Basic Humbucker Coil Winding

[Meowy]

I am hoping some of the more experienced winders on this forum would be willing to share the best way to start and finish winding of a humbucker coil and to interconnect the coils. I'm just starting out with this and good information seems to be very hard to find.

Stewmac gives pretty detailed instructions for a Strat or Tele coil, but is very vague on a HB. Since the bobbins are different, I assume the technique is different too. In particular since there are eyelets on a Strat / Tele coil, but no eyelets on a HB what do you do with the "start" end of the coil when you begin winding?

I'm not looking for anyone's trade secrets just basic info

Thanks for sharing!

[Stan H]

I just tape my start to the faceplate of my winder.

[Dr. Guitar]

Solder a lead wire on first. That little bit of wire (Going to the center of the coil)is super hard to solder too, once a coil is wound.

[Ruel]

I solder a lead wire first, tape over the join before starting to wind. I normally use different colors for the start and end leads to mark which is which. This is important when you assemble the humbucker.

[David Schwab]

I used to just tape the start on the faceplate, but I've been breaking that wire when I solder on my leads lately, requiring my to rewind the coil, so now I solder my lead wire on first. Must be getting clumsy...

[kevinT]

The tooling that holds the bobbin to my winder has a small hole in it where I thread the wire through it. I use blue painter's tape to stick the wire on the outside of the housing. When starting to wind, I make sure that the wire is against the bottom flange of the bobbin and i turn the housing about 6 - 8 times by hand, in order to get the wire started onto the bobbin and to support the first turn or two of wire. You want to make sure that the initial turn of wire is against the flange because if the first wrap of wire is layed across, you have the chance of the other windings cutting off the start wire, because of the pressure, as the wire packs on to the coil form. If this happens, you generally have to trash the coil.

I ususally lead the start and finish wires once I take the bobbin off of the machine.

But there is no one right or wrong way to do it...whatever you feel comfortable with. ...the main thing is make sure that the wire is wound a few times against the bottom flange.

You also may want to give yourself some extra slack for start wire just in case you get a kink in it then you have enough wire that you can cut some off without cutting yourself short so to speak. Or if you have to wrap the wire around the bobbin one more time to get everything aligned on one side of the bobbin (i.e.,lead wires).

I first lead the start wire. When that is done, I place a piece of tape on the coil and lay the solder joint on it to prevent any possible burr or sharp edge in the solder joint from cutting the insulation and shorting the coil. I then place a piece of tape on top of that to insulate and secure it. I then lead the finish wire and place the solder joint on top of that piece of tape. I then wrap tape around the entire coil to protect it. Both lead wires (black and white is what use) should be exiting the coil and be ready for the hookup wire. Make sure your leads are long enough so that when you're ready to solder them to the hookup wire, they won't be too short...you'll have some difficulty soldering all the wires if they are on the short side. You also want to make sure that you don't leave more than what is necessary so that you can easily hide the wires in the crevices and not have the wire bulging too much from the side after final taping.

You'll acquire your own technique and get more effecient at it the more you do it. .....just have fun!!!!!

[SkinnyWire]

I solder the magnet wire to a "start" wire fed up through the bottom of the bobbin. On some bobbins (like the Guitar Jones) I drill the hole myself. Tape the start flush along the riser of the bobbin. The finish depends on the type of hookup. Working with "terminal" hookup wire soldered to the magnet wire and secured with tape in/on the coil makes for easier assembly in the end, IMO, and it's obviously not as fragile when working assembly.

I do something similar to KevinT, feeding the start wire through a hole in the mounting disk on my winder and taping it to the back with painters tape.