Wire Repair?

[NuclearBlues52]

Hi there,
First time pickup maker here. I’m using parts from around the house to make my pickup, just a fun little project. However, while winding the coil, about halfway through, the wire snapped. I understand that generally, you should just unwind the coil and start again, but my supply of wire is very limited. Is there any way I can reattach the wire and continue? Maybe twisting the ends together, soldering them, anything? Thank you in advance.

[copperheadroads]

Tie the wires together & resolder the connection/knot & use fingernail polish or tape to insulate it & continue winding ...if it's Plain Enamel you may want to sand some of the insulation off before doing this .

[SonnyW]

Is there any way I can reattach the wire and continue? Maybe twisting the ends together, soldering them, anything? Thank you in advance.

One or two good solid splices in a pickup is not a big problem, especially since this is a personal project and not something going out to customers. I would sand off a half inch or so of the insulation on the loose end on the coil and also on the end from the spool of wire before twisting and soldering. I like to use a small folded piece of either 320 grit or 400 grit sandpaper for this. Six or eight passes ought to be plenty. Some people like to sand both ends at one time, but I prefer to do them separately. Then after you have soldered them together, use a little fingernail polish on the soldered joint for insulation, hand wrap a half dozen turns or so and continue winding. That's all there is to it. After a few hundred turns the splice will be invisible. Some kinds of wire can be soldered without sanding, but why take a chance since the splice will be buried, and if it doesn't make a good connection you will have to unwind it anyway? If you don't want to use the fingernail polish, you can put down a small piece of tape on the coil where the splice lays and put another small piece over that, but the fingernail polish method will be neater. Many factory pickups in the past had heavier gauge starting leads spliced to the magnet wire and buried in the coil in this way as a regular production method.

[SonnyW]

Hi Copper, beat me to the punch. We must have been typing at the same time.

[Zhangliqun]

But be sure to sand the wire beyond the splice on the spool side to take a read to make sure you've got continuity before resuming winding. Would stink to finish winding the coil and get "0L" on the multimeter when you check the spec on the coil -- or worse, get no sound at all on the sound test AFTER fully assembling, potting and cleaning the pickup!