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Making a pickup

Making another pickup... Below is my setup. The Fiskars hand drill is 3.5 to 1 ratio so 100 turns of the handle = 350 turns of the pickup.

I'm using nails for the metal part of the magnetic pickup and a flat rare earth magnet that will be glued to the bottom (the middle nail will be cut to length after I wind the wire). The nail heads are countersunk... which I learned from my last one needs to be done. I had tried nails last time thinking the flat head would be better than a bolt head, but it is still too tall. I think it will work better this time like this.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Now I need to find a cheap, easy way to count the revolutions of the pickup so I don't have to do it in my head.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on March 28, 2014 at 5:52am

Pretty cool setup there. I use a hand drill myself (4to1), but I guide it by hand and just put the spool of wire on the floor below. I usually just count 50 turns, check for tangles, another 50, then make a tally. Repeat 20 times and you have roughly 8000 turns. Usually takes under 30 minutes to wind one. I figure as I make maybe 4 in a month, I'm not that bothered about setting up a rev counter. I also just buy alnico 5 magnets from eBay, cheap enough. Enjoy!

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Permalink Reply by Bob Harrison on March 28, 2014 at 8:05am

Well I like it. Thank you for the post.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Harrison on March 28, 2014 at 8:09am

Also remember to coat the nails with Verathane to insulate the nails from the wire and then pot it in a wax paraffin mix. Basically this how a Gibson P90 is made. And you can change out or add to the magnets to see if it changes the tone.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Kasten on March 28, 2014 at 8:40am

Thanks!

I wrapped the nails with Teflon tape to insulate the nails. ...just finished up 100 turns... or 350 turns on the pickup. Will work on more turns when I get back from camping.

I don't plan to do the wax thing. I've just been wrapping the finished pickup with Teflon tape again. Sometimes I just leave it bare wire.

Had used three round rare earth magnets on previous PUs. This will be the first one with a bar magnet (thanks to China).

I'm considering wrapping one of the bar magnets and laying it flat on the surface of the guitar... Would have to finish it somehow to prevent damage.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on March 28, 2014 at 6:50pm

See how you get on without potting, but if you find the pickups very noisy, give it a go. It's not hard.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Kasten on March 30, 2014 at 4:45am

The few I've made so far sound good... a little dirty sounding like I like. :)

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Permalink Reply by 3 String Blues on April 1, 2014 at 10:24am

I use 3m tape!

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on March 28, 2014 at 1:10pm

I've found that expecting the spool of wire to turn on an axle can be a big ask, when you come to like it you'll want to buy bigger spools, and the breaks come from there, cos the spool is too heavy to turn freely...

Try turning the spool on its side on the floor beneath where you're winding..

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on March 28, 2014 at 6:49pm

This is what I was getting at. Thanks Kid. They seem to feed very easily from the top, whereas if you're trying to rotate a 250-500g spool of wire by pulling one strand as thin as a human hair, at speed... snap!

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Permalink Reply by Eric Kasten on March 30, 2014 at 4:46am

You can see on the jig where I originally had the spool on its side, but there was too much friction so I put it onto a dowel. I expect a larger spool to have even more friction and thought about some bearings. Letting the wire pull off from the floor is a good idea, but does it cause the wire to twist too much?

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on March 28, 2014 at 6:38pm

If you get a cheap calculator, you just have to find one that does a repeat: i.e. hit +1, = , =, =, = it should increment by 1 each time you hit the "=" key. On your handle, hook up a piece of music wire so every revolution it hits that key...

Cheap and easy...