What Pickups and Projects Are You Working On?

[Danelectron]

Is there any reason why you shouldn't tape your magnet with electrician's tape?

Mondo, I think it's fine. Over time the adhesive can get slimy, but so what. Cool idea.

I made an acoustic pickup over the weekend. I used 1/16" garolite I had left over from some circuit board projects. The dimensions allowed the pickup to be snapped into the f hole of the guitar easily and the spacing from the strings was adequate.. I used a neo magnet layed flat and glued the garolite to both sides. I wound to about 7.5 k directly on the magnet and potted it. I just soldered an instrument cable directly to the leads with a hole drilled for strain relief. It worked fine except for some single coil type hum. If I touched the leads it would minimise like a guitar does when you touch the strings. I'm going to do another one, but make the base out of something I can ground to. Sound wise, it sounded good. I controlled the tone with the amp and basically left the tone centered. It sounded like I was micing the guitar. No real tone coloring. I think the magnet also was a bit strong. I believe there was some high frequency stuff happening. I couldn't hear it, but I have a pair of love birds and they were complaining more than usual.

big_teee, I also got 6 of the little coils done over the weekend so I may get the other project done this week. I decided to try 42 Formvar. That stuff is bullet proof. It wound up sturdy and when I potted them, the paper discs practically fell off of the coils. I did all six without damaging them.

[big_teee]

I just finished up my first sidewinder attempt. I can't figure out how to wire it up, it's noisy as hell and doesn't seem to care about phase so I'm confused to say the least. I used C8 mags that are .210 x .250 x 3.125", I rounded the ends on the grinder and glued 1/16" forbon flatwork to top and back and wound as much 43 spn as I could fit, -7500 turns at 10.5 k or so. I have the S poles both facing in and tried various thickness blades or no blades and the sound is mostly harsh 3-4kHz and VERY microphonic (unpotted). There is some low end which sounds usable but the rest is ghastly and no way to fit the string radius w/o grinding a taller blade.

David, was wondering if you have done any more with these?
Curious what the final outcome looks like?
Terry

[Joe Gwinn]

Is there any reason why you shouldn't tape your magnet with electrician's tape? What difference will it have as opposed to paper tape? I think the electricians tape is nice and soft so it will hopefully cushion the inner windings a bit.

Electrician's tape is too soft and stretchy, and the windings will soon swim through the tape to contact the magnets within. Paper and mylar tapes are hard, and will prevent thi slow swimming of wire through tape.

To get an idea of the stress levels involved, think of winding 5,000 turns of #42 wire at 30 grams tension. The total force trying to pull the outer magnets closer together will be (2)(5000)(0.030)= 300 kilograms. Now, the flatwork (and the tape) will give a bit and reduce the stress, but still it's easy to develop very large forces on the inner turns.

In rough numbers, if we assume 10mm between flatwork insides and a 5mm diameter magnet, the pressure on the end magnets is 600 Kg/cm^2 (17,000 psi), which is immense). This will not be achieved, as the materials will give enough, but softest layer loses.

[big_teee]

I'm in the process of designing and building my first single coil. It's 41 gauge poly wrapped on an alnico bar magnet. The magnet is taped with electrician's tape and krazy glued with the south facing pole pointing up onto clear plastic flatwork that I hand cut out of a CD case. I made the bobbin a bit long to accomodate the coil so it will fit into a p-90 cavity. I've mounted it onto a copper sheet that is split down the middle so I can solder my connections onto the base plate and have a circuit. I have no idea how it's going to sound but I'm having some fun with it.
Is there any reason why you shouldn't tape your magnet with electrician's tape? What difference will it have as opposed to paper tape? I think the electricians tape is nice and soft so it will hopefully cushion the inner windings a bit. I suspect that the magnet may be a bit too strong because the pickup will be very tall and close to the strings. I may try it again with some weaker Alnicos or try to find a narrower magnet.
I love p-90s and lipsticks so this is a bit of both rolled into something that may be a total stinker.
I'll send a pic and let you know how it turns out.

On the tape issue.
I have tried about everything.
I have ended up using Waxed Floral tape on all Single Coil Builds.
It is 1/2 inch wide.
You can get it in white, black and green to name a few.
I use the black and white.
I stretch it where it is just the right width for my bobbin.
I put one layer of tape on.
It works very well.
I have removed coils I didn't like and the wax is all the way to the core after potting.
It makes a very tidy, and ridged unit after cooling.
I have been known to push magnets in and out after building.
I don't push on the end E String magnets.
The ones in the middle slide in and out very well after a thorough potting and cooling with the wax tape.
However do this at your own risk. lol
Later,
Terry

[kev]

New guy, first post, hello to all.

Started learning how to build pickups to use in my own guitar designs after a fall out with a guitar building partner.

I have my prototype winder up and running with exception of cams for the traverse. As of right now I am burning through some wire studying patterns and tension before I go automatic.

Test drove my first humbucker over the weekend to see if I could build a working pick up. Basic parts, no real quest for tone. A2 mag, 42 Formvar to save my PE, 5000 turns on each coil.

