Epiphone's "double vacuum waxing"

[Mark Hammer]

Stopped by a music store yesterday and picked up one of the 2007 Epiphone catalogs they had. Inside the catalog was a 2-page chart with lots of useful specs for their full line of pickup models. What caught my eye, though, was their little "Pickups...what you need to know" illustrations. One of them shows a PAF-style humbucker with the cover flipped up, and inside is this....this....wad....of paraffin with a couple of coils sitting in it. Like some sort of double-coil headcheese or something. The wax essentially filled up every available space inside the cover, even extending out past the perimeter of the coil bobbins themselves.

What the hell is up with that? Is that just something found in the catalog or is that really what one finds in Epiphone pickups? Don't they have any concerns about guitars left sitting around between sets with hot spotlights pointed at them? Don't they care what the pickup will look like if the owner decides to lift the cover off?

If this IS a real picture of a real pickup, just exactly how widespread is this practice?

[Ruel]

Saw this kind of thing in a couple of Korean HBs. Funny thing was that the wax was semi-transparent. Reminded me of those gelatin desserts my mom used to make when I was a kid.

[Spence]

It's quite a common practise. kent Armstrong P90's in a humbucker cover are simply one bucker bobbin mounted centrally on the baseplate and the whole cover is full of wax.

[corduroyew]

I've seen this on a lot of epi pickups but I don't see anything wrong with it. If you are leaving your guitar under lights hot enough to melt the wax in the pickup, you are also leaving your guitar under lights hot enough to soften the glue in your guitar neck and your guitar is shagged anyway. In my opinion, when you do this, you deserve what you have coming to you. What my pickups look like after somebody takes them apart is the least of my concerns.

[soundmasterg]

Yah, they advertise that their pickups are double wax potted. When I got my Epiphone Dot and started using it, the tone was double suck city, and I got rid of those pickups in a hurry. The brass covers and baseplates suck away good tone, and the wax potting makes them sound lifeless and unresponsive. It probably works good for Epiphone though so they don't have the little kids in Guitar Center playing through Mesa Dual Rectifiers and 50 distortion pedals get squealing pickups.

[NightWinder]

I've seen this on a lot of epi pickups but I don't see anything wrong with it. If you are leaving your guitar under lights hot enough to melt the wax in the pickup, you are also leaving your guitar under lights hot enough to soften the glue in your guitar neck and your guitar is shagged anyway. In my opinion, when you do this, you deserve what you have coming to you. What my pickups look like after somebody takes them apart is the least of my concerns.

Not to be a total bummer, cord. What IF, another pickup maker half way around the world got a pickup of yours second hand? Opened it, and seen a shoddy hell in there? Says something about the builder? It may not effect tone, but to ones reputation, it could be a back patter. Clean Crisp work, can have a great effect on the way others respect what you do. Furthermore, guaranteeing your work for life....makes easier for repairs too. Don't get on the wrong vibe with this, just in my thought if anyone here every took my stuff apart, I'd know exactly what they seen and I would think at the very minimum they would appreciate the work more if it was clean and perfect as can be...

[corduroyew]

I'm not talking about making a pickup that is shoddy and then covering it with wax. I'm talking about things like using that ugly blue Teflon wire from maplin, and PC boards for bobbins, that kind of thing. This stuff doesn't look as nice but it doesn't lower the quality of the pickups and it doesn't mean your work is shoddy. It does make you want to keep it covered though.

[NightWinder]

I'm not talking about making a pickup that is shoddy and then covering it with wax. I'm talking about things like using that ugly blue Teflon wire from maplin, and PC boards for bobbins, that kind of thing. This stuff doesn't look as nice but it doesn't lower the quality of the pickups and it doesn't mean your work is shoddy. It does make you want to keep it covered though.

Oh, I got ya. Kinda like schwabby and his base pickups. Just see the finished product......

[David Schwab]

I'm talking about things like using that ugly blue Teflon wire from maplin, and PC boards for bobbins, that kind of thing. This stuff doesn't look as nice but it doesn't lower the quality of the pickups and it doesn't mean your work is shoddy. It does make you want to keep it covered though.

He he he!

Hey, I use circuit board for bobbins and orange teflon wire!

But you never get to see the insides so...

I think the PC boards on the bottom of some pickups look cool.

[NightWinder]

Your in the minority. LOL! Either way, it works

[David Schwab]

Your in the minority. LOL! Either way, it works

That's fine with me... I'm not making copies of Fender and Gibson pickups, so I don't have to copy the materials they use.

[Ruel]

He he he!

Hey, I use circuit board for bobbins and orange teflon wire!

But you never get to see the insides so...

I think the PC boards on the bottom of some pickups look cool.

I see nothing wrong using PC boards for bobbins. They come copper clad so you have a place to solder shield wires. It would be interesting though if someone could come out with a color similar to what is generally used for pickup bobbins.

[WGTP]

This came up on the Seymour Duncan Board and the guy's were reporting melting the wax off and getting a better tone? Others were saying it shouldn't effect the tone???

[corduroyew]

I'm working on a 7 string pickup right now. A couple days ago I finished a pickup, installed it, and played it, and it sounded great. Then I put a wooden cover on the pickup and filled it with wax. This morning when I put the pickup back on my guitar it sounded dull and lifeless. I think its one of those things that "shouldn't" change the tone, but in the real world it does change the tone but not always in a bad way.

[Joe Gwinn]

This came up on the Seymour Duncan Board and the guy's were reporting melting the wax off and getting a better tone? Others were saying it shouldn't effect the tone???

It can be true. The wax reduces the microphonics, in some cases by too much.