Anybody here make them the Old way??

[rhgwynn]

Without using eyelets??

Tell me some advantages or disadvantages to using eyelets, or NOT using them.

Maybe I'm mistaken but, this old guy looks like it doesnt have any...


-Rob

[David King]

Rob,
I'll bet it does have eyelets but they are hidden under the push-back insulation. I've never seen a pickup without eyelets but I've not looked at every pickup.

[rhgwynn]

You might be right. It did occur to me though, that if the coil wire was wrapped enough - you could just insert the lead wires and apply solder to fill up the hole. I could see how it might not anchor well without a eyelet in place, though.

-Rob

[big_teee]

Here's a pic of a 1956 set.
Hard to get much older than that.
Leo probably got the idea from using eyelets on Amp component boards.
http://www.12fret.com/wordpress/wp-c..._pickups_1.jpg

[David Schwab]

They all had eyelets.

[soundmasterg]

They all had eyelets.

All the significant vintage Fender pickups anyway...the Gibson pickups, Ric pickups, and many others don't have eyelets. I'm sure you know this but perhaps the OP doesn't.

Greg

[rhgwynn]

All the significant vintage Fender pickups anyway...the Gibson pickups, Ric pickups, and many others don't have eyelets. I'm sure you know this but perhaps the OP doesn't.

Greg

Ahh... the plot thickens...

-R

[David King]

The plot doesn't thicken. The others used pigtails, they weren't making their connections through the bobbin face. Apples and oranges. That said, you can do what you want and claim that that's the way it was done back in the good old days and someone will believe you and start echoing whatever nonsense you care to whisper in their ear. Soon enough it will become fact. Humans are pretty dumb as a species.

[David Schwab]

All the significant vintage Fender pickups anyway...the Gibson pickups, Ric pickups, and many others don't have eyelets. I'm sure you know this but perhaps the OP doesn't.

Greg

Yeah, I meant all the Fender pickups, which is what he was showing.

Rick pickups are an odd bunch.

[David Schwab]

The plot doesn't thicken. The others used pigtails, they weren't making their connections through the bobbin face. Apples and oranges. That said, you can do what you want and claim that that's the way it was done back in the good old days and someone will believe you and start echoing whatever nonsense you care to whisper in their ear. Soon enough it will become fact. Humans are pretty dumb as a species.

Yeah, and the good old days can often be improved upon. They just did things the way they did them. Like with the way Gibson mounts humbuckers.

As long as your pickups sound good, and look good, that's what counts.

I'm about to start using printed circuit boards for the coil and lead hookups on my pickups. It cuts down on wiring time and makes the whole thing a lot neater. For open cover humbuckers like Gibson's you don't have that bunch of pigtails stuffed between the coils. It looks sloppy and requires too much fiddly hand work to get them to look half way decent.

If your customers blindly insist on exact copies of old pickups, find new customers! For every luddite out there, there are a few more forward thinkers that just want something that sounds good, and is even different enough to set them apart from the rest of the crowd, and doesn't care if it doesn't look like a vintage guitar that they can't afford while posing in front of the mirror in their bedroom.

Make pickups for players.