Coils came in at 3.98 and 3.95 hand guide and tension for which I was pleased. Threw it in a Mexi strat and it works well for the first go around.

This week I will work on two controlled tension settings while guiding by hand in order to prep for a friend project on a Strat build. He should be a pretty good subjective ear for my intial winds.

Neck
A5 .195 - 42 Formvar

Middle
A2 .187 - 42 Formvar

Bridge
A2 - 42 PE

No RWRP per request.

Here is my first little test coil around 3000 winds just to see if I could do it. Low TPL lots of scatter, and a little loose.




Here is one of my first guitar builds back when I worked with my partner. I think I built around 12 for him before the split.



So, yeah... That's about it. Nice little place you guys have here and I hope to stick around.

[big_teee]

New guy, first post, hello to all.

Started learning how to build pickups to use in my own guitar designs after a fall out with a guitar building partner.

I have my prototype winder up and running with exception of cams for the traverse. As of right now I am burning through some wire studying patterns and tension before I go automatic.

Test drove my first humbucker over the weekend to see if I could build a working pick up. Basic parts, no real quest for tone. A2 mag, 42 Formvar to save my PE, 5000 turns on each coil.

Coils came in at 3.98 and 3.95 hand guide and tension for which I was pleased. Threw it in a Mexi strat and it works well for the first go around.

This week I will work on two controlled tension settings while guiding by hand in order to prep for a friend project on a Strat build. He should be a pretty good subjective ear for my intial winds.

Neck
A5 .195 - 42 Formvar

Middle
A2 .187 - 42 Formvar

Bridge
A2 - 42 PE

No RWRP per request.
Here is my first little test coil around 3000 winds just to see if I could do it. Low TPL lots of scatter, and a little loose.
So, yeah... That's about it. Nice little place you guys have here and I hope to stick around.

Kev:
Welcome to the Forum.
Sounds like you have been busy and trying lots of new things.
I like the HFV & the PE, but don't over look the 42SPN.
Especially for Humbuckers. It is great all purpose wire, and cheaper.
I Mainly wind Strat Singles with 42 HFV, and Humbuckers with 42SPN.
SPN is great if you are trying to do any kind of Over winds.
I reserve the more costly PE for Vintage Rewinds.
Also I saw no RWRP by request.
Be sure and try the RWRP. I have done lots of trials with and without the RWRPs and Really like the pickups with RWRP.
I didn't find any difference in sound in any switch posistion.
But dead quiet in Pos. 2 & 4, with RWRP.
The fender way on RWRP.
Neck and Bridge CW(clockwise) South end up, Ground on Start lead.
Middle CCW North end up, Ground on start lead.
Most Winders prefer to wind one direction.
I wind all 3 CCW, South up on Bridge and middle, Ground on Start.
North up on Middle Ground on Finish lead to get the RWRP on Pos. 2 & 4.
Good Luck,
Later,
Terry

[kev]

Kev:
Welcome to the Forum.
Sounds like you have been busy and trying lots of new things.
I like the HFV & the PE, but don't over look the 42SPN.
Especially for Humbuckers. It is great all purpose wire, and cheaper.
I Mainly wind Strat Singles with 42 HFV, and Humbuckers with 42SPN.
SPN is great if you are trying to do any kind of Over winds.
I reserve the more costly PE for Vintage Rewinds.
Also I saw no RWRP by request.
Be sure and try the RWRP. I have done lots of trials with and without the RWRPs and Really like the pickups with RWRP.
I didn't find any difference in sound in any switch posistion.
But dead quiet in Pos. 2 & 4, with RWRP.
The fender way on RWRP.
Neck and Bridge CW(clockwise) South end up, Ground on Start lead.
Middle CCW North end up, Ground on start lead.
Most Winders prefer to wind one direction.
I wind all 3 CCW, South up on Bridge and middle, Ground on Start.
North up on Middle Ground on Finish lead to get the RWRP on Pos. 2 & 4.
Good Luck,
Later,
Terry

Hey Terry,

Thanks for the welcome.

Been quite busy yes... But not too bad for a couple months of work in the pick up arena. Messed around with a cam for my traverse last night but I don't like it. Travel is good but the the ramps are too aggresive and it's a little jumpy. Increasing the base circle of the cam should slow it down enough to my liking.

Oh, and my tension testing is coming out pretty decent from what I can see. Still in prototype phase just using two alligator clips with some soft foam material coils are matching pretty well DCR wise but I noticed a little swell on the long sides of the bobbin as the turns increase. In all reality I think it's fine but I tend to be a little picky and have a few certain objectives in mind with this project.

My train of thought on this runs into trying to create a well tensioned coil with minimal wire stretch but eliminate as much of the bulge on the long side.

My inital thought experiments suggest this will have more coil in the effective range of the field thus producing a more efficient pick up. I may be wrong, but experimenting is still fun, ya know?

Then the light bulb went off so I started building a little idea I'll share with you guys if it works how I think it will. It's probably already been done as most ideas seem to be but I kind of approach things without a whole lot of research to see what I can come up with on my own.

I do plan on trying some 42SPN pretty soon. HFV and PE are what I picked up to mess around with intially and to wind my friends stuff.

