Why repair/rewind old pickups?

[kevinT]

Many folks offer a repair/rewind service for pickups as part of their business. I haven't done much repair/rewind work but i've been doing a lot of dissecting old and new pickups as well as prototyping new models.

Some folks probably think this is a stupid question but why offer rewinding/repair services if, most of the time (dead coil), you generally have to remove the original wire and install new wire and/or rebuild (for SCs) the bobbin structure and/or replace parts. Wouldn't it be easier and smarter (and maybe cheaper in the long run) for the person requesting the work to just buy a new pickup. (i know it all depends on how extensive/severe the damage is). What would be the benefits of rewinding with new wire using the old parts...IMO you loose the character of the pickup?

Would it be our duty as pickupmakers to tell customers that they would be better off buying a new pickup than having it repaired or would you do as the customer wishes?

Am I missing something here?

[David Schwab]

I always read that old pickups, even rewound, retain a lot of their "value". I personally have a problem with guitars being more about resale value than playing value, but that's the world we live in.

[chevalij]

I saw a set of poorly (loose wraps, enough wax to make a candle) rewound 69 strat pups on ebay go for over $500 no more than a week ago. I couldn't believe it...It was 69 flatwort and 69 mags, but garbage wire.

[black_labb]

I saw a set of poorly (loose wraps, enough wax to make a candle) rewound 69 strat pups on ebay go for over $500 no more than a week ago. I couldn't believe it...It was 69 flatwort and 69 mags, but garbage wire.

theres a good reason

id say its to retain the character of the original components as david said. alot of voodoo involved in vintage magnets, as well as handwould pups. usually when a pup is rewound the pups are handwound, and they will use the same magnets.

[Spence]

It's a cheaper option for a start.
I rewind loads of vintage pickups for people. The first question they always ask is "will the pickup sound different from when it was working before?"
That's a tough one to answer as you will not have heard it when it was working. Generally, if you use the right type of wire you'll get close. But how can you determine the original DC resistance? Well you have to remove the wire, any wax and weigh it. That will give you a fair idea of the amount you need to put back on. Done properly the pickup can be made to sound and look exactly like it was when working. Is it worth it? Well if you had a piece of antique furniture that was damaged the only sensible thing to do is a quality repair rather than make a new piece of furniture.

[Ruel]

If one lives in a place where it is next to impossible to get quality parts it is best to repair old pickups.

[Possum]

...........

There is a big reason to rewind a dead pickup especially if its an old one. Its the parts they are made of, even TTops have steel thats made different than today, recreating that pickup isn't going to sound like the original, you can't buy those screw poles, the magnets aren't made the same way anymore. Heck even if its a DeeMarshmellow pickup if the guy liked it rewind it, its still going to sound alot like it did before if you do it right. If its a cheap piece of junk that never sounded good in the first place throw it away and buy a new one. I'm often asked to rewind cheap pickups to make them sound like my line of pickups and no way will I do that, I don't know what parts are in those things and they're not going to sound better just from a rewind.

[Mark Hammer]

I guess there are two perspectives on this. One is that if the coil properties are so important to the soul of the pickup, then refitting the same basic chassis/bobbin with a new and different coil is an entirely different pickup, in which case it makes little sense to pay to have the old coil removed and another way replace it, when one could simply buy another new pickup. The other perspective is that if the polepieces and any magnets are critical to the soul of the pickup, then a rewind is akin to refitting the essential elements of the pickup with better "support".

I guess my own sentiments would fall somewhere in the middle, or maybe even off to the side. If both aspects are critical and synergistic, how would one know what sort of coil needs to replace the original if the magnets/polepieces might have undergone change with time or have ill-defined and unique characteristics? On the other hand, there ARE pickups with known properties and sufficient track records that a damaged coil can be replaced with a true equivalent that recaptures what was lost. On occasion, that may well include "quirks" in the winding that are not easily or faithfully replicated in mass-produced pickups.

[52 Bill]

I'm not a pick-up builder, so my point of view is probably different than most of yours. I have repaired and rewound quite a few pick-ups, some because at the time there was no alternative replacement available or because the owner wanted to keep everything as original as possible.

I'm sure that you all have found that a lot of repairs are often in the outside winds or at the ends of the windings. When I get a pick-up that is dead, I try and check for every possible problem before rewinding. And if possible I will unwind the pick-up on my homemade winder to count the turns as I remove them. A lot of times, I'll find the break and then follow Seth Lover's directions and solder the ends back together and rewind the original wire back on the coil.

Cost wise the time involved can mount up and can end up costing as much as throwing in a new pick-up, so there needs to be some up front discussion with the owner.