B/H Round Table & Misc

[big_teee]

I put my big Music Man sized Multi-coils back in my lefty beater test bass.
The Neck Pickup consists of 8/10,000 turn coils of 43SP.
The Bridge Pickup consists of 8/12,000 turns 43SP.
I forgot how good they sound.
Bass Pickups with Tone and Attitude!
They both sound great.
The Bridge pickup really shines and out performs all other bridge type pickups I've had in this bass.
T

[Alberto]

Does anyone make a set of pickups like this?
I've been asked if I could make them.
**Edit
Does anyone got any ideas, how to go about building these?

I would try using a set of two "top" flatworks to build each bobbin and then cut some flatwork to use as a baseplate with eyelets on it.

[big_teee]

I would try using a set of two "top" flatworks to build each bobbin and then cut some flatwork to use as a baseplate with eyelets on it.

Thanks!
I told him I would have to make a lot of custom parts.
I could make them but they would be expensive.
There are so many fine pickups to fit a tele, I don't see any benefit.
But, they do look cool.
T

[big_teee]

Anyone winding any Sidewinders?
I may have a pair of size EMG 35 bass soapbar sidewinders to make.
I made a lot of bass stuff early last year, but pretty rusty right now.
I've been getting several inquiries lately.
How about you?
T

[big_teee]

Here's the 2 bass soapbar sidewinders about to reach completion.
I will finish assembly, pot, and test these tomorrow.

[Steve A.]

Here's Ethans full video, with bio, and shows Ethan with his hound dogs.
American Idol 2016 Audition - Ethan Kuntz VIDEO
T

I could not get that video to play. Do you have a link to it on YouTube?

Steve Ahola
#Ihateembeddedvideosonwebpages

[big_teee]

It works, but it is hit and miss.
He is 16 now.
T

[big_teee]

Steve, Here's another place to get it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mPYtRow1DE

[big_teee]

Here's the new sidewinders in the test bass.
I used some existing mounting holes in the test bass, so they aren't mounted straight.
I haven't made any of these in a while, and I wanted to make sure that the polarity was right and that they worked ok and canceled hum.
Also before I mounted them, I wanted to check the polarity with my DMM, I did the SonnyW DC MV test, and it works slick.
These sounded really good, and were absolutely hum free.
I put 5000 turns of 42 on the neck coils, and 6000 turns on the bridge coils.
I was able to get over 600 gauss measured at the blade outside of the cover.
That strong gauss really boosts the output, which is usually a bit weak on a sidewinder, compared to a regular humbucker.
These are headed to a bass player in upstate NY, and will go in a custom bass with a 3 band EQ.
T

[big_teee]

Hi Gang:
Here's a loaded mint green pickguard, with vintage white knobs and covers.
This pickguard would probably qualify as modified/vintage/modern.
I just built it for my blue Test Strat that my grandson has been playing in the blues band.
The three pickups are 5.9k neck, 6.2k middle, and 8.2k bridge.
The bridge P/U is my first try at a hot rodded overwound 42 bridge.
All three pickups are 4/2 A3/A5, .195 magnets.
I wound the bridge to 10,600 turns of 42SP, and it is very full. If I did it again, I wouldn't go more than 10,000-10,300.
I potted all the pickups, then taped each with humbucker tape to make them more stable, and add durability.
Then used copper foil tape on the bottom of each pickup.
Used shielded pair pickup hookup wire on each pickup, and the shield is soldered to the pickup copper bottom foil, and grounded at the Pot end.
Trying to make them as quiet as possible, since this guitar will get toted and played all over.
The shielded pair, additional full pickguard, & copper foil pickup shielding is a lot more work, but hopefully it will pay off with noise reduction.
Anxious to test them, but first I will have to get the guitar back for a day or two.
If the bridge pickup is too hot, or too dark sounding, I will take some wire off of it.
I will adjust the size of the tone cap if necessary.
I hope we like the look of it on the blue guitar.
I'm thinking it will look cool on the blue metallic body.
T

[big_teee]

I got the blue strat on sunday.
I put the pickguard in the guitar today.
The mint green pickguard with the vintage white knobs, covers, IMO really looks great.
I really like the A3/A5 4/2 pickups.
Good highs, and strong lows.
I wired the pickguard with the Eric Johnson layout.
Neck on the first tone with a .1uf.
No tone on the middle.
Bridge pickup is on the back tone.
I originally had both tones wired to the .1uf vintage disk cap.
The Neck was perfect.
The middle with no cap was just a little too bright.
The bridge with the overwound pickup didn't need the .1uf on it.
I took the pickguard off, and left the neck on the .1uf cap, and front tone.
On the middle, I hard wired a 500pf ceramic amp cap to the switch for the middle P/U.
That is just enough cap to take the bright bite off of it.
I put a .047uf mojo poly cap on the back tone for the bridge.
Put it back together, and It is perfect now.
The extra shielding eliminated all noise, except for the 60 hz in pos. 1, 3, & 5.
It is hard to see the mint green in the pics, you can see it better in real life.
Taking the middle P/U off of a tone cap pot, eliminates two pickups doubled up in pos 2 & 4.
I like it better wired like that!
T

