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Heya amigos! It's pretty freakin' late here, but I'm still happy because I just finished winding my first set of pickups!!! Yeah... they're not complete yet, but the hard part is done and I'm on the home stretch.
So... here's what I did since my last thread (about rewinding cheap pickups):
I went on the idea of making some of those S-90's out of mexi strat pickups, as outlined on Steven Kersting's page. I already had most of the parts and a stash of used pickups to rip apart. I found a bag of a hundred 1" nylon spacers on Amazon for $5... much cheaper per spacer than the bags of two at the hardware store. I even have my wax pot ready to go. The thing holding me back was the winder.
For a few months I've had this old sewing machine sitting here waiting for me to rig up. I toyed around with it but never got it to a point where I was ready to strap a bobbin on and give it a spin. Lucky for me I never had to. I was at a pawn shop this last week and I found a Ryobi mini lathe in what looks like brand new condition for $50. Score! It was pretty well ready to go right away. It has an adustable speed control, which starts at 500 rpm. I was concerned that without it starting at zero that I might have a problem with my wire being jerked and broken when the motor starts up, but there was no problem at all. For now, I'm just timing myself and keeping track of approximate numbers based on my speed control. I've cranked it up to 1100 rpm so far. That's speedy enough for me right now.
So, last night I got the neck bobbin wound and tonight I got the middle and bridge bobbins done. I got lucky with only one break while winding the neck bobbin. I also nailed it at 6k without having the fudge around at all. The middle gave me a little grief... first when my cat decided that she wanted to play with the wire coming off of the spool... second when I wound off of my bobbin and had to do some tricky unravelling. I had a break on my bridge bobbin, but even after fixing that it took about a quarter of the time it took to make the first bobbin. Middle is 6.25k and bridge is 6.55k. Maybe after I get the rest of the parts assembled I'll get a picture to post.
Thanks for all the info and advice offered here. It helped a whole ton! You guys are pretty awesome... however, having done this now, I also think that you all must be pretty well out of your minds to do this all the time! I'm not sure if I have a greater respect for the professional pickup maker, or if I think they're crazy. It's probably both.
So... here's what I did since my last thread (about rewinding cheap pickups):
I went on the idea of making some of those S-90's out of mexi strat pickups, as outlined on Steven Kersting's page. I already had most of the parts and a stash of used pickups to rip apart. I found a bag of a hundred 1" nylon spacers on Amazon for $5... much cheaper per spacer than the bags of two at the hardware store. I even have my wax pot ready to go. The thing holding me back was the winder.
For a few months I've had this old sewing machine sitting here waiting for me to rig up. I toyed around with it but never got it to a point where I was ready to strap a bobbin on and give it a spin. Lucky for me I never had to. I was at a pawn shop this last week and I found a Ryobi mini lathe in what looks like brand new condition for $50. Score! It was pretty well ready to go right away. It has an adustable speed control, which starts at 500 rpm. I was concerned that without it starting at zero that I might have a problem with my wire being jerked and broken when the motor starts up, but there was no problem at all. For now, I'm just timing myself and keeping track of approximate numbers based on my speed control. I've cranked it up to 1100 rpm so far. That's speedy enough for me right now.
So, last night I got the neck bobbin wound and tonight I got the middle and bridge bobbins done. I got lucky with only one break while winding the neck bobbin. I also nailed it at 6k without having the fudge around at all. The middle gave me a little grief... first when my cat decided that she wanted to play with the wire coming off of the spool... second when I wound off of my bobbin and had to do some tricky unravelling. I had a break on my bridge bobbin, but even after fixing that it took about a quarter of the time it took to make the first bobbin. Middle is 6.25k and bridge is 6.55k. Maybe after I get the rest of the parts assembled I'll get a picture to post.
Thanks for all the info and advice offered here. It helped a whole ton! You guys are pretty awesome... however, having done this now, I also think that you all must be pretty well out of your minds to do this all the time! I'm not sure if I have a greater respect for the professional pickup maker, or if I think they're crazy. It's probably both.
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