My first pickup worked, just not enough power

[mikej]

With Dave Swabb`s advice I built my first pickup and it actually worked. It was to be a very compact model and was concerned that it may not have enough wire to produce an acceptable output, and that turned out to be the case. I have another idea to get more wire on it but I`m not sure it will work. Every pickup I`m aware of the windings run perpendicular to the strings when it`s installed in the guitar but what if I took a thin bar magnet the width of the neck and in it`s installed position would be perpendicular to the strings and wound the wire around it so the wire would end up parralel to the strings. Does anyone know if that would function? I built the first pickup with 42 gauge wire but don`t think even with thinner wire I can get enough on it to increase the output enough. Mikej

[belwar]

I cant comment on the design aspect that you are talking about but I can say that in general you can increase the output by moving to higher gauge wire and increasing the strength of the magnetic field. Can you post a picture of your pickup? I'm working on an old 50's pickup called a rhythm chief and it is very high turns count of 44 awg for an ohm rating of 15k , but the magnet strength is low so the output is just right.

[mikej]

belwar, I`m regret that I don`t have the means to post a picture of the design. I`m trying to build a pickup that`s only 9/16 thick x 2 3/16 wide. I wanted to attach it to an extension of the neck, this way the rout required for the pickup would be minimal and the pickup would not be adjustable for distance from the strings. I would like to shape the guitar body to allow more access to the last 6 frets of the neck but the traditional neck pickup rout would weaken the neck joint to much to allow this. I`ve been looking on the net for info on magnetism but haven`t found anything yet to answer my question. I thought maybe somebody on this forum might have taken a bar magnet and wrapped the wire perpendicular to the magnet to build a pickup. The magnet I`m using is neodymium 1/16 thick x 1/4 wide x 2" long and is pretty strong. I would have to double the output of the one I built to make it comparable to other pickups I`ve used, might not be possible.