I brought up RWRP to him on initial designs and he declined... I am probably going to try to change it considering he gave me a bit of control on the singles considering he is more of a humbucker guy. I designed my winder to wind both directions or I can just switch hot leads.

For my own stuff it will be RWRP.

Thanks for the tips good sir.

[David Schwab]

You need a mild steel plate between the coils, to stop the music from getting to the lower coil. Actually, a thick copper or aluminum plate may also work. There are a number of variations in the patent literature. David Schwab can probably put his fingers on a few.

Joe, it's a sidewinder, so it's like a stack on its side. There is no lower coil. The divider plate is the pole piece.

David, ground your blade and add some copper shielding. They will be buzzy without doing that. If you are winding both bobbins in the same direction on your winder, i.e., with the magnet's S toward the winder on both, one will be reversed when you put them together on the pickup, so wire them start-to-finish (or vice versa). If you are winding them in opposite directions on the winder, wire them start-to-start.

If you want to change their tone, try winding them different.

[rdrr]

It's attack of the sidewinders. These are the first pickups I wound a couple of month ago. The construction is similar to David Kings , magnet glued to 1/16 in forbon. However , I used C5 magnets 3.125 x .25 x .375 and didn't round the ends over, just taped them once glued in place to deal with the harsh corners. There isn't a huge amount of wire on them either. I wound 2 of them, one where the coils have 3600 turns each and the other with 4000. The first one is at 7.5k and the second at 8.1k .

David, ground your blade and add some copper shielding. They will be buzzy without doing that. If you are winding both bobbins in the same direction on your winder, i.e., with the magnet's S toward the winder on both, one will be reversed when you put them together on the pickup, so wire them start-to-finish (or vice versa). If you are winding them in opposite directions on the winder, wire them start-to-start.

I didn't ground the blade or shield them in anyway and I do not detect any kind of buzzing. Could the lack of buzz be attributed to the lower winds and less powerful magnet?

I attached a sound clip of them so you could get an idea of what they sound like. It was recorded straight into Garage Band via the mic jack . Each pickup wired in series and passive. They are certainly lower on the output side but nothing so extreme that they couldn't be used without a pre. I haven't tried them in parallel yet which might be a stretch for passive , but they'll sound a little brighter. I'll probably wire up a stratoblaster at some point and see what that does to them as well.


Always interested in others opinons so let me know what you think about how they sound. Just how the pickups sound though, not the horrible playing that goes along with them

Rob

[Joe Gwinn]

Joe, it's a sidewinder, so it's like a stack on its side. There is no lower coil. The divider plate is the pole piece.

Ahh.

[copperheadroads]

What pickup am I working on ? ..........Its one that just some of the parts cost more than a set of Duncan Zephyr's ..........God damn Ford F-150

[David Schwab]

I didn't ground the blade or shield them in anyway and I do not detect any kind of buzzing. Could the lack of buzz be attributed to the lower winds and less powerful magnet?

I do something similar to what you did, and they are noisy when not grounded/sheilded. Might be the environments they get used in.

Always interested in others opinons so let me know what you think about how they sound. Just how the pickups sound though, not the horrible playing that goes along with them

They sound good! The playing isn't horrible either.

[kev]

Wound this up last night as a test piece for a buddy.

A2
PE wire
8k range, offset wound towards the slug side.

I think my spool of PE was close to the end of the big spool it came off of. It seemed to coil up real small as it came off the spool causing some issues with my tensioning system regardless of setting, or flipping the spool it would crimp just before my first clamp. Ending up using my trusty thumb. Next will be some single coils for the same combo.

[big_teee]

I'm Working on a HSS Strat set.
I'm going to experiment with Splitting the Humbucker in Posistion 2 (Bridge N Middle)
I finally have a test amp in my shop now, so It will be easier to test Pickups, without having to haul them up to my house.
I wind My coils all CCW, unless doing a Vintage Rewind that requires CW.
So I think to get everything in the Right Polarity, I will have Neck South Up, Ground on Finish.
The Middle will be North up Ground on Start.
The Humbucker will need the Magnet turned around south on the Slug Coil.
Then when In Pos. 2 it will use the Humbucker Slug South Coil, fed Bottom up, and it will use the Middle North coil fed top down.
I will test this today to see if the Polarity is in Phase, and if it indeed Hum-Cancels.
I will post later my findings.
Terry

[big_teee]

This is the way it ended up working out.
If you wind all coils CCW, which I did the above does gives Noise canceling in bridge Pos.1 (Humbucker)
Bridge and Middle Pos. 2 this uses Slug Coil of Humbucker and Middle for a nice sound that sounds like a Single Coil Bridge and Middle RWRP Style.
Pos. 3 Middle Alone is Non Noise Canceling.
Pos. 4 is Mid and Neck RWRP.
Pos. 5 Neck Alone and is Non Noise Canceling.
I'm still playing with magnets looking for the Right Tone.
I tried the A8, C5, and A2.
I liked the A2 the best but a little Weak as expected on the Big Strings.
I will go for broke and go ahead and try C8, And My Least Favorite the A5, Last.
Later,
B_T