Why Tape???

[NightWinder]

Why does alot of winders use tape around their magnets? I understand the fear of shorts against the coil wire and the crevis in the forbon?? Does anyone not use Tape on their Magnets. If Glued properly right at the crease to stablize construction, you could then lay the wire directly on top of the Magnets? Just curious as to some theorys and ideas : )

[David Schwab]

If you wind directly on the magnets you run the risk of a short... sooner or later. A layer of tape wont change the tone.

I was winding directly on taped steel blades (not taping them meant an instant short). Now I have a layer of plastic between the wire and blades, since I'm using plastic bobbins. I wondered if they would sound different, but they don't.

There were even times I put extra tape on the blades to act as a spacer to see what I would get. That didn't seem to do anything either.

Not that I could hear anyway.

I even tape some of my plastic bobbins because they have square edges.

[SkinnyWire]

Why does alot of winders use tape around their magnets? I understand the fear of shorts against the coil wire and the crevis in the forbon?? Does anyone not use Tape on their Magnets. If Glued properly right at the crease to stablize construction, you could then lay the wire directly on top of the Magnets? Just curious as to some theorys and ideas : )

In his book, I believe Jason talks about creating a fillet with glue on the inside of the flatwork where the magnets/poles pass through. That should provide a graceful transition that shouldn't cause problems with short circuits. Dipping the hole thing is lacquer or something similar - provided it will adhere to the magnets - should provide the rest of the protection.

Of course, tape is a lot easier than that.

[Possum]

...

Tape is the quickest to use. Guitar Jones has the best tape there is if he still has it. The fillet is probably important, I believe thats where the shorts happen. You can probably get away with a thick dip of lacquer but problem there is it has to dry for about a week til its nice and hard; who has a week to wait though? Sometimes it might actually be beneficial to have a short to the magnets, say in a heavy formvar strat bridge pickup for instance, they are pretty shrill no matter what you do, a short tones it down a bit...

[Spence]

For vintage correct Fender stuff, I dip the bobbin in cellulose. It's dry within 1/2 hour and bone hard if you let it cure under a halogen lamp. Putting them in an oven on a low bake will cause a white bloom on the lacquer surface.

For stuff that doesn't need to be vintage correct I put the bobbin on a kebab skewer and spin it between my fingers whilst spraying an aerosol acrylic lacquer on. That dries very quickly under the lamp too.

[joelc1319]

I used the spray-lacquer idea on my bass single coils, which has worked so far for me...

[David King]

I got roll of the 1/2 amber Kapton tape and it's about 1 mil thick and indestructible. The amber color is easy to see. No shorts. You have to cut it off the roll, you can't tear it.

[NightWinder]

??

I'd think a Cleaver construction that is bulletproof with some Epoxy brushed on the crevesis of the magnet and forbon would be rock solid and hold under extreame tensioning for tone manipulating- You could then lay the wire right on the Magnetswithout worry of the wire sliping under the forbon..

[David King]

I de-burr the magnet holes in the forbon with a countersink. I just wick thin CA in all those depressions around the magnets until it runs down to the next magnet and wipe off the extra. 10 seconds later it's dry and ready to tape up and wind. My magnets HAVE to be grounded to deal with noise so a coil short to the magnets is simply not an option (dead pickup) the tape is 100% guaranteed to work every time so it's a no brainer. CA is probably better than epoxy anyway. Epoxy is messy and takes about a week to fully cure, then if your magnets are slick the epoxy will pull into droplets instead of coating them evenly. Obviously I'm not interested in recreating something so I can do things the way I think will improve signal to noise, not to try to please a nosy customer.

[salvarsan]

I got roll of the 1/2 amber Kapton tape and it's about 1 mil thick and indestructible.

I missed this on first read.

Yer a man after my own heart.
Got my tape from CS Hyde a few years ago.

Kapton tapes are the thinnest available, as far as I can tell.

-drh

[David King]

As I recall, you were the one to suggest it, I just followed your advice. I got 2 rolls for $8 off the bay.