B/H Round Table & Misc

[SonnyW]

Yeah I know, it's weird, but I'm not complaining. Zero to something in just a few days is good, in my book. For me, it amounts to either that or eating beans and cornbread some more again or not. I like beans and cornbread by the way. Moon is a waning quarter phase. Nothing too special about that. But sunspot activity is very high. Maybe that is it, or else maybe it is just blind luck. I don't much care, but I like the interest in custom made pickups that is showing up now.

[copperheadroads]

It is a fact that the moon/tides affects human behaviour

[big_teee]

I wound a Tele Bridge Pickup this afternoon.
I used the 42 SPN Natural that I bought last summer.
It is one of the rolls that has the hang up issue on the end of the roll.
Right in the middle of the pickup it broke, way under the end of roll.
Now it has about 6 ends, sticking up on the end of the roll.
I weighed the roll and it weighs 6 pounds and 10 ounces, spool and wire.
I'm Calling Larry at Remington tomorrow, and see what I have to do to get it exchanged.
This Spool has Really been a PITA!
I'll let you know how the exchange works out.
TBC (To Be Continued).
T

I Made my phone call today.
No satisfaction yet.
I was informed that we don't know how to unspool wire.
Apparently I just don't know how to unspool this one spool I've had trouble with.
On the small wire issue, I was told we don't know how to Mic wire, either!
Remington and I may be going seperate directions.
TBC

[Stratz]

I was informed that we don't know how to unspool wire.

I was told we don't know how to Mic wire, either!

Who's "We"?

[big_teee]

Who's "We"?

We on Micing, Whomever doesn't come up with the same specs written in MM on the end of the spool!
My Red 42 SP that measures .0025, doesn't even come close, to the MM Size.
And We, means if you had a bad spool of wire, it must have been the winders fault because he or she doesn't know how to unroll wire!
That is what I got out of my conversation.
For now lets just change WE to ME!
Don't know if I get another roll of wire or not!
Not trying to fire anyone else up, just didn't enjoy the rhetoric I got today.
Should know more tomorrow.!
Don't Shoot, I'm just the Piano Player!
T
** One final comment, You may not have to be a Snake Oil Salesman to sell Magnet wire, but It Sure seems to Help!

[copperheadroads]

We on Micing, Whomever doesn't come up with the same specs written in MM on the end of the spool!
My Red 42 SP that measures .0025, doesn't even come close, to the MM Size.
And We, means if you had a bad spool of wire, it must have been the winders fault because he or she doesn't know how to unroll wire!
That is what I got out of my conversation.
For now lets just change WE to ME!
Don't know if I get another roll of wire or not!
Not trying to fire anyone else up, just didn't enjoy the rhetoric I got today.
Should know more tomorrow.!
Don't Shoot, I'm just the Piano Player!
T
** One final comment, You may not have to be a Snake Oil Salesman to sell Magnet wire, but It Sure seems to Help!

When using a Mic ,I mic 6 or more strands at once to prevent crushing the diameter .
Any body else do the same ?

[SonnyW]

I usually mic two strands I am not so coordinated as you must be. But I had the same idea.

[SonnyW]

By the way, Teee, I didn't get a lot of flak from Remington when I sent my roll back that had the same problem. But I didn't talk to Larry it was Josh. I sent him pics as soon as I had started trying to use it, mine was messed up from the first pickup on. I didn't even get one pickup out of it. I sent them the roll back then they evaluated it and sent me a new one. Most of my dealing was with Josh, but it was Larry that sent me the email that they were going to replace it. Maybe they have gotten too many back and are getting tired of this. I think it was probably a problem at Elektrisola not Remington on the too tight spools. But that is just IMO.

[big_teee]

I mic a couple at a time.
My mic has the ratchet and if you don't get too rough, it does a good job.
The roll that screwed up says .068mm on it, and that translates to .00267, and that is exactly what it measures.
The Red wire that is so small says it is .0694mm and that should be .00273", and my wire is right at .0025"
A big difference when you put 8-10k Wraps on a coil.
I think what happened if you take the .0694, and turn the numbers to .0649mm that is .00255"
Which is closer to what it is. So I guess they wrote the numbers backwards which is out of Min/Nom range.
I told Larry, that I thought they were selling us a bunch of Seconds, and Third Quality wire Stuff.
He denied it right off.
He really did act like we were causing the cascading, I told him I did the same thing like you did.
I told him most of us were tech type guys, and not a bunch of Kids.
I might Try Teena at BAE Next.
T

