Single Coil Guitar Pickup DIY Style

[CJ]

today we are going to build a pickup for an acoustic guitar,

we are going to use parts from an old Fender Telecaster neck position pickup that was available after a humbucker took it's place,

i had put tape around this pickup to protect the wires, we i removed the tape to do a neater tape  job, a bunch of small wires became attached to the adhesive and snapped like a dry twig in a stiff desert wind,  :-[

thats ok, we have a winder and some hair wire laying around in #48, #49 and #52,

i will not Even attempt to use the #52 hair wire because i want to keep what little hair i have left, 

we took notes on the start and finish as related to the coax gnd and hot, the winding direction, the type of winding (machine vs random), and we scratched an X on the tops of the magnet pole pieces to keep them oriented the same way, you can also check by simply putting the magnets near each other, like poles repel, unlike attract,

here are some parts to look at>

 

[CJ]

we need a wood base to stick inside the guitar hole, so why not combine this with the pickup and save bolting two things together,

those black fiberboard bobbin plates from the original pickup were pretty messed up, drill holes with burrs, wax, and non straight surfaces due to the wire "damming up" against the walls as you wind, which warps them slightly,

you really need a nice smooth, straight surface when winding wire this size, otherwise, the wire will snag and snap right in the middle of the winding process,

so the wood base will help solve this problem, i just cleaned up the top pllate with a flat file and jb welded it to the pole pieces to keep it flat,

use the old former wall for a template for drilling the magnet holes>

 

[CJ]

we have the option to stagger the pole pieces a bit so that they follow the curvature of the neck radius, no weird dropped B string magnet like Fender, >

 

[CJ]

now we just tap some screw holes so that there are no screw heads on the winding surface, the bolts come in from the back of the winding mandrel,

just a block of wood with a drill bit thru it, done on the drill press so the bobbin does not wobble too much,

we are going for random winding like old vintage pickups to make life easier and also recuce turn to turn capacitance,

too cheap to chop off the drill bit, 

a file was taken to the base plate to round the edges, this helps prevent snags,

el cheapo wood screws instead of trying to come up with a rivet,

Start and Finish marked on the terminals, the hot lead is the start, i guess they want it that way for noise purposes, single coils hum like crazy anyway, i guess this is supposed to help that a bit by shielding the hot lead beneath the windings,

you can see the amount of stagger on the pole pieces,

you got questions, we got answers, seymour duncan, how can i help you?

1000 questions and answers here>

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/faq/seymours-q-a/

 

[hitchhiker]

Cool stuff CJ!

I'm assuming this will be mounted in the sound hole? If so, how do you do that?

So many questions and so little time.

Lance

 

[CJ]

just like this pic only different, you can see the yellow tape that i tried to remove with dire consequences>

 

[CJ]

spinning on the turns, max speed is 4 turns per second, you do not to wind these super fast, it will make a sponge bob coil, the centripetal force will pull the wire away from the bobbin, kind of like joe tex spinning a lasso,

actually joe tex was the first band i ever saw that really got me into music, back at Disneylnd in 1962 probably, anyway, put some white or yellow paper behind your work so you can see the small wire easier, and keep the bobbin spinning pretty good so that it looks like it is not moving, kind of like the 30 cps flicker you see or don't see on your tv set, if you spin slow and stare, you will either get sea sick, hypnotized or possibly go into an epileptic seizure, 

 

[CJ]

i do not have the specs for a stock Tele pickup, but i do know that a Les Paul recording guitar does not sound that great with those low turns, low Z pickups, so better to error on the high side, Les knew how to work it for Limehouse Blues, but not me,

we have 10,000 turns on there of #48, that should be enough,

 

[CJ]

we will skip the brass/chrome pickup cover so that we can get the magnets a bit closer to the guitar strings, and we will skip the wax because that will only increase capacitance,  i believe that some 1950's PAF type pickups did not have wax,

ohms out to 17.22 k seems a bit high, i hope the 12 string guitar does not sound like it has a Demarzio super distortion humbucker in there,

always a shaky moment when you check for continuity with that many turns and that size wire, 

we will get some leads attached and give her a test drive,

who makes the best pickups?

my vote goes to Benny "Papasita" Benjamin, 

 

[CJ]

cord hook up>

 

[CJ]

looks a bit better than the kludge up above,

sounds great! powerful, volume barely up and it is loud,

plenty of hi end and bottom,

a bit of noise but when i ground the strings, it goes away,
just have to figure out a ground,

maybe wear an ESD wrist strap connected to the amp? 

no, if they see me with that at the coffee shop they might call the looney wagon, 

Fishman wants $185 to $275 for their soundhole pickups, so we did alright,

 

[dissonantstring]

hack and build.  nicely done CJ!

 

[gato]

sweet. well done. looks very nice.
how did you count turns? do you know the calculator trick? (http://mojoshout.com/technical/diy-guitar-pickup-winder-counter/)

 

[CJ]

just scroll up about 4 pics, the counter is on the left side,

thanks for the props, i measured a Telecaster pickup last night and it has 7.2 k,

so at 17.22 k, we must have a lot more turns than the stock pickups,

i was wondering how a single coil humbucker works, reverse wind 1/2 of the coil?

time to do some pickup research,

 

[CJ]

doing some pickup research,

Fender has a shorter pole piece in the B and E string position on some of their pickups,

that is why it looks recessed,

here is a cool link>

http://www.moore.org.au/pick/02/20030123%20Guitar%20Pickups%20Some%20Basic%20Physical%20Measurements.pdf

 

[CJ]

first try at sharing a soundbite, Tascam DR07mk2, not a bad little recorder,

here is the 12 string thru the princeton reverb, small file>



http://tindeck.com/listen/xswx

 

[CJ]

what is the best way to share MP3's?  wav files are better, maybe i should try that,

this 10,000 turn #48 pickup knocks off some of the guitar's high end which is good,

finding out now that ever body uses #42,  , winding with 42 will be duck soup compared to 48 what was i thinkin?

gonna try a PAF rewind on the SG pickups next,

Epiphone had 6800 turns per coil on their bridge pickup which was killing the high end, typical PAF humbucker i am finding out is more like 4500 to 5000 turns of 42,

humbucker link>

http://www.guitarpartsvintage.com/20090302-vintage-gibson-humbucker-specs/

Fralin makes a Jimmy Page model and they give the DCR right on the website, 

http://www.rainbowguitars.com/accessories/lindy-fralin/jimmy-page-specs-paf-humbucker-pickup-set/jimmypagepaf/lf

main site:

http://www.fralinpickups.com/humbuckers.asp