Wal Bass Pickups?

[David King]

Mojotone has the closed music man covers for dirt cheap. I just got some there the other day. AddixionFX will have music man magnets as I'm sure will other places. They should be 5/8" long or maybe 3/4 depending on what they were copying. I'd still hold out for 8mm magnets. You don't want inch long mags, that will be too much string pull.

Barefootnit's alnico prices are stupid high.

[Chris Turner]

Mojotone has the closed music man covers for dirt cheap. I just got some there the other day. AddixionFX will have music man magnets as I'm sure will other places. They should be 5/8" long or maybe 3/4 depending on what they were copying. I'd still hold out for 8mm magnets. You don't want inch long mags, that will be too much string pull.

Barefootnit's alnico prices are stupid high.

AddictionFX only has the 1" long alnico rods at .375" diameter. Not seeing any at all with 5/8" diameter.

[LowNote]

Ok, so I'll have to order some magnets if 1" will be too long. Anyway,iIf big_teee is going to use 3/8" I'll use 1/4". That way we can compare notes. I also plan on making my own covers. I have 42,43,44 wire to choose from. After thinking about building these pickups I'm going to use the basic idea and try other things such as wire size and wraps. With that said I'm open to suggestions or thoughts.

LowNote

[big_teee]

Ok, so I'll have to order some magnets if 1" will be too long. Anyway,iIf big_teee is going to use 3/8" I'll use 1/4". That way we can compare notes. I also plan on making my own covers. I have 42,43,44 wire to choose from. After thinking about building these pickups I'm going to use the basic idea and try other things such as wire size and wraps. With that said I'm open to suggestions or thoughts.

LowNote

I would use 1/4 inch too, but haven't seen any suitable 1/4" fiber washers, like the ones available for 5/16, and 3/8.

[Marko Ursin]

1/4" magnets or steel poles are closest to the original Wal pickups. I don't know how much difference thicker magnets or different height bobbins will make but for as close as possible sound clone I'd stick with the original even if it meant a little more work. Drilling and sawing square plates is not a lot of work anyway.

[big_teee]

The Alnico Multicoils here are evolving, & are no longer clones.
I still like the idea of 5/16, or 8mm x 3/4" A5s.
I'm going to ask Shea today at MH to see what he can get.
T
**edit
Email sent for info for either 5/16 x 3/4", or 8mm x 3/4" A5s.
Also for 3/8" x 3/4" A5s

[rdrr]

Class 15 sewing machine bobbins are about 5/16 in height by 13/16 in diameter, not sure about the inner diameter. There are slight variations depending on who you get them from. But if you are just looking for washers than I wonder if something like this would work on forbon http://www.amazon.com/Anytime-Tools-...W+PUNCH+washer There are a wide variety of hollow punches available , some that have adapters for both the inner and outer diameter to be punched at the same time. They're are meant for cutting through leather so I would think forbon or something similar should be doable.

Or I wonder if a Disk cutter commonly used in jewelry making would work too.

[big_teee]

Class 15 sewing machine bobbins are about 5/16 in height by 13/16 in diameter, not sure about the inner diameter. There are slight variations depending on who you get them from. But if you are just looking for washers than I wonder if something like this would work on forbon http://www.amazon.com/Anytime-Tools-...W+PUNCH+washer There are a wide variety of hollow punches available , some that have adapters for both the inner and outer diameter to be punched at the same time. They're are meant for cutting through leather so I would think forbon or something similar should be doable.

Or I wonder if a Disk cutter commonly used in jewelry making would work too.

The sewing machine bobbins sound too short between the flats, and too wide in diameter.
The Leather dies look interesting.
What would really work great if the dies could be adapted to my heavy duty Reloading press.
It has enormous pressure, and is exact.
The 5/8" for neck and 3/4 for the bridge pickups.
T

[big_teee]

I emailed back and forth with shea at MH.
And requested that he post two new magnets on his magnet price list that he provides us.
He said he would try to do it Friday.
I think we agreed on 5/16 x 3/4, and 3/8 x 3/4.
These will be included on this price list.
http://music-electronics-forum.com/a...price-list.pdf
I will update the list posted on the B/H resources thread when I get it, and I will post a link here.
This will give more flexibility to builders of bass pickups, to have quick access to the larger size stocked magnets.
T
**Edit
Combining the above magnets with these stocked fiber washers that are $11/100 should be the match made in P/U Heaven!
http://timelesstattoosupply.com/time...ore-washers/6/
The 1/16" Washers are $11/100, the double thick are $12/100, see the details of each item.

[jonson]

There are punch dies on the market that are threaded on the shank end so easy to adapt to an existing press and some as my UK set have a centre spring loaded point. This makes it easy to punch the outer size and leaves an indent to line up to punch the bore. I'm sure they gotta be available Stateside.If not drill out a pile of material first the stack them on a shoulder bolt and lock with a nut. Put it in the pillar drill and bring the outside by whatever method you can to size and that will leave your holes central.

[big_teee]

So if I order some 5/16, 3/8 washers and magnets?
Next Obstacle is what gauge of wire and how many turns.
The amount of turns will probably depend on how they are wired?
So if played passive, I guess wire all coils in series?
Or Maybe wire each 4 coil row in series, and have a Series parallel switch to control that?
If all 8 coils are wired in series, wouldn't 10,000 turns per coil be too much?
That would mean 20k turns for 2 coils per string.
If the two banks are wired in parallel, then maybe the 10k turns would be needed?
If we can determine some of these things before winding, that will help cut down on some of the trial and error?
In this two week discussion about multi-coils, My glass has gone from empty to about half empty.
Thanks everyone for the help and discussion!
T

[Marko Ursin]

Wal coils have 10000 rounds of 42AWG. I've made my pickups with Wal size bobbins, wire and rounds. They have worked fine with thick bottom and still clear top.

[big_teee]

Wal coils have 10000 rounds of 42AWG. I've made my pickups with Wal size bobbins, wire and rounds. They have worked fine with thick bottom and still clear top.

Do you wire all 8 in series, or 4+4 parallel, or some of both?
10k turns should be in the 2.5k ballpark on 5/16 magnets.
that would be 20k in series, or 5k in parallel?
T

[Chris Turner]

What I've noticed about these multi-coil pickups is that it seems you can wind more turns without sacrificing highs, when compared to more typical pickups.

I think it has something to do with the smaller size of the coil itself... Layer to layer capacitance and all that.

I'm sure someone can science it up a bit more than that.

[Marko Ursin]

What I've noticed about these multi-coil pickups is that it seems you can wind more turns without sacrificing highs, when compared to more typical pickups.

I think it has something to do with the smaller size of the coil itself... Layer to layer capacitance and all that.

I'm sure someone can science it up a bit more than that.

That's exactly what I've found out too. Highs are still there even if you wire the pickup to 20k+.