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Post subject: Re: Customise Your Pickups Yourself Internally
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:09 am
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vinnypop wrote:
Am thinking of learning how to customise pickup wiring myself. Has anyone ever done this. Like wrapping more wire to achieve different sounds till you find something which is really you ... anyone tried this before with success or did you destroy the pickup?


I started this older thread to ask if anyone else ever tried to wind their own pickups. I linked to a very informative Stew-Mac webpage that I followed in rewinding an old (1975) pickup.

I have thought about experimenting with removing some winds from Mexican "standard" ceramic pickups (to reduce the DC resistance about 15%). It might mellow them out and yield a nice pickup.

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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:09 am
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eddie_bowers wrote:
I have never found any technical info on how to achieve a particular sound with winding. There is only general info like more winds result in hotter but more midrangey response.

Im sure a lot of this is a closely guarded secret, but it sure would be nice for someone who knows what they are doing to publish a pickup winding Cookbook.


Here's one:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plan ... gnets.html

I haven't read it. I wonder if it tells us how a pickup is designed to give a scooped midrange, like the fabled John Mayer pickups? Never understood how a pickup can be wound to achieve that sort of effect, but apparently it's true...

Cheers - C


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Post subject: hi
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:11 am
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I really want to try one if my hand can stand it the winding but how do you magnitise it ?


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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:14 am
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eddie_bowers wrote:
I have never found any technical info on how to achieve a particular sound with winding. There is only general info like more winds result in hotter but more midrangey response.

Im sure a lot of this is a closely guarded secret, but it sure would be nice for someone who knows what they are doing to publish a pickup winding Cookbook.

Its not a closely guarded secret. The general info is pretty much all you need. It takes a little trial and error, but after you try it out, its fairly intuitive.

You need to understand the general info on amount of winds, and the general info on stuff like wire gauges, wire composition, the difference between the electrical fields generated when winding on a tall bobbin, and getting a thinner wrap, and winding on a short bobbin and getting a fat wrap, and stuff like that. But really all you need to know is out there.

Pickup manufacturers make their bones by mystifying the process. They all have some 'magic formula' but if that's the case, why do they devote so much time and money to developing copies of the originals?

I found an old sewing machine for 5 bucks at a yard sale. This winter I am going to convert it to a pick up winder. I'll try hook up a counter of some sort, though really I think measuring the output is probably good enough. The mystical magical number of winds were just a way of trying to standardize the output, and measure it without having to stop and hook up a meter. the real target was the output range, using standardized materials meant that counting the winds for the output you wanted was the easiest way of trying to control consistant output.

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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:15 am
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You need to experiment with different types of magnets(materials /mixture) and poles(heights etc.).

Go for it Vinny!! 8)


Last edited by fhopkins on Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:16 am
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The magnets are really the wild card in all of this pickup building.

We can really keep track of the wiring. We can count how many turns; we can measure the inductance; we can measure the DC resistance. Not many of us can measure the strength of the magnets. Not many of us can manipulate that strength.

As ceri said, when I did my winding, I would stop periodically and make a DC resistance measurement to decide whether I had enough wound enough wire. I came extremely close to my target: 5.7 K ohms and 2.2 H inductance (which was the average of other '70s pickups I had).

The rewound pickup is currently in my doubleneck.

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Post subject: Re: hi
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:17 am
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vinnypop wrote:
I really want to try one if my hand can stand it the winding but how do you magnitise it ?


Look here vinny:

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electro ... -5967.html

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Post subject: Re: hi
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:18 am
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vinnypop wrote:
I really want to try one if my hand can stand it the winding but how do you magnitise it ?


http://www.physlink.com/Education/askexperts/ae331.cfm

basics here vin.

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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:20 am
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Ceri wrote:
I haven't read it. I wonder if it tells us how a pickup is designed to give a scooped midrange, like the fabled John Mayer pickups? Never understood how a pickup can be wound to achieve that sort of effect, but apparently it's true.


Have you ever come across any specs for these JM Big Dipper pickups?

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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:23 am
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Twelvebar wrote:
You need to understand the general info on amount of winds, and the general info on stuff like wire gauges, wire composition, the difference between the electrical fields generated when winding on a tall bobbin, and getting a thinner wrap, and winding on a short bobbin and getting a fat wrap, and stuff like that. But really all you need to know is out there.


There's some "vintage" info at http://www.provide.net/~cfh/pickups.html
that was gathered by Duncan (averages across the years).
It's too bad we don't have any information on the variability of the specs.

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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:27 am
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orvilleowner wrote:
Ceri wrote:
I haven't read it. I wonder if it tells us how a pickup is designed to give a scooped midrange, like the fabled John Mayer pickups? Never understood how a pickup can be wound to achieve that sort of effect, but apparently it's true.


Have you ever come across any specs for these JM Big Dipper pickups?


Nope. I've just seen people discussing them here a great deal.

I heard him play live last year. Actually very nice, to my ear, but I couldn't detect this scooped thing - and the sound system was up there with the best.

And frankly, I doubt a scooped sound would be my taste anyhow. (If anything, the opposite.) Just curious about what voodoo goes into a pickup to achieve it...

Cheers - C


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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:33 am
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Ceri wrote:
I heard him play live last year. Actually very nice, to my ear, but I couldn't detect this scooped thing - and the sound system was up there with the best.


If I were forced to guess, I would say they get that scooping by underwinding.

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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:21 pm
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With a fully loaded, licenced by vinny pickgaurd. :lol:


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