McMaster-Carr vulcanized fiber

[Stan H]

Well, I'm just about ready to start making my own flatwork

I checked McMaster-Carr for vulcanized fiber and found that they only offer it in gray...anybody know of a way to permanently color it black or should I just keep looking?

[gilligan]

What's wrong with the gray? I want to get some myself.
Ron

[Scott S.]

I have made about 10 pickups with the Mcmaster stuff, works fine.

[Stan H]

I was just worried that the customers may say something about the gray...guess it doesn't matter if the pickups rock. I'll just cross that bridge when/if it gets here.

[David King]

Stan you could try the saddle stain (oil dye) some folks use too make ebony black. It's sold by Stewmac for $5 a bottle. You could even ask Stewmac to test it for you before you buy. Other than that you could try india ink.

Have you called OTS Wire in Wilsonville, OR to see if they will sell you smaller sheets of the black stuff?

[R.G.]

Stan you could try the saddle stain (oil dye) some folks use too make ebony black. It's sold by Stewmac for $5 a bottle. You could even ask Stewmac to test it for you before you buy. Other than that you could try india ink.

Um... you do know that only vintage carbon black pigment made from catalytically cracked reprocessed heating oil residue, preferably from Pennsylvania will make it sound right don't you? Other black pigments don't have the same partial ferrite content and traces of thyanocyanthins to slightly change the incremental permeability of the compressed fiber.

This pulls the magnetic flux to the ends of the bobbins and results in a more focussed magnetic field at the strings. It both clarifies the treble response and makes the pickup able to drive long cables more easily.

Even with the right pigments, it has to be bonded in with the fiber sheets at manufacture, as the effect depends on the bulk of the pigment throughout the sheet. Just coloring the surface will yield a pickup which may look OK, but will sound slightly sour and out of tune no matter how carefully you tweak the tuners. That comes from the differential dielectric response at higher frequency causing a slight phase shift on closely-harmonic notes, which gives the psychoacoustical perception of being off-key a tiny, tiny bit.

It takes good ears to hear this. Someone with no ear for music and shoddy perception of tone will hear no difference between the fake blackened fiber and the real, true bonded-pigment throughout real stuff. People with good musical perception will hear the slight but definite differences.

[Ruel]

The pickups will go under covers, right? Like you said, if they rock who cares what color the bobbins are.

[David Schwab]

The pickups will go under covers, right? Like you said, if they rock who cares what color the bobbins are.

A had a guy who wanted closed cover jazz bass pickups, and asked for gray forbon!!!

[GlennW]

What thickness are you using, and does it have laminated reinforcing?

I went to their site and they have a large variety.

[Possum]

OTS?

Does OTS sell vulcanized fiber?

[madialex]

Question

Dont know if this relates to the above post but I had some fender singles in for rewind, custom shop jobs, I think the 69's or the 57/62's or whatever the hell they call them.

Anyhoo, when I hit the bobbins with sand paper on the ends to smooth out where the screw goes through, "you know how it always raises it up some and has to be smoothed out before winding" Well to my suprise the bottom flatwork was grey under the thin black paint, film? Had to take a marker, re-blacken the end parts and re-seal in lacquer. WTF is this all about?? Anyone else seen this???

[Spence]

The pickups will go under covers, right? Like you said, if they rock who cares what color the bobbins are.

Mostly people who want a vintage correct repro that requires the various shades of gray or black as the case may be.

[David King]

Does OTS sell vulcanized fiber?

Well they've offered it in the past and can probably get it for anyone who needs whole sheets. It's not entirely clear to me from the website if it's part of their everyday operations. They specialize in spin balancing motor rotors...

http://www.otswire.com/prodcat.htm

[R.G.]

... Well to my suprise the bottom flatwork was grey under the thin black paint, film? Had to take a marker, re-blacken the end parts and re-seal in lacquer. WTF is this all about??

Actually you know very well what it's all about. It's obvious to the most casual observer.