[big_teee]

Larry at Remington is sending me a Mic'd roll of 42SPN Natural to replace the defective roll I have.
I Also solved the size problem with the red wire, instead of it being .0694mm as marked.
It is in fact .0649mm, which translates to .00255 inches, not the .00273 inches (.0694mm) it is marked.
I will keep the small Red for overwound bridge pickup projects, when you want that in between 43, and 42 size.
I will use the 42SPN Natural for everything else.
So It looks like this is being resolved.
T

[SonnyW]

Final Update on the Rythm Chief 1000 Rewind:

While waiting to hear back from the customer, I did all my electrical testing on the bare coil without it being soldered to the control, but I had it sitting on the baseplate. I had also re-charged the magnets on the electric charger since the clamping fixture messed with them. The customer answered back to leave it at 7.36K ohms and not to pot it unless it seemed microphonic. So I taped the coil and just left the little bit of wax on the ends as before. The cable from the pickup to the control housing was very hardened and brittle with age. Some of the insulation on the center wire had flaked off. So I had also replaced the cable while waiting. That old style shielded cable isn't all that easy to find, so what I used was some 4 conductor 28 ga shielded wire that I had gotten for humbucker leads at one time. But the outside diameter of it was a perfect fit. To make it work I pulled out one of the conductors and paralleled the other three. That made the center wire come out to about the same gauge as before. I soldered it in and soldered the leads on the pickup and put a short piece of shrink tubing over the splice on the hot lead. To make it easier to get the coil out the next time if there is one, I used beeswax to secure it to the baseplate instead of glue as before. I did use contact cement to glue on the nameplate to the top though. Then came the dilemma of how to test it in a guitar as I didn't have the cable that goes from the control box to the amp. But I did have a speaker cord with alligator clips that I use to hook amps to a dummy load. So I left the back off the control box and set up the pickup on an ES175 of mine. It played great and sounded good and the controls all worked. So I put the cover back on the controls and it is all done. Here's the pics.

Here's the taped coil and the shrink tube over the soldered lead and with the beeswax on the baseplate before I hit it with the heat gun, and set the coil in place.
This is the end of the cable that I replaced. It is easy to see how brittle the insulation was. It couldn't be reused.
Here's the inside of the control box where I soldered in the other end of the new cable. There are three vintage caps in there. I think the pots were one meg or so.
Here's the test guitar setup. It is my 1976 ES175TD. You can see the alligator clips on the back of the control box.
One DeArmond RC1000 all done. The picture of the Monkey on a Stick toy shows how it got its name.

[big_teee]

I finished the B-bender guitar.
It sounds great.
It needs a new pickguard.
I took out a Strat neck pickup, and installed a regular Tele pickup.
The hole is too large, but other than that Everything is great.
I installed a neck pickup with bare nickel cover, an bridge Pickup with slightly raised poles.
I installed a new 250k Vol. , and a 1 Meg Tone pot with a .047uf Cap.
The 1 Meg Tone Pot really makes a big difference IMO, you can get plenty of Cap, or roll it way off with the big Pot.
If you haven't tried the 1 Meg Tone Pot, give it a try.
For Teles with set screw knobs, I use 1 meg Amp Pots, from Mojo.
T

[Stratz]

Beautiful job Sonny! A+

For Teles with set screw knobs, I use 1 meg Amp Pots, from Mojo.
T

To fit solid shaft Tele knobs to split shaft pots I use these little brass bushings.
I think I got them from AllParts. They were pretty inexpensive at the time I bought them and work really well

[big_teee]

Here are the Pictures of the Clarence White B-Bender Guitar.
The Customer just got the guitar and it is a work in progress, it has had a pretty rough life.
The Guitar Cavity was a Ratz nest, I rewired it all when I put the new pickups and new pots in it.
The Pickguard will be replaced, whoever had it hacked a large hole in it and had a Strat pickup in it.
But, the Customer wants to play it at a country HonkyTonk Friday night.
It Has some extra holes drill in the back of the guitar, not sure what that is about.
But you can see how the B String Bender works.

[big_teee]

Hoorah Hoorah the Witch is dead!
I got the new roll of 42 SPN Natural that measures .068mm, or .00268" Today!
I wound a pickup with it tonight, and it was so smooth, and I wound a whole pickup without it breaking and having to splice a single time.
I put the Old roll of wire with the Demon in it, in the Box and Shipped it off.
Hopefully I will never get another roll like that one.
T