[big_teee]

I got the blue strat on sunday.
I put the pickguard in the guitar today.
The mint green pickguard with the vintage white knobs, covers, IMO really looks great.
I really like the A3/A5 4/2 pickups.
Good highs, and strong lows.
I wired the pickguard with the Eric Johnson layout.
Neck on the first tone with a .1uf.
No tone on the middle.
Bridge pickup is on the back tone.
I originally had both tones wired to the .1uf vintage disk cap.
The Neck was perfect.
The middle with no cap was just a little too bright.
The bridge with the overwound pickup didn't need the .1uf on it.
I took the pickguard off, and left the neck on the .1uf cap, and front tone.
On the middle, I hard wired a 500pf ceramic amp cap to the switch for the middle P/U.
That is just enough cap to take the bright bite off of it.
I put a .047uf mojo poly cap on the back tone for the bridge.
Put it back together, and It is perfect now.
The extra shielding eliminated all noise, except for the 60 hz in pos. 1, 3, & 5.
It is hard to see the mint green in the pics, you can see it better in real life.
Taking the middle P/U off of a tone cap pot, eliminates two pickups doubled up in pos 2 & 4.
I like it better wired like that!
T

After playing the blue strat a while on different amps, I redid the Cap set-up.
I replaced the 500pf, hard wired to the middle pickup switch position, with a 1500pf, which is still quite small.
On the bridge/pickup, back tone pot I replaced the .047uf poly cap, with a .022uf poly.
On the neck/pickup, front tone pot I replaced the .1uf disk cap, with combined .072uf (.050uf & .022 disk in parallel).
That IMO made it just right, and made all three pickups compatible.
I delivered the guitar yesterday afternoon, and the customer (my grandson) Loved it!
He played it for me, and it sounded really good on his amp gear.
It was very quiet.
T
**Conclusions!
The aluminum pickguard shield, combined with the copper foil bottom shield does tame the highs.
Reducing the amount of Cap needed per pickup.
The Additional shielding does help significantly on noise, not on true 60hz hum, picked up close to amp transformers.
Another conclusion, is 10,600 turns of 42 on the bridge does work ok, but If I make another, I will quit at around 9500.
I feel like I reached the point of diminishing returns.

[Steve A.]

Steve, Here's another place to get it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mPYtRow1DE

Thanks for posting the YT link! I use my Android tablet for practically everything and the video interfaces on many sites just don't work.

I was reading your latest reports and loved your ideas, like:
1. Putting copper foil tape on the bottom of strat pickups. (I used to use a conductive paint pen mainly to ground the pole pieces but only after checking coil for shorts to the magnets- these were stock or 3rd party pickups... the only thing I wind is my pocket watch!)
2. Adding small caps to tone down pickups. To more closely simulate a tone control you could wire a resistor in series with a larger cap but whatever works...

I appreciate you going to the trouble of spelling out your pickup "recipes" here.

Steve A.

[big_teee]

I picked up a pair of Peavey T-60 blade pickups from local Music store.
Originally I was to rewind them. They were very microphonic.
Because the bobbins are epoxied to the inside of the plastic baseplate/body?
I ended up taking off the covers and wax potting with the covers off then potted again with the covers on.
I did the amp alligator clip microphonic test before and after potting.
They went from terribly microphonic, to very quiet.
Here's the T-60 Peavey, and the after potting pictures, of the pickups.
The big glob around the cable on the rear of the pickup is a big glob of silicon, not potting wax.
Both pickups were around 8.5-8.75K, DCR.
A beautiful guitar, but IMO a poor design for the pickups.
Because the pickups use 4 adjustment screws, they can not be easily replaced, with after market humbuckers.

[big_teee]

Had a set of Zebra Dirty Fingers Humbuckers from a 1980 Gibson Sonex in the shop today from a local guitar technician. I'm guessing Dirty Fingers based on other stuff I've read.

Was asked to remove the original 2 X 1 conductor braided shield/ground wiring and replace with a 4 conduction, ground, foil shield setup.

Double Screw Bobbins with 3 Magnets per pickup (n-s, s-n, n-s). When I opened up the package, I hadn't realized there was going to be a copper shield layer around the set of coils.

Output P/U A:
Cream Side: 8.15kΩ
Black Side: 8.13kΩ

Output P/U B:
Cream Side: 7.93kΩ
Black Side: 8.4kΩ

The combined output for the original serial hookup was ~ 16.3kΩ as per above @ 74.4°F. To fit ~ 8kΩ on each bobbin, I'm guessing 44 gauge wire.

Just thought I'd pass along the spec's and some pic's for those that might be interested.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]31679[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]31680[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]31681[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]31682[/ATTACH]

These have been popular lately.
I also presume the wire is 44.
wonder how many turns to get 8K ?
Any additional rewind discussion would be great.
Has anyone actually rewound one of these?
The three magnets are also of interest.
T