Need P90 Bobbin To Fit Vintage Parts

[jrdamien]

Come again..?

It's not an insinuation, it's a statement. It says "but", then the price. It means, $30 bucks is the amount you're not willing to pay for a bobbin, probably because you saw some korean-made similar bobbins offered at $2,50 a piece, even though you already established that they don't fit in a real vintage p'up.

Are you sure you want me to continue with the analysis?

No, this will quickly devolve into a weird, passive aggressive, semantic argument. But I think it's unnecessary to deduce from the word "but" an "unpleasant hint or suggestion of something bad," unless you're looking for a fight.

[big_teee]

No, this will quickly devolve into a weird, passive aggressive, semantic argument. But I think it's unnecessary to deduce from the word "but" an "unpleasant hint or suggestion of something bad," unless you're looking for a fight.

Questioning the Cost didn't seem Unreasonable.
Like I said, I wouldn't pay the $30 either!
Peace & Tone Guys!

[LtKojak]

Questioning the Cost didn't seem Unreasonable.
Like I said, I wouldn't pay the $30 either!
Peace & Tone Guys!

T, repairing a p'up that's a piece of history, with a market value running closest to a thousand bucks, to the best possible original vintage state, helping keeping most of its value, investing thirty bucks in such accurate and hi-q part, is peanuts.

Or, you can BUY an asian-made P90 for even less than thirty bucks, install it and call it a day.

[big_teee]

T, repairing a p'up that's a piece of history, with a market value running closest to a thousand bucks, to the best possible original vintage state, helping keeping most of its value, investing thirty bucks in such accurate and hi-q part, is peanuts.

Or, you can BUY an asian-made P90 for even less than thirty bucks, install it and call it a day.

Different Strokes for differnt folks.
It's not going to be original how ever you fix it.
The bobbin will be a counterfeit, nock-off, fake, repaired, whatever you want to call it, either way!
If you make a part and repair it, then the world knows it has been repaired, and not trying to deceive someone into thinking it's original.
And, if you're going the $30 bobbin route, just send the pickup to Jon, and let him repair and wind it.
Bottom line, I'm not paying, or charging, another MEF member $30 for a bobbin!

[mr fab]

if originality is not imperative, I would take a modern plastic bobbin, fill the holes with suitable filler material (epoxy?).. and redrill to the correct spacing. should take 20 minutes depending on how long the filler takes to set. hope this helps

fab

[Stratz]

if originality is not imperative, I would take a modern plastic bobbin, fill the holes with suitable filler material (epoxy?).. and redrill to the correct spacing. should take 20 minutes depending on how long the filler takes to set. hope this helps

fab

Hardwood dowels would work fine.

[ReWind]

Take a 50mm bobbin and fill the 4 outside pole screw holes with black epoxy from a syringe.
Wipe the top clean/flat while the epoxy is still uncured.
Once cured, use a PAF keeper bar as a jig and re-drill the outside 4 holes in the bobbin at PAF spacing.

It takes less than 5 minutes of actual work time to do 1.
You could do 100 in under an hour if you want a batch.
Cost AND labor effective.

[the great waldo]

Take a 50mm bobbin and fill the 4 outside pole screw holes with black epoxy from a syringe.
Wipe the top clean/flat while the epoxy is still uncured.
Once cured, use a PAF keeper bar as a jig and re-drill the outside 4 holes in the bobbin at PAF spacing.

It takes less than 5 minutes of actual work time to do 1.
You could do 100 in under an hour if you want a batch.
Cost AND labor effective.

Hello Rewind

I'm not sure if the epoxy would survive the drilling process. It might be better to make a small wooden or whatever jig with rods the correct spacing smeared with wax as release agent and use that as a former while applying the epoxy. Personally I would buy a vintage correct cover from Throbak. $30 is half an hours work and would take longer than that to adapt a cover and end up with not really a first rate job. The old saying if a jobs worth doing it's worth doing right still stands by me.

Cheers

Andrew

[JGundry]

I just ran across this thread. I really only put the P90 bobbins on the ThroBak site for people that want an accurate bobbin for a vintage repair. I sell just a few every year for this purpose. I don't sell them as general parts for pickup makers and I price them as such. I might even raise the price a little this year. If you want the correct vintage dimensions and the correct materials they are perfect for that. That is what I wanted and the only way to get it was to make the tooling and that is not cheap unfortunately.

[salvarsan]

P90 bobbin core dimensions

I just ran across this thread. I really only put the P90 bobbins on the ThroBak site for people that want an accurate bobbin for a vintage repair.

Jon,
could you post the bobbin core dimensions so I can put them in the Coil Estimator?

The P90 bobbin core spacer has been variously spec'd and I have no idea which are the vintage figures.

Length	Width	Height
2.185	0.25	0.25
2.225	0.25	0.25
2.25	0.26	0.25
2.50	0.25	0.25

More sensibly, they could ALL appear in the bobbin menu.

-drh

[JGundry]

The bobbin core dimension for my P90 bobbin was taken from a vintage '56 bobbin. Gibson had two molds for the P90 bobbin in the 50's. The way to tell them apart is the flange. As an example the P90's in my '52 Les Paul are more tapered and rounded on the inside edge of the flange and the P90's in my '56 Les Paul have a more square taper on the inside edge of the flange. On thing to keep in mind with any P90 bobbin is the flange thickness comes into play. You want to make sure that the flange thickness is correct to get the full affect that the magnets have on the inductance.

ThroBak P90 bobbin core dimensions.:

Length: 2.185
Width: 0.25
Height: 0.25

[salvarsan]

One thing to keep in mind with any P90 bobbin is the flange thickness comes into play. You want to make sure that the flange thickness is correct to get the full affect that the magnets have on the inductance.

Good point. I thought about that when I noticed one vendor selling P90 kits with 1/16" fibreboard flats. The molded bobbins have thinner flats.

ThroBak P90 bobbin core dimensions.:

Length: 2.185
Width: 0.25
Height: 0.25

Thanks, Jon. I'll label it "P90 1956 Vintage" on the coil estimator app.

-drh

[copperheadroads]

Vintage correct parts is fine if that's what you want as old 50's P-90 bobbins are showing signs of age with hairline cracks ,I've repaired old bobbins with superglue & it's not fun & not a guarantee that the bobbin will hold together during winding .so I you want to totally restore & Vintage pickup well Jon's Bobbins will be an excellent choice . but there should be a cheaper option as well similar to modern 50mm bobbins .but with the 49.2mm spacing .

[Lollar Jason]

Original vintage P-90s were built up out of black white black laminated plastic, later vintage were ingection moulded. The early ones dont get bobbin rot- later ones do.

[JGundry]

Good suggestion. I have an old rod magnet P-90 made from black white black plastic. The molded bobbins are certainly in use by '52. Gibson used general purpose Styrene and high impact Styrene for vintage molded bobbins. General purpose Styrene cracks and snaps very easily. I molded some test bobbins with general purpose Styrene and you could hear the flanges crack as the pickup was assemble. I'm sure some of the Vintage P-90's with cracks by the magnets were cracked before they even left Kalamazoo. If you are going to have them molded high impact is the way to go.