Splicing wire to fix a break or to add extra windings

[Atllespaul]

The way I slice it is to twist both ends around a small length of tinned hookup wire. This way you have a better joint then just twisting them together, since it's hard to solder magnet wire to itself. This joint will be as strong as your start and finish connections. Then I fold a small piece of masking tape over it, lay it on the coil, and continue winding.

I've done this a number of times with zero failures.

Agreed

[Spence]

No need to stress about this issue. In the case outlined in the first post I would solder two ends together having first sanded off the coil wire coating and lacquer with something like nail varnish. The wire was lacquered to start with.
Never mind all the stuff about good or bad practises. It was good enough for Gibson and Fender when required so it's good enough for all us minnows that stand on the shoulders of Giants.

[David Schwab]

Never mind all the stuff about good or bad practises. It was good enough for Gibson and Fender ...

Many old Fender pickups fail. Follow their way and yours will fail too. There is always room for improvement.

[Bill M]

No need to stress about this issue. In the case outlined in the first post I would solder two ends together having first sanded off the coil wire coating and lacquer with something like nail varnish. The wire was lacquered to start with.
Never mind all the stuff about good or bad practises. It was good enough for Gibson and Fender when required so it's good enough for all us minnows that stand on the shoulders of Giants.

You are correct Spence. I just rewound a pat sticker ttop screw coil a week ago and there was a splice about 1/2 way into the coil. The splice was fine, the coil failed at the start wire.

[big_teee]

You are correct Spence. I just rewound a pat sticker ttop screw coil a week ago and there was a splice about 1/2 way into the coil. The splice was fine, the coil failed at the start wire.

Please tell us more.
Was the splice taped, or just coated with lacquer?
T

[Bill M]

Please tell us more.
Was the splice taped, or just coated with lacquer?
T

None of the above, just spliced, soldered and kept winding. To be fair to Gibson I have seen them taped off with a piece of the 1/4" paper tape folded over the splice.

[copperheadroads]

None of the above, just spliced, soldered and kept winding. To be fair to Gibson I have seen them taped off with a piece of the 1/4" paper tape folded over the splice.

Thanks for sharing Bill .I've wondered about this myself

[Spence]

Many old Fender pickups fail. Follow their way and yours will fail too. There is always room for improvement.

There's shit loads of Fender pickups out there for the 50s that haven't failed. Why would that be?

[David Schwab]

There's shit loads of Fender pickups out there for the 50s that haven't failed. Why would that be?

I didn't say every Fender pickup fails. I said many fail. That's a fact. I just rewound a set of 70s Jazz bass (plain enamel) pickups last week. And I've done quite a few over the past year. My '72 Mustang pickups died. My '59 Jazzmaster pickups died. That's two guitar that I own.

Why would that be? They didn't tape up their magnets, and the wire corrodes.
I'm sure every winder on this forum has rewound a failed Fender pickup at one time or another.

Gibson used plastic bobbins, so they didn't have that issue, but there's other places where those pickups can be made better.

Why just slavishly copy what someone else thought up? Think up some new ideas.

Do you dress like Leo too? I didn't think so.

But don't take only my word for it:

101-125 - Seymour Duncan

115. Recently I heard you talking to a guitarist in Texas and you were telling him about “Inner Coil Pole Corrosion” (ICPC). What is it? Tom Watters-Santa Barbara, Calif.
Inner Coil Pole Corrosion happens when the magnet rod polepiece on your single coil pickups starts to rust causing the insulation to break down inside the coil. If the insulation (Formvar or Plain Enamel) breaks down, the exposed copper wire can oxidize and eventually break inside the coil. This usually happens from excessive moisture inside your guitar case and/or moisture from sweat or environment. Moisture can seep into the inner edges of the flatwork and retain higher amounts of moisture within and around the magnet, eventually causing them to rust. As the oxidation and rust that travel down the diameter of the magnet it can put extreme pressure on the already tightly wound coil. Leo Fender used wax potting to reduce unwanted moisture form penetrating the coils and thus reduced insulation breakdown for a longer period of time. Older insulation’s can be quite brittle and vulnerable to outside elements, especially moisture and even extreme dryness or heat. I’ve seen this happen to many older instruments when the coil is wound directly onto and around the magnet. Coils wound on molded bobbins (humbuckers) usually never have a problem with ICPC. The problem usually exists when the poles are subjected to excessive environments. Moisture is the biggest problem that can cause ICPC. If the coil has no protection from moisture (wax potting) the insulation can shrink leaving fine cracks in the insulation.

[Spence]

David, I think you forget that a) I know exactly how they were made thanks all the same.
b) I do dress like Leo so what's your problem with that?
c) You don't have to answer all questions or have the last word on everything just because
you're a moderator.
d) (..............David's last word here.......................)

[Mike Sulzer]

I didn't say every Fender pickup fails. I said many fail.

Always have. I rewound a tele bridge in 1968. Who knows why it failed; the guitar was not that old. Of course the guitarist did play at a lot of frat parties. Might have been the beer.

[big_teee]

Most of the fender rewinds I've done were made in the 70s, with PE wire.
Most had badly warped forbon.

[David Schwab]

Most of the fender rewinds I've done were made in the 70s, with PE wire.
Most had badly warped forbon.

Like Seymour said in that FAQ, plain enamel gets brittle. The '76 Jazz bass set I rewound didn't have warped flatwork, and the owner said that they both produced sound. The neck actually sounded pretty good, and the bridge was thin and weak. Neither gave a reading on my meter.

I also did a 70s Rick pickup recently that was wound with PE. That also developed an open coil.

I rewound the Jazz set with PE, but it makes you wonder how well new pickups wound with it will last.



This is interesting. One pickup did not have a date stamp on the bottom. The reason was that they stamped the wrong side of the flatwork! (or assembled the pickup the wrong way). Here is was on the inside!

[RedHouse]

When looking at Fender stuff, longetivity doesn't readily come to mind as the design goal, more of a "production" mentality. They just figured if a pickup doesn't work, it's a service dept or warranty issue, replace it with a new one.

Some music stores in my area are still like that, we have a store where there's this guy who has been there since the 70's, he's their "guitar guy" and nice enough and all that, but one day I was in there and tried to get him interested in some of my pickups, we was indifferent and said "we have all these" pointing the display case (full of SD's and DM's and Gib's and Fenders) and so I thought well fair enough, and said "what about rewinds? who does your rewinds?" he said ..."we don't bother with that, if a pickup doesn't work we yank it, drop in a new one, toss the dead one in the trash".

[David Schwab]

When looking at Fender stuff, longetivity doesn't readily come to mind as the design goal, more of a "production" mentality. They just figured if a pickup doesn't work, it's a service dept or warranty issue, replace it with a new one.

Some music stores in my area are still like that, we have a store where there's this guy who has been there since the 70's, he's their "guitar guy" and nice enough and all that, but one day I was in there and tried to get him interested in some of my pickups, we was indifferent and said "we have all these" pointing the display case (full of SD's and DM's and Gib's and Fenders) and so I thought well fair enough, and said "what about rewinds? who does your rewinds?" he said ..."we don't bother with that, if a pickup doesn't work we yank it, drop in a new one, toss the dead one in the trash".

That's auto mechanic mentality. They used to fix things, and now just replace parts. And I guess they make a sale too.