Low ohms reading from coil start to two outer alnico magnet slugs

[Stan Keith]

50 ohms from start to magnets. 6.2K DCR start to finish. Sounds awesome otherwise. Bell tones, and wide frequency detail. But should I be concerned?
Insight/info is appreciated.
Stan

[big_teee]

A short from the start lead to the poles?
Magnet taping or Lacquer dipping is the remedy for that.
Most winders these days tape the coil before winding.
Mylar tape, waxed florist tape, paper masking tape, anything thin that is an insulator.
T

[Stan Keith]

A short from the start lead to the poles?
Magnet taping or Lacquer dipping is the remedy for that.
Most winders these days tape the coil before winding.
Mylar tape, waxed florist tape, paper masking tape, anything thin that is an insulator.
T

Yes, I used clear nitrocellulose lacquer on one, and teflon plumbers tape on another, and still got a reading of 50 ohms. Perhaps I din't use enough of each.
Regardless, the pickups work great, and no shorting against strings or anything.
But what a pain, or so it seems, to get the wire not to short against magnet poles on start.
Thanks for the replay.

[big_teee]

The 50 ohms, tells me that you have 50 ohms of wire on the bobbin before it shorts to the magnet.
Probably on the edge of the bobbin where there is very little, or no tape.
You might try tape, then spray with clear lacquer over the tape.
The lacquer makes the whole bobbin look nice, too.
Anytime I had a short to magnets to ground, I always tore them up and started over.
I never sold any with shorts.
GL,
T

[Stan Keith]

The 50 ohms, tells me that you have 50 ohms of wire on the bobbin before it shorts to the magnet.
Probably on the edge of the bobbin where there is very little, or no tape.
You might try tape, then spray with clear lacquer over the tape.
The lacquer makes the whole bobbin look nice, too.
Anytime I had a short to magnets to ground, I always tore them up and started over.
I never sold any with shorts.
GL,
T

Cool. I'll try that. Yeah, up next to the flatwork there is a section that probably didn't get covered.
But pickups sound great in strat, so I'll just leave in for now. Have no intentions of selling pickups.
Definitely time to order more wire tho to rewind, strat, and/or build Pbass pickups for cheapo Indonesian Squire
Thanks gain for the advice.
Stan

[Helmholtz]

I also wonder what damaged the wire insulation.

[Stan Keith]

I also wonder what damaged the wire insulation.

I don't know. I carefully hand-wound without motor for 20 wraps or so. I believe the wire hat got up tight next to flatwork where there was no tape or lacquer. I guess I need to do a better job with sanding everything smooth. All pickups were dead ones I've had for years in a box. Thought i'd use these crazy times to learn pickup winding. I may want to look at my traverse section of my DIY winder. Never bothered sanding there.
Aside from losing a few ohms by a few potentially shorted wires early on of ground side, I can use these with no ill effect, right? I mean the guitar is not going to catch on fire, and burn the block down is it? haha...

[Helmholtz]

Aside from losing a few ohms by a few potentially shorted wires early on of ground side, I can use these with no ill effect, right? I mean the guitar is not going to catch on fire, and burn the block down is it? haha...

It's not simply loosing a few Ohms. If the short is between different layers, it will severely load down the PU signal and kill treble - even if you don't notice a changed DCR.

[Stan Keith]

It's not simply loosing a few Ohms. If the short is between different layers, it will severely load down the PU signal and kill treble - even if you don't notice a changed DCR.

Yeah, I understand that. But short seems to be from start to pole closest to that. Pickup is louder/stronger than the neck/bridge Texas Specials I have in strat. I took a dead Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounder, and did a RWRP. Wound it to 6.3K (normally these are at 13.3K) Been playing guitar professionally most of my life. This particular pickup sound very nice with no perceivable treble roll-off.
Still, I'll probably rewind.
Thanks for your input.

[Stan Keith]

FWIW, I sanded and polished the traverse section since it was basically a bolt with a smooth shaft section, and shaft collars for stops. No shorts after that. seemed smooth, but just rough enough to sand off insulation. Damn, took several winds bfore I figured out the obvious. Thanks, Helmholtz for the wondering why the insulation was coming off. Got me to thinking.
Cheers!