Truth is...I've been focusing on CBG acoustics. Electronics haven't interested me much. But now I have this Flathead box that just yells out "plug me in!"

So here I go...

I prefer the broad smooth humbucker sound over standard pickups. I pulled apart a cheap 9 volt wallwart and a couple headphones and used the larger wire for a test wind (the thinner wire was too tangled and fragile to use). I got sound, which was nice. I also picked up talk radio, but that happens.

Questions:

  • When winding your own humbucker do you use wallwart wire or is it wiser to buy it?
  • Wow, is that wire really supposed to be that thin?
  • Should I ground the strings?
  • If I have to ground anything outside the pup, what do I ground it to?

Cheers!
  Robert

Views: 1803

Replies to This Discussion

Yes, ground the strings. I've used a metal saddle on the tail piece or metal saddle on the bridge or a metal hard tale. A ground wire from one of these soldered to the back of the volume pot.

The standard wire for pickups is 42 AWG, which as the others are saying, is about as thin as a human hair. 

If you want to keep your sanity, you'll need to come up with a pickup winder to assist in winding it. There are various cheap/low tech ways to make a pickup winder. A drill is probably the best. 

On the other hand, here is a guy who used thicker wall wart wire and hand wound it - http://onestringmusic.blogspot.com/2013/03/winding-1-string-humbuck...

Thanks for the valuable input everyone! Great suggestions top to bottom.

  Dave (et al) - Is on-board volume considered a standard part of the pup assembly?

  Wayfinder - I appreciate the 'wallwart or buy' advice. I might wallwart this one, though that growly sound is not where I'm drawn.

  Skeezix- Thanks for the warning. If I were looking at 8000 winds I'd be auto-winding for sure. The article you linked (which I had meant to link in my post) references 400 per side. That sounds like a couple nights worth of walking dead. See...I'm a glutton for all types of punishment.

The image below is the style of pup that I'd like to become good at making. (It's from http://www.original-flatpup.com/)

Thanks again for all your help!

I think the input you're getting is great. I like a volume control on the instrument. I like tone too as i like a deep bass tone from my pickups. The volume control lets you adjust to the band while playing and you can pump up for the solo. 

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