Pickup winding

FrendanBraser

FrendanBraser

Member
Hey guys longtime lurker first time poster. Pedal building is a fairly new hobby for me but even more recently I got myself into winding my own pickups. Just wondering if anyone else here has dabbled in making their own.
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Here's a pic of my first go at a tele pickup and it absolutely smokes the one that came stock in my guitar.
 
After installing some Fralins in my P bass last year I became interested and did a little research in to it (that is what reignited my interest in electronics and soldering), but with limited time I decided to go for pedal building since I already owned all of the tools needed for that. I'd be interested to learn about your setup and process.
 
I made pickups for my basses for a while - had the whole shootin' match; CNC'd plates for (most) of my bobbin sizes, potting vats - and I STILL have 2 pounds of bee's wax I'm not sure I'll ever use. It's fun. But I needed to get my basses built.

Righteous journey - and you'll never be done learning. Go man, GO!
 
FrendanBraser said:
Hey guys longtime lurker first time poster. Pedal building is a fairly new hobby for me but even more recently I got myself into winding my own pickups. Just wondering if anyone else here has dabbled in making their own.
View attachment 9177

Here's a pic of my first go at a tele pickup and it absolutely smokes the one that came stock in my guitar.
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Not yet but I plan on it. Where do you get your pickup parts?
 
BurntFingers said:
No but I'd love to get involved. What winder do you use?
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IMG_20201223_225648~2.jpg

This is my winder, it's from a seller on eBay that goes by Thomas guitar. It's pretty simple to DIY your own winder I just couldn't be arsed.

peccary said:
After installing some Fralins in my P bass last year I became interested and did a little research in to it (that is what reignited my interest in electronics and soldering), but with limited time I decided to go for pedal building since I already owned all of the tools needed for that. I'd be interested to learn about your setup and process.
Click to expand...

Aye, pretty much the same happened with me started thinking about pickups but ended up starting with pedals. I'm only 4 pickups down so it's been a lot experimenting and trying to develop a process, but I'd be happy to keep updating when I kinda know what I'm doing haha.

knucklehead said:
I made pickups for my basses for a while - had the whole shootin' match; CNC'd plates for (most) of my bobbin sizes, potting vats - and I STILL have 2 pounds of bee's wax I'm not sure I'll ever use. It's fun. But I needed to get my basses built.

Righteous journey - and you'll never be done learning. Go man, GO!
Click to expand...

Aye after a few pickups seems like one of those hobbies that's kind of a black art, but I'm down for the journey haha. Side note I've been potting my pickups with just paraffin wax but I know people who do a mix with beeswax. Should I maybe get some or should I just keep it 100% paraffin?

TheSin said:
Not yet but I plan on it. Where do you get your pickup parts?
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I'm UK based and have got flatwork/bobbins/magnets etc. From alegree.co.uk and axesrus.co.uk. also been using poly wire from brocott.co.uk. if you're in the EU there's a site called nebula based out of Belgium I've been looking at but not actually purchased from yet. If your US based then I think stewmac do parts.
 
FrendanBraser said:
View attachment 9228

This is my winder, it's from a seller on eBay that goes by Thomas guitar. It's pretty simple to DIY your own winder I just couldn't be arsed.



Aye, pretty much the same happened with me started thinking about pickups but ended up starting with pedals. I'm only 4 pickups down so it's been a lot experimenting and trying to develop a process, but I'd be happy to keep updating when I kinda know what I'm doing haha.



Aye after a few pickups seems like one of those hobbies that's kind of a black art, but I'm down for the journey haha. Side note I've been potting my pickups with just paraffin wax but I know people who do a mix with beeswax. Should I maybe get some or should I just keep it 100% paraffin?



I'm UK based and have got flatwork/bobbins/magnets etc. From alegree.co.uk and axesrus.co.uk. also been using poly wire from brocott.co.uk. if you're in the EU there's a site called nebula based out of Belgium I've been looking at but not actually purchased from yet. If your US based then I think stewmac do parts.
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Dude, I bought some switches from Tayda not looking my back specifically because they had that same exact on/off switch plate.

I may have to give this a go one of these days. Looks like a good way to spend a few afternoons.

Also, your user name cracks me up. I dig it.
 
FrendanBraser said:
Aye after a few pickups seems like one of those hobbies that's kind of a black art, but I'm down for the journey haha. Side note I've been potting my pickups with just paraffin wax but I know people who do a mix with beeswax. Should I maybe get some or should I just keep it 100% paraffin?
Click to expand...

Bees wax tempers the petroleum that is paraffin, and makes it a bit more flexible. Having a percentage of beeswax may pre-empt internal snapping of winds - that's the theory anyway. 20% is the recommended portion.

It IS a black art - different gauge wire, different resistance by wind count, in-bobbin humbucking, balanced passive pickups (my specific focus), different magnetic materials and types . . . you can go as deep and long as you have time and imagination. Such an excellent journey.
 
