Source for mounting plates?

[big_teee]

Sounds like You want it to be hard, and only the elite few can say they make pickups.
The guitar player probably could care less, if you made the bobbin, or if the bobbin was made in a batch from china! lol
Same thing with Linux computer guys of old.
They want it to be hard to run linux, with command line skills required.
Don't want Joe Blow to say he can run linux out of the box without skills!
I'm all for making it easy.
There is room for all of it, without shame!
That's my two cents.
Have fun everyone making pickups, however you do it!
T

[Alberto]

Sorry about the double post. For some reason my computer should have saved as a draft what is now post #43, instead of posting it. Oops. Moderator, please remove the post #43 if possible.



Yes, you made that guitar. The difference is you probably don't have the technology necessary to make all those parts by yourself, especially the neck... so you bought them. Then you gave it to your grandson. That's really cool. You didn't try to spin it as Jimi Hendrix's Second Coming and sell it on Ebay.

Maybe I'm being a crotchety ole fart, but what I was trying to say was that it is now all too easy nowadays to buy a bunch of parts, hire a marketing major from the local community college to write ads, and BOOM! you're a pickup maker. I wish eloquent David was here, he could probably explain better than I can.

I made my own guitars too, bodies and pickups anyways. Here are two of my older guitars. Now I can make everything but the neck, and I'm working on that now. Yes, I made the P90's on the one on the right, but couldn't make good baseplates with the tools I had at the time to justify mass production. I just bought the neccesary machines a month ago to make good P90 and humbucker baseplates myself. If I could find a good way to make my own Tele lead pickup baseplates or Strat pickup covers without all the issues, I'd be all over that too. 3D printing is still today too grainy for pickup covers or humbucker bobbins IMO. Too bad.

BTW... anybody know where I can find say a 50 ton hydraulic punch press that runs on 240V single phase AC power and still fits under a 9 foot shop ceiling?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]45901[/ATTACH]


Ken

Next step could be building the 50 ton hydraulic punch press yourself

[J M Fahey]

Next step could be building the 50 ton hydraulic punch press yourself

No need for *that*, yet you are not less of a "maker" by renting such an expensive and seldom used machine, if you make your own custom parts on it.

I make speakers (among many other things) and I *do* rent the 50 ton hydraulic presses, once a month or every other month to stamp a batch of, say, 100 speaker frames or 200 magnet plate disks (out of 5/8" steel, mind you), in various sizes, from 4" sealed midrange units to 15" ones.

Also smaller 10/12 ton mechanical presses to stamp my own metal corner protectors , strip handle endcaps and strips, rubber feet metal caps, etc.

Also have own parts made on "revolver" or CNC lathes, again renting them (or to be more precise, renting shop time).

The point being you make custom stuff for your oun use, either because it´s commercially unavailable, too expensive, or you just want your own vwrsion.

Whether you own, rent or lease expensive machinery is not the main point.

FWIW I sold my large WW2 vintage lathe, which allowed me to finish aluminum sandcast 18" speaker frames because I needed to free that room, and really was selling very very few 18" ones, but now I´m thinking about buying one of those bench hobby type lathe+mill+drill thingies (think UNIMAT) to custom make in a jiffy lots of small useful thingies.

[rjb]

Sounds like You want it to be hard, and only the elite few can say they make pickups.
The guitar player probably could care less, if you made the bobbin, or if the bobbin was made in a batch from china! lol

I don't know whether this should make you feel better or worse... but FWIW, DiMarzio used to (maybe still does- I don't know or care) buy off-the-shelf bobbins. Wolfe has posted receipts here and in other forums.

-rb

[J M Fahey]

FWIW original/earliest Di Marzio bobbins (and baseplates ane everything else except wire and magnets) were made here in Argentina by a diemaker friend of mine, Juan Sousa.
Alex from New York (who was actually Italo Argentine from Buenos Aires) ordered and paid for them to make the earliest "legal" non Gibson made Humbuckers, just when patent protection ended, called Alex T Specials.
They can be visually identified because they have a small "T" engraved on the bobbin.
They were wound by his shop Tech, Larry Di Marzio.

Then Larry found an investor and started sailing on his own, I guess the first ones were still made on Argentine made hardware (doubt any other was available) and later he got his own custom dies.

Alex eventually left the pickup making business.

[LtKojak]

FWIW original/earliest Di Marzio bobbins (and baseplates ane everything else except wire and magnets) were made here in Argentina by a diemaker friend of mine, Juan Sousa.
Alex from New York (who was actually Italo Argentine from Buenos Aires) ordered and paid for them to make the earliest "legal" non Gibson made Humbuckers, just when patent protection ended, called Alex T Specials.
They can be visually identified because they have a small "T" engraved on the bobbin.
They were wound by his shop Tech, Larry Di Marzio.

Then Larry found an investor and started sailing on his own, I guess the first ones were still made on Argentine made hardware (doubt any other was available) and later he got his own custom dies.

Alex eventually left the pickup making business.

Juan Manuel, who's making p'ups in Argentina?

How's the market?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

[ken]

Sounds like You want it to be hard, and only the elite few can say they make pickups. The guitar player probably could care less, if you made the bobbin, or if the bobbin was made in a batch from china! lol Same thing with Linux computer guys of old. They want it to be hard to run linux, with command line skills required.

That's not what I meant, but I can see how it could be misconstrued that way.

I also dabble in making effects pedals and an occasional amp from time to time. The effects pedal industry is a lot like the pickup one, as nowadays you can order a circuit board for a 'compressor' or a 'chorus' or whatever from a supplier, a box from another, and pots from a third. The problem is that almost everybody seems to be making their creations from the exact same premade PC boards, cases, etc. as everybody else, and the only thing that really differentiates one pedal of a type from another seems to be the artwork. Don't believe me? Prowl around some of their forums for awhile.

We have the same problem... if everybody who makes humbuckers for example buys their bobbins, baseplates, covers etc. from the same vendor, how do you differentiate your own works from everybody else? Those of us who make their own parts (or try to) can at least take comfort in knowing that we are trying to offer a pickup not exactly the same as everybody else's.

For me, the people who buy a bunch of random parts and a winder off Ebay, sell some pickups, call themselves boutique winders, and drop out of biz in six months are really giving the rest of us a bad name. It's not easy to sell pickups to people who bought pickups from people on the Web in June, had them break in July, only to find out their new pickups are junk because the maker quit making them a week or two ago and won't answer his phone. (True story from one of my customers).

And don't get me started on Linux... My last Linux laptop ran Mint, and every time I tried to do something cool with it I kept having to go into 'command line'. Drove me bats.

ken

[J M Fahey]

Juan Manuel, who's making p'ups in Argentina?

How's the market?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Ciao Peppe
These guys are doing quite well :
D S P I C K U P S

If anything, browse what they have and comment on what you see, I am not into pickups by any means (I only write something here now and then if related to magnets, magnetism, etc. but nothing further, not my area) and would love to know what real Pros think about what my friends are doing here.

AFAIK most components are imported, probably Korean, but wouldn´t be surprised at all if they had own custom made dies; IF a model is successful they "should" at least sell 500 to 2000 units in the first couple years, and that always justifies the investment, so .....