Magnet Blade Bobbin Pickups, Built in plastic Humbucker Covers

[big_teee]

I took the pickup a part today.
I took out the sidewinder blade and altered one of the bobbins flipping one of the magnets.
Reassembled the pickup in humbucker mode.
Installed it in the guitar and test drove it.
It sounds great in humbucker fashion, still great tone, and has no static noise.
The humbuckers are very quiet minus any metal in the pickup.
I think this is the way to go forward, for a more modern full sized humbucker pickup.
Similar to the Firebird mini bucker but with full sized bobbins, with more wire capacity.
So to recap, I have two 53mm bobbins modified with ceramic bar magnets for blades.
Wired 4 wire as a neck pickup in the 7.5k range.
Very warm for a ceramic pickup.
There are some A5 magnets available in that size, that would be great for guitar.
However if you go to the A5 magnets, the Static noise issue may come back.
IMO This is a more modern pickup that is quieter, with no string spacing issues or dead spots.
At this stage I give the prototype a B.
With proper tuning, and experimenting with different wire gauges, size of wire, and TPL I think if would score an A.
If I experiment further with the Sidewinder, I think I would redesign and tap a center bar with screws going thru the cover.
Also I would probably go to NEO Magnets instead of ceramic bars.
Give the Humbucker a try, really a pretty easy pickup to make.
And is 99% Quiet, and IMO much quieter than the average metal baseplate humbucker.
The pickup should only get quieter when Wax Potted!
T

[big_teee]

Got any new pickup ideas, or projects you have been wanting to build, and try?
Document them, or discuss them here.
We would love to see and hear about them!
I do, and I go back and read them on occasion to remember what I did.
T

[big_teee]

I have the humbucker model figured out, and it works like stated in previous posts.
It will work fine for guitar or bass.
So I went back to the Sidewinder configuration, to see If I could make a workable sidewinder model.
The first time I tried the Sidewinder, I had modified 53mm bobbins, with 2.180"x.492x.125 ceramic bar magnets in the bobbins.
I have a 1/8" x .7" x 2-5/8" blade between them.
The pickup sounded great but was weak.
It was configured like this. --/N/B/N/-- (B= Steel blade)
So to get more pickup area and more volume, I added 2 of the small ceramicBar magnets to the ends of the larger ceramic magnets in the bobbins.
They are stuck to the end of the blade bar mags, at a 90 degree angle, putting the south ends against the cover like the center blade.
It works like a champ, and is very quiet and hum canceling, and at least doubled the strength and volume.
So with the 2 larger magnets and 2 smaller magents, the pickup area is like this, S/N/B/N/S.
Electrically it should look like this. S/N/S. Which gives 3 magnet blades to pickup signal, instead of just the one in the middle.
I will try to get some pictures the next time I have it a part.
I think this may also solve the pick attack issue discussed on another thread.
If you have any comments or discussion about Sidewinders feel free to discuss them here.
This configuration is also very quiet with no annoying static ticking noise.
T

[big_teee]

I abandoned the plastic cover guitar sized humbucking sidewinder Pickup last winter.
Since that time I built and IMO, perfected a bass sidewinder, so I'm fixing to get back on the guitar sidewinder.
I learned some new things to try, when I made the bass pickups.
I want to try modifying a bass bobbin, by cutting and shortening it.
If you have any good ideas on how to cut and glue these bobbins together, post here.
This is the bobbin I'm wanting to use.
4 String Bass Blade Pickup Bobbin
I want to cut them down to humbucker bobbin length.
The bobbins are currently 3 inches long, and I need to cut them down to 2-5/8 inches in length.
I remember that David S. used to talk about modifying bobbins, making them shorter, and longer.
I'm going to give it a try.
T