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knucklehead said:
Bees wax tempers the petroleum that is paraffin, and makes it a bit more flexible. Having a percentage of beeswax may pre-empt internal snapping of winds - that's the theory anyway. 20% is the recommended portion.

It IS a black art - different gauge wire, different resistance by wind count, in-bobbin humbucking, balanced passive pickups (my specific focus) . . . you can go as deep and long as you have time and imagination. Such an excellent journey.
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Hey do you have a link to Thomas Guitars eBay page please? All I get is cheap guitars made by a brand called thomas.
 
knucklehead said:
Bees wax tempers the petroleum that is paraffin, and makes it a bit more flexible. Having a percentage of beeswax may pre-empt internal snapping of winds - that's the theory anyway. 20% is the recommended portion.

It IS a black art - different gauge wire, different resistance by wind count, in-bobbin humbucking, balanced passive pickups (my specific focus), different magnetic materials and types . . . you can go as deep and long as you have time and imagination. Such an excellent journey.
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Ahh ok, cool I'll add some in. I was wondering if it was one those things people added because it had a purpose or if they just did it out of "tradition".

Out of curiosity have you got any opinions on wire insulation? Doing some research there seems to be people who say that it does which doesn't make sense to me because it's an inert material. Other places tend to say that it's the thickness of the insulation that makes a difference which to me makes sense as it would affect the capacitance of the coil. So basically should I just use poly or will plain enamel actually add anything other than vintage accurate street cred?
 
FrendanBraser said:
Ahh ok, cool I'll add some in. I was wondering if it was one those things people added because it had a purpose or if they just did it out of "tradition".

Out of curiosity have you got any opinions on wire insulation? Doing some research there seems to be people who say that it does which doesn't make sense to me because it's an inert material. Other places tend to say that it's the thickness of the insulation that makes a difference which to me makes sense as it would affect the capacitance of the coil. So basically should I just use poly or will plain enamel actually add anything other than vintage accurate street cred?
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Primary differences I found are that some are applied in greater thickness than others, and if you depend on wind count to estimate inductance or resistance it will screw with expectation/end result. Old school insulation failed more often in my past efforts in my experience - internal shorts were the bane of a great many efforts. I never found a bullet proof insulation type fwiw.

I found low-wind/low resistance pickups served my purposes best, so thick insulation was never really a factor in what I built. I used low 40's and (very) high 30's in my pickups most often.
 
I've been winding my own pickups for a while now. I have slowed down over the last 2 years, because I don't have enough guitars to put them into ;) .

At one point 20% beewax was suggested, but that's changed. I pot my pickups with beeswax and paraffin.

None of your beeswax? Potting pickups with paraffin. - StewMac

Erick Coleman answers a frequently-asked question: how (and why) to wax-pot a pickup.
www.stewmac.com www.stewmac.com
 
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If you have a surplus of beeswax you don't know what to do with then you could always take up batik.

Winding my own pickups?? My wife would be soooo happy - not.
 
Dumb Question: I read that the Danelectro guy hand wound his pickups, which contributed to their unique (and inconsistent) tone qualities. Is there any common knowledge about the effects of not winding classically?

What if you wind in an X pattern? Or in a braid pattern around the poles? Or you you built up a 1 mm pile before moving on to the next mm? What if you somehow got the arm to jump around randomly as you wound?
 
bifurcation said:
Dumb Question: I read that the Danelectro guy hand wound his pickups, which contributed to their unique (and inconsistent) tone qualities. Is there any common knowledge about the effects of not winding classically?

What if you wind in an X pattern? Or in a braid pattern around the poles? Or you you built up a 1 mm pile before moving on to the next mm? What if you somehow got the arm to jump around randomly as you wound?
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Not a dumb question.

Specific patterns are difficult to execute unless you wind the bobbins EXTREMELY slowly. There are thousands of winds on a bobbin which makes this approach a bit prohibitive.

Slow/steady back and forth lets you put the most wire on a bobbin which will yield a greater resistance and hotter output (if that's your goal), but are also more susceptible - in my experience - to EM interference.

Depending on the winder, the back and forth of the wire feed can be computer controlled, and a periodic tap of a finger tip on the wire feed yields a scatter pattern that I found successful in minimizing harmonic and microphonic issues - potting is your VERY dear friend here. Hand-fed winds let you control this to a good degree and result in a scattered pattern almost by default. Most who are just starting or learning can't afford the investment in machinery with computer controlled feeds.

Getting clever can get interesting; my interest was creating balanced magnetic pickups - well-balanced humbuckers, basically - and my first two attempts at it were to simultaneously feed two wires around the same bobbin. It turns out that if you identically wind opposing coils they cancel each other out - I ended up with near-zero output on a 14K pickup. Who knew?

o_O
 
I was just wondering about some of this, after seeing This here video which makes it look pretty straight forward as a concept. I got plenty of projects on my plate right now, but now im really curious about this process, looks like I got some reading to do! I'd love to wire up custom pickups for some of my guitars and for friends.
 
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