SC Pickup= X# Feet?

[verhoevenc]

So I tried a search but couldn't find anything. I was curious if anyone has an estimation of how many feet of wire different pickups (at different wind amounts) take to wind? I'm curious to know how many pickups you'll get out of different spool sizes... mostly for calculations of waste based on having to buy smaller spools instead of larger ones. I can get a ROUGH estimation by taking length*2*number of winds... but that doesn't take into account the ends, and how they grow wider as the winds grow. Over several thousand turns this is undoubtedly not a negligible number.
Any thoughts?
Chris

[David Schwab]

Try putting the pickup on a scale and seeing how much it weighs (subtract the weight of the unwound bobbin). Then you will have an idea how much you can get from a roll of wire of a certain weight.

[copperheadroads]

Try putting the pickup on a scale and seeing how much it weighs (subtract the weight of the unwound bobbin). Then you will have an idea how much you can get from a roll of wire of a certain weight.

I've been in that situation a few times just trying to figure out if there is enough wire left on a spool to wind one more pickup
I have weighed many & they all come up with the same roughly 31 grams or 1.0943 ounces of wire on the average strat pickup that's based on something around a 6k pickup

[verhoevenc]

31 grams? That means you can get 7 pickups out of a 1/2lb spool? Wow, my estimates were OFF. I was guessing like 4 lol. That makes a $35 1/2lb spool of PE not seem as bad.
Thanks,
Chris

[verhoevenc]

Sorry to hammer the subject, but something doesn't add up in my head? I was just reading a site that pegs a 6k start pickup at like 8100 turns, which you say is about 31 grams of wire. 31 grams goes into a 1/2lb 7.3 or so times. This puts a 1/2 spool at about 59,000 "turns". Meanwhile, according to the BAE wire site a 6lb spool of PE is about 300,000 turns, or 25,385 turns for a 1/2lb. That would make 1 turn= 2.32"???? That doesn't seem right? Am I messin' somethin' up here?
Chris

[copperheadroads]

I think you numbers are correct but
even Stew Mac estimates more than 4 single coils per roll
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electron...Coil_Wire.html

[copperheadroads]

A common household food scale is not precise enough to weight every ft of wire
Weighing a newly wound pickup wound with 8100 might weigh the same as a pickup with 8400 turns

[David Schwab]

I've never bothered to figure how many coils I'm going to get from a roll of wire. I just use it until it looks like I need another roll! I've actually wound right up to the end of a roll.

Another reason is that on occasion I have to wind a coil over, and that would throw everything off if I was relying on getting a certain number of pickups out of a roll.

You can pick up nice digital scales for not to much money. I use mine for postage and for mixing epoxy.

[Lpone]

Here are some weights I have collected:
Mojo 1/2 lb respool empty - 63 gm
BAE 1 lb spool empty - 86 gm
3 assembled strat bobbins - 58 gm
6 strat lead wires + solder - 10 gm
3 wound PUPS 1.87 mags - 148 gm
weight of 42 hf wire in 3 strat PUPS - 90 gm
butyrate mojo bobbin - 3 gm
weight of 42 pe mojo approx 6000 T on butyrate bobbin - 23 gm

[David Schwab]

If you have an empty spool of the same size as the roll you want to measure, just put the spool on the scale are press the zero button, and then add the full roll and remove the empty spool.

[David Schwab]

31 grams? That means you can get 7 pickups out of a 1/2lb spool? Wow, my estimates were OFF. I was guessing like 4 lol. That makes a $35 1/2lb spool of PE not seem as bad.
Thanks,
Chris

Take that $35 and get a 2lb roll of poly. Don't waste your money on PE. It's not worth it in my opinion.

[verhoevenc]

I'm not paying for it, nor is it up to me. I'm rewinding an era-correct pup for a friend, so they want it era correct.
Chris

[big_teee]

Hi Chris:
I don't blame you.
I rewind period correct Fender picups on occasion.
The shop owner is always trying to make a modded fender back original so he can sell it for more money at the Vintage Guitar shows.
I finally broke down and bought 5 lbs of 43, and 5 lbs of 42 PE.
I should have enough Pe for his and my lifetime.
I mainly use SPN and Heavy Formvar for my own stuff.
If you ever get to doing lots of vintage rewinds pick up a roll from MWS in Calf.
Good Luck,
Terry

[mondo]

One of my favourite pickups was wound at 6.4K by a fluke. My friend ran out of wire at 6.4k, tapped it and kept winding to 8.75K, tapped it and finished it around 10K. Great sounding tele bridge pup with 3 beautiful tones. Sometimes running out of wire makes you try things that you wouldn't normally attempt. Evolution advances through mutations like this.

[verhoevenc]

I had thought of that: If I run out of PE partway through a pickup, graft on some SPN or HF and finish... see what it does?
Chris