Who sells 5mm (.196") steel polepieces?

[waspclothes]

Hey guys, I know pretty much everyone builds pups with alnico pole pieces.. but I have a few old/cheap pickups that use a single ceramic magnet glued to some steel polepieces and I'd like to make something similar.

I suppose I'd be looking for low-carbon iron.. maybe something called "soft iron" (1008 Steel) or even 1018 Carbon Steel.

I know humbuckers have polepieces that aren't magnetic.. what are those made of? Maybe somewhere sells those in different lengths/diameters?

[max oersted]

Ok, fine I'll say it: a Google search/hard look will yield results here. Or, McMaster Carr and a miter box/razor saw for sweet DIY goodtimes. This is easy stuff. And fun! Find the time to dig around. I can only speak for myself here but putting in the time with solid research, you WILL find what you want - as well as other things that may inspire new ideas. Go for it and have fun!

[big_teee]

You may could rewind the existing pickup, and reuse the existing pole pieces.
You could also use custom flatwork, with a threaded baseplate, and use pole screws with a bottom keeper bar, and bar magnets.
Sorta like a P-90, but with taller strat bobbin spacing.

T

[LtKojak]

I have a few old/cheap pickups that use a single ceramic magnet glued to some steel polepieces and I'd like to make something similar

May I ask you why would you consider this specific type of single-coil design?

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

[David King]

Your .195 is essentially 5mm so you might have better luck searching for the metric dimension. I don't think anyone is particularly fond of these pickups that went into millions of low end Fenders and others guitars. These were basically the cheapest materials the industry could find to make a working pickup. They use fewer turns of finer wire. The magnets were often weak, perhaps C2 instead of C5 or C8.