Is there an appreciable difference between using alnico magnets and neodymium magnets for pickups? And is there a preferred size? Also is 42 AWG wire ok for pickups?

Thanks for the input on this and the radiusingquestion guys.

Ken

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Alnico magnets are appreciably weaker than rare earth ones of similar size an therefore need about twice as many winds.. Because they need a bigger coil they have more character IMHO. You can make a decent pup with neos for sure but sometimes they can come across a little sterile..
42awg is indeed what most people seem to use. You'll née some kind of winding counter, I made mine from a $1 eBay pedometer and a $2 radio shack reed switch. I'd suggest aiming for around 2500 winds with small rare earth mags or 4000 winds with Alnico slugs. Take your time and try not to get too frustrated. If you're repeatedly breaking the wire take a break. See that you have turned the spool on its side on the floor and that the wire has a nice clean path to the winder. Usually when it breaks it's at te spool in my experience.
Just go for it, contrary to popular belief it's actually much harder to make a bad sounding pickup than it is to make a decent one.

Basically what the Kid said, but I disagree with needing a counter if you make your bobbin about the standard size of commercial bobbins. In that case, you can just fill up the bobbin and it will be in the right ballpark. Assuming you're doing a Strat style bobbin, 8000 winds is more typical for 42 awg wire.


Instead of less winds for the neo's you can also try the same amount of winds, but smaller neo's. You can try using steel polepieces, i.e., steel machine screws, and sticking the neo's to the bottom.

I haven't had good luck with a homemade counter. The calculator I tried didn't count faster than 200 rpm, and my winder winds at about 800 rpm, so I ended up with a commercial counter.


What are you using for a winder?

I haven't decided yet but I am thinking about maybe salvaging the motor and pulleys out of a VHS player or something or maybe getting a cheap sewing machine from GoodWill and maybe just sstealing the motor and foot pedal off that and building a custom job.

Thanks for the help you guys!! I am really excited!!

hell   yeah ..  go  all out  ;-) http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/steampunk-build-3

 

 

That's good advice too about smaller neos. You can get em quite cheap on eBay, small discs only a couple mm thick. I've used nails on this one, snap one of those little discs on the bottom of each one. If you use screws for the pole pices the tape around em might be a good idea or the threads can cut thru the insulation and short the coil. The little pins you see there are for terminating the coils and soldering to. Just give em a quick kiss with the dremel to knock the tops off em and it makes em real easy to solder to. You definitely want to do something like this or soldering to the ends of the coil can be quite frustrating.

Some times I make pickup bobbins just out of cardboard, then you can punch a couple staples in after you wind it to solder to, wrap the whole thing in tape and cover it in veneer or something ;)

Wow!!! How cool is that!! Thanks a lot man. The 1" Neo sticks are a bit expensive to use so this would be a great money saver!!! Thanks for the pic and the tips!!  BTW why do you have 5 pins????

Ken

Thats a good question, you only really need two.

the first coil was tapped after about 3k of the 4k winds for a rhythm sound, so theres the third.

the other two are for a seperate coil i wound around the outside which drives a preamp for a sustainer unit, it doesnt get wired to the output jack but is amplified and fed into a piezo which is glued on the resonator cone for a controlled feedback / sustainer generator, this is a hidden extra pickup just sharing the other ones magnets and chassis..

Oh OK! Sounds way too complex for my tiny brain!!! Thanks for the explanation.

Ken

Yes you will want to cover the screws somehow if that's what you use. You can also make a bobbin core from plastic or wood, with holes drilled in it to accept the screws.

Listen to Skeesix, she knows what she's talking about. Her pups are totally smokin. One of these days i'm gonna get one of her scorch and twangs to put in a guit for my very own.

Ant if you wanna get real technical about pickup winding an winders you can check out this place, these guys will blow your mind with what they know about pickups.

http://music-electronics-forum.com/f11/

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