantee on that ;-)