Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tres Seaver on August 18, 2009 at 7:38am

Ted Crocker said:

EDIT: As an aside, last week I cut the tip of my left thumb off with a bandsaw. It occurred to me that if it was my right thumb I would be unable to wind pickups with the specific tone I've developed. I rely on my thumb, finger and hand to reproduce what I do and it would be a giant step backwards if I had to train my left hand to do the same.

OMG, hope all is well! and that you can still play after that!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kevin Sprague (Knotlenny) on August 18, 2009 at 9:26am

JAYZUS, Ted!! Talk about suffering for your art !!!




Ted Crocker said:

Knotlenny, you've hit the nail on the head. The most frustrating and stressful part of my day is the actual winding. It requires complete concentration and I've learned by wasting a lot of wire to walk away if I'm not in the right mindset, if I've had too much coffee or if there are any distractions.

I've spent years learning how to get flavor and tone instead of just sound. The more info I have on the tone you are looking for and where it will be mounted, the more I can modify the tension, scatter, height and number of winds to achieve it. I can't count the number of times I've wrapped 8 or 10 or however many thousands of wraps and scrapped it to start again. The satisfaction comes from enabling a talented musician make the beautiful music they hear in their head.


Jerryrig, CONGRATULATIONS! You've been bitten. I can imagine how you felt when you got sound out of the amp. A fridge magnet is nowhere near strong enough to produce any reasonable output, try something more powerful and perhaps a few thousand more wraps of wire.

Good luck!

Ted

EDIT: As an aside, last week I cut the tip of my left thumb off with a bandsaw. It occurred to me that if it was my right thumb I would be unable to wind pickups with the specific tone I've developed. I rely on my thumb, finger and hand to reproduce what I do and it would be a giant step backwards if I had to train my left hand to do the same.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skeesix on August 18, 2009 at 12:43pm

Winding pickups is very frustrating and you have to be in the right frame of mind - I second that. Here is a picture of my copper wire recycling box. I'm sure there's more wire in the box than on actual working pickups - lol!

Ted, sorry to hear about your finger! Hope it gets better soon! Skeesix

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jerryrig240 on August 18, 2009 at 3:09pm

Well, I had a pick up I tried to make a few months back with uncoated wire (What a newbie I am) anyhow, I wrapped some coated wire around it and added some stronger round magnets to the bolts. I get a good clear sound, but nothing too great through my crate amp. So, now on to finding thinner wire that is coated.

I know what everyone is thinking......"Why does'nt he just get some #42 guage pickup wire and use that?" Well, I am one that likes to use what he has at hand, and I don't have any. So there for I would rather deal with a trip to town to radio shack or the local hardware store before I go ordering wire. I figure if I can make this pickup out of junk, I am realy acomplishing something.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Lionel Berthelon on August 19, 2009 at 3:25pm

I started building a p/u winder awhile back, I got a dig counter, var. speed motor, etc....... I havent built a p/u yet. its to scary. I'd rather buy one but I like to know how to do things. I really like the rockabilly sounds and would like to get one in a cbg. Way too xpensive to buy but I found GFS top mounted pickups
http://store.guitarfetish.com/gfsnyodestsu.html
http://store.guitarfetish.com/gfsnyal3sumo.html

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Pinkie Stanley on May 1, 2011 at 12:33pm

I am interested in the same thing as Jerryrig240 (i.e., making pickups out of junk). I remember seeing a video on YouTube where someone had made a single pole diddley bow pickup out of parts from an old hair clipper. Seeing as I have a number of old pairs of hair clippers on hand I'm definitely interested in this approach. While I realize that the basics are about as simple as putting a magnet in the middle of the windings and wiring up the ends of the windings to output, I'd appreciate any details anyone could provide, such as what kind of magnets to use, polarity, etc.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on May 1, 2011 at 1:30pm

Hi Pinkie,

 

You can find a boatload of information in the Wiring group here.

 

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/group/cbgwiringelectronics

 

Basically a pickup is nothing more than a bunch of wire wrapped around a magnet. We have several folks here that are into making home made pickups.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skeesix on May 2, 2011 at 6:47am

As far as polarity, in general, make sure one of the poles, either south or north, is pointing towards the strings. If you have more than one magnet, make sure they're all oriented the same way, either all south or all north, pointing the same way.

There are exceptions, depending on the bobbin design, but that should get you started.

You can check the polarity by using a compass, a magnet with known poles already marked, or by using a Schatten polarity tester from Stewart MacDonald's. Or just place a similar test magnet on top, and make sure they all attract the same end of the magnet. In other words, you don't want two attracting and one repelling the same end of the test magnet.

I use the Schatten thing to keep my brain from exploding - lol.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Pinkie Stanley on May 2, 2011 at 1:08pm

Thank you Dan and Skeesix for your replies. I need to go check out the wiring group and see what I can learn there. I've always had a fascination with making my own pickups (and even the discussion here hasn't yet dissuaded me from wanting to give winding my pups a try). :P

So far what you're saying about polarity makes sense, Skeesix, but I'm sure if and when I start working with multiple polepieces I'll probably wish I had one of those Schatten testers too.

While I'm posting to this previously dormant thread, I have one more, probably ridiculous question. I took one of my old hair clippers apart tonight and took the coil out of it. Then came the task of finding a suitable magnet to fit inside where all the little metal shim thingies used to be. Amazingly, I found that a cow magnet (the kind used to remove wire and other metal bits from cows' digestive tracts) fit snugly inside the coil bobbin. Unfortunately, the magnet is a bit on the long side, so I had to lay it on its side on my DB. From preliminary tests it really doesn't sound too bad, although I'm sure it would probably be better if my coils windings were on a horizontal axis, like a real guitar pickup, as opposed to a vertical one. So my question is, what would happen if I were to cut my magnet into appropriate-sized pieces with a hacksaw? Would the friction from sawing demagnetize (or otherwise ruin) my magnet... or would I get functional little magnets?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bob Harrison on May 2, 2011 at 4:54pm

Also check ebay for wire:)

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page