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CBGitty lipstick Tube Pickups

I bought some of these pickups for a project guitar. These pickups are close to the same output as the original Danelectro pickups. They don't use the same magnets. Dano used Alnico VI and then settled on Alnico V while these pickups use a ceramic magnet. Not that ceramic magnets are bad(these are good pickups), the Alnico magnets give a sparkle-bright tone to these pickups with low wind output.
I got these pickups because they have a Strat type mount, however, they don't fit in the Strat pickguard without some carving modifications. Original Dano pickups had different mounting that mounted to the back of the guitar cavity. Those would work in a CBG very well because it wouldn't add weight to the top.
One issue with these pickups is they are all wound the same direction and have the same magnetic polarity. So if you have more than one in a guitar, you'll have that out of phase sound playing both pickups that some people like and some don't. You also won't have noise free humbucking in the middle position.
Original pickups had a bar magnet with wire wrapped around it and wrapped in paper, then stuffed into the tubes. So I was interested in how these were put together. First I looked at the wire and they have 3 wires. A bare ground wire and 2 coated wires for coil start/hot(red) and a coil end wire/ground(white). That makes switching the wind direction easy, you just switch the Hot/signal(red) wire to ground and the coil end/ground(white) wire to hot/signal. That'll end the out of phase sound, but you'll still have noise/non-humbucking issue. So first I checked the polarity with my compass.
Then I took it apart.

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on June 29, 2021 at 11:29am

Tough break, if it was on the exterior of the coil, then wasn’t it fixable? Those Korean made lipsticks are way better than the present ones, Alnico not ceramic, they’re even nickel-plated like the originals?

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Permalink Reply by ILL GREEN on June 30, 2021 at 12:29am

My method these days is pouring wood glue into pickup coils. I pour in thin layers until its a solid brick. May take two days for a solid dry. My other method is RTV silicone. Its known to pentrate through the smallest cracks as liquid form, then drys into rubber. Comes in two parts, one liquid silicone and an agitator agent. Takes 10 to 16 hours to dry depending on your location, the more heat in your area, the quicker it'll cure. Here in Puerto Rico, it takes 5 hours to dry, so I gotta work fast.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on July 1, 2021 at 8:24am

Hey Brian, I broke the wire on the end in a few places, so total loss. Wax prevented coil assembly from coming completely out of the tube. Heat gun would've helped. These pickups are definitely better, they're closer to original build spec and like the originals, the middle pickup of 3 or neck pickup of a set of 2 are not RWRP.