Has it been done?

[HockeyPop29]

Has anyone here used a 3d printer to experiment with bobbin height and width? Would the type of printer (resin vs filament) affect the outcome?

ThinkinThinking picking up a resin printer after Christmas to give it a try, if viable.

[mozz]

Friend had a Rick copy and broke a wire on one of the toaster style pickups. He 3d printed a few and gave 1 to me to wind. During the wax pot part............................it slightly bowed, not bad but lucky i caught it in time. I'll see if i can find out what he used for filament.

[Mike Sulzer]

Has anyone here used a 3d printer to experiment with bobbin height and width? Would the type of printer (resin vs filament) affect the outcome?

ThinkinThinking picking up a resin printer after Christmas to give it a try, if viable.

https://alexkenis.wordpress.com/2017...ickup-bobbins/

I am doing this to make custom bobbins for ferrite blade stacked humbucker pickups for strat.

Note: a good grade of PLA works fine, but do not get it too hot.

[HockeyPop29]

Thanks -- especially for the info on the printer. I'm wanting to try some designs based loosely on the stacked design of a noiseless single coil, where instead of having a parallel divider in between a top and bottom level of a single coil bobbin, slanting the divider, and using the top area only, making a thicker, shorter coil on the bass side, and a taller, thinner coil on the treble side. I have just a very basic (highlight the VERY) understanding of how height, wind number, thickness, etc make such drastic differences in what makes up the signature sounds of the pickups available today, and I'm curious to see if the effects can be modified across the length of a pickup. I also want to mess with other variables, like widening the horizontal plane from one side to the other, varying pole thickness from bass to treble, magnet dimensions in the same way, etc.

In other words, my wife and I are just now becoming empty nesters, and we aren't wealthy enough to travel the world. I've been building and restoring guitars for family members for 12 years, since our youngest took up playing (I'm a retired cop due to a near fatal crash back in '96, and took up woodworking and some other crafts to keep from going crazy out of boredom), and thought it would be cool to stray from conventional dimensions if it would be feasible.

It's not like I haven't filled the trash can with other experiments in the last 25 years, so why stop now?

[Mike Sulzer]

Thanks -- especially for the info on the printer. I'm wanting to try some designs based loosely on the stacked design of a noiseless single coil, where instead of having a parallel divider in between a top and bottom level of a single coil bobbin, slanting the divider, and using the top area only, making a thicker, shorter coil on the bass side, and a taller, thinner coil on the treble side. I have just a very basic (highlight the VERY) understanding of how height, wind number, thickness, etc make such drastic differences in what makes up the signature sounds of the pickups available today, and I'm curious to see if the effects can be modified across the length of a pickup. I also want to mess with other variables, like widening the horizontal plane from one side to the other, varying pole thickness from bass to treble, magnet dimensions in the same way, etc.

In other words, my wife and I are just now becoming empty nesters, and we aren't wealthy enough to travel the world. I've been building and restoring guitars for family members for 12 years, since our youngest took up playing (I'm a retired cop due to a near fatal crash back in '96, and took up woodworking and some other crafts to keep from going crazy out of boredom), and thought it would be cool to stray from conventional dimensions if it would be feasible.

It's not like I haven't filled the trash can with other experiments in the last 25 years, so why stop now?

Getting good results with an inexpensive printer requires some experimentation and can be frustrating at times. I think the most difficult part of the process is drawing with freeCAD. It is known as an application with a steep learning curve. This is an obscure way of saying that you will hate it, at least at first. There seems to be no free alternative that is both powerful and precise enough and will make the files you need for the slicer.

The primary factors in pickup sound are inductance of the coil and its losses. These determine both the location and width of the resonance with the guitar cable.

[AntoGlover]

Sounds like quite a nice set of ideas you have there.
I don’t know enough to say how tone etc would be affected but trial and error takes care of many things and its great fun along the way.
I have just started winding pick ups and have just got a 3 d printer as it happens. I’m using a free online design platform call tinkercad and a free slicer cura. I’m printing with PLA filament and have downloaded the file for a single coil bobbin and printed a few.
I do wax pot my pick ups at around 55 deg celsius. I have yet to wind a 3d printed bobbin and am interested to see if there is distortion in the bobbin when wax potting.
I can’t immediately think of other issues you’d have through 3 d printing the bobbin over using conventional flat work or the plastic ones available on ebay/amazon etc. You have the same issues with soldering the wire into the eyelets and melting the plastic I guess.

Height, cross section etc can all be played with but would depend on the magnets you can source. Once you have the hang of the software changing diameter of columns for magnet size isn’t a problem.

I’m not sure how you’d manage to wind to an angled mid section in a stacked bobbin though. Slow and careful!