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Comment by colin mcgrath on December 1, 2010 at 4:05am

thanks skeesix, i might give it a try.

Comment by Skeesix on December 1, 2010 at 1:20am

Whoops, I missed a bunch of this discussion before I replied.

If you want to make the pickup hot, you'll need smaller diameter wire than what Radio Shack carries. 42 gauge is a good place to start. There is a guy named Tech Fixx on eBay who sells small spools of wire which would be enough for one or two pickups. Great for experimenting and much cheaper than getting it from StewMac.

I've used a record player and a drill press as makeshift winders. A sewing machine and a drill would also work.

Comment by Skeesix on December 1, 2010 at 1:05am

Enamel coated copper wire sounds right. Radio Shack sells a magnet wire kit with three different size spools of wire. The thinnest one is the best.

Comment by eric gittins on November 30, 2010 at 10:32am

Give winding a shot, it can be tricky, but not really the hardest thing in the world. 1000 to 1500 ft will be heaps for a 2 string - with a bobbin that short you're only looking at maybe 2inches a turn on average.
If you don't want to build a bobbin, there are plastic sewing machine bobbins you can wind onto, which are obviously round - so one bobbin per string. Hook them up in series, and glue you magnets into the hole in the middle of the bobbins - fit them into your cover...pickup!
Your turntable would be fine, lots of people have done it, but if you use sewing machine bobbins, you can also wind on a sewing machine, which is faster.

Comment by colin mcgrath on November 30, 2010 at 6:06am

I had thought of that carverman, but I would like to try at least to wind my own. I do have a turntable that will spin at 78rpm. I was going to rig something up for the winding. And the pup will be on a diddly bow style; if it gets to much I might just get a pup from Ted C..

Comment by carverman on November 30, 2010 at 5:41am

Hmm..2000 feet probably won't be enough unless you are winding a
low impedance pickup (300 to 600 ohms). Les Paul did that in the
late 40s using the copper wire salvaged from an electric clock motor,
but even that guage (30?) isn't going be enough. Stew_mac does sell
#42 pickup coil wire, (25K feet) enough for 5-6 SC and 2-3 HB.
(#1462= 42awg and they also have 43 guage..for about $30.

However, it's not an easy thing to wind that many turns by hand
and if you break the wire (about as fine as a human hair), you would
have to start over...each turn around the bobbin is about 6 inches..
so you can imagine how much manual work 7,000 to 10,000 turns.

CB Gitty are now selling an inexpensive 6 striung SC pickup..why not adapt it to your needs, even if it's a 2 stringer? Perhaps mount a
couple of the pole pieces directly under the 2 strings..for $5,
a lot less work.

Comment by colin mcgrath on November 30, 2010 at 4:08am

I am working on 2 stringer, thinking on 1-1.5k feet of wire. It will be under a cover so I need to make sure the winding has enough room to fit. But I still want it to be a hot pup. My first attempt so ???

Comment by eric gittins on November 29, 2010 at 2:02pm

Colin, magnetic pickup output is determined by a bunch of factors, but with regard to wire - more turns = more output. With smaller diam. wire you can fit more turns on the pup, so hotter pickup.
Different wire guage can will change the impedence of the pup, and so the tonal qualities, but not as much as coil dimension changes in my experience.
A whole bunch of classic pickups are based around 10,000 turns, but old fenders are lower, and I have had great results with turn counts as low as 7,000 turns with standard alnico magnets.
Stewmac may be your best bet for really small amounts of winding wire (a few pickups worth).
If you're winding for less than 6 strings, your total footage of wire will be less too - maybe 1800 feet for a 3-string @ 10,000 turns?

Comment by colin mcgrath on November 29, 2010 at 4:33am

it's 30 gauge, and i figured it was too little, damn going to return it then.

Comment by carverman on November 29, 2010 at 2:21am

#42awg is (nominal die wire size) is around 1659 ohms per thousand feet.
So if you are winding a humbucker with 2 coils (8kohms) you will need
about 4800 ft of #42awg (each coil will be around 2400 ft).
A SC may have more or less wire..generally more, so they use a smaller dia guage #43.
Some other members of this group, who have wound their own,
may have more information. I'm just stating some general info.

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