Conference napalm::guitar

2599.0. "Making your own pickups" by GOES11::G_HOUSE (Low self opinion) Tue Sep 22 1992 13:58

    I found this article on the Usenet and thought it was pretty
    interesting, so I'm reposting it here.  Might be an interesting
    exercise, if nothing else.
    
    Greg
    
    
    
Article 29394 of rec.music.makers:
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From: META000 <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Choosing pick-ups
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Lines: 117
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: The University of New Brunswick
References:  <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1992 15:21:49 GMT

In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (William Spencer) writes:
>[email protected] (Hayrinen Jukka) writes:
>>Sound-wise the choice of the right pick-up is very frustrating: Some pick-ups
>>go well with some guitar/amp. I would like to see a 'slide-on-any-pick-up-test-
>>guitar-with-quick-connectors' in every music store for comparing those sounds.
>>Also i would like to read at least one of the guitar magazines to bench-test
>>them side-by-side. They could show the frequency curves, total output powers
>>magnetic pull on the strings, feed-back properties etc.
>
>Some of these tests could be hard to do and might even be misleading. Still,
>would be nice. I think what they want you to do is keep buying
>until you find one you like.
>
>>Now the only 'info'
>>comes from the ads: Bla bla Hot as Hell bla infinite sustain bla bla vintage
>>sound bla screaming scorching bla. Makes me puke. Flame off.
>
>Not true -- there are some sources of information. Most magazine ads are
>for the maker's entire line, but they have brochures that tell a bit more
>about each of their offerings like "more bright than...", etc.
>Also might have specs such as DC resistance and impedance at 1 kHz. The
>Suncoast catalog has this for DiMarzio pickups. The PAF type pickups, which
>are brighter, are about one half the impedance of the Super Distortions.
>With coils switched to parallel wiring, the Distortion would be one fourth
>the impedance, so this hints that the PAF is someplace between the two
>wirings of a Dual sound version of the Distortion. I say "hints" because
>I'm not sure how much these measurements tell of the whole story.
>Interestingly, the FRED pickup had the lowest impedance of all.
>
>Has anyone tried these P J Marx or whatever they're called pickups?
>Designed with assistance from the inventor of humbuckers. Expensive too.
>
>Was the consensus that EMG Selects aren't very good? They're cheap and
>sealed into a protective cover.
>
>My impression is that Duncans aren't really that great. Not very heavy
>for one thing. I wasn't that impressed with the Seymourizer II's.
>Still fed back, for one thing. I'm scared of pole adjustment screws.
>
>I'll probably go with some type of PAF type pickups for their moderately bright
>characteristics.
>
>bill s
>.
>.
Another cheaper route is to simply build your own.  I've been winding my
own for some 14 years now, and I've been very pleased with the results.
When you consider that I've spent a grand total of about $30 on wire and
a couple of bucks on magnets, produced a dozen or so pickups, and still
have wire left over, clearly it's a very cheap alternative.  Moreover, I
get to call the shots on impedance and pole orientation (so that two
single coil pickups can be wired in hum-bucking mode).  I also made
myself a stacked humbucker (looks like a strat pickup, but is dead
quiet), and feel free to play around with designs since the costs are
trivial.  The following recommendations: 1) get a roll of either #42
gauge or #43 gauge wire.  2) make sure your hands are free from cuts,
hangnails, and anything else that might impair your sensitivity or
catch the wire. 3) Get some coil forms from old scuzzy pickups, or send
to one of the manufacturers for some.  As long as you don't seem to be
going into competition at their expense, most companies are helpful
about such parts.  I got my magnets from Evans, and some coil forms from
Gibson.  4) Stick on something you can watch mindlessly, and wind away.
The average pickup should take you several bouts of handwinding overthe
course of a day or two to produce.  I wind mine by hand, and this has
several advantages.  First, not every winding is "on axis"; i.e. not
straight around the coil.  This can result in microphonics to some
extent, but produces another benefit of getting higher impedance with
fewer windings (off-axis turns tend not to be as short as they could be,
so that a single turn might be 10% longer than normal), while still
keeping the coil fairly close to the poles.  This tends to produce a
reasonably high output with plenty of high end to spare.  By use of a
buffering pre-amp, I can get my axe to sound like its processed by an
aphex, without any eq'ing or processing whatsoever.  The microphonic
problem (produced by loose coils) can be easily remedied by potting your
pickups (although I've never found the need to).  I generally wind mine
like this: I take a conventional kitchen chair (the tubular steel kind),
plunk the spool of wire on the floor (best if it is at least two feet
below where your hands are so as to minimize wire tension and possible
breakage), hold on to the coil form with a bolt attached to one of the
various screw holes on your basic coil form, and, holding the wire
loosely between thumb and index finger, wind.  If you examine the basic
pickup that comes in $129 shitbox guitar, you'll find they often have
very low impedance pickups (we're talking less than 5K here), due to the
rather thick-gauge wire they employ (I assume that thicker wire means
you can be pretty sloppy, use cheaper winding machines, and generally
have fewer problems trying to maintain quality control....hence the
price).  Although the pickups may sound lousy, there is nothing
inherently wrong with their design.  You'll find that stripping the
original coil off, and winding your own with thinner wire, you'll end up
with a somewhat higher impedance (I generally end up with something
around 7.5K to 9K, assuming the pickup cover still has to fit over top),
and a much meatier sound (as well as much more bite).  If you still end
up with a crappy sound, try boosting the magnets.  You can glue extra
ceramic magnets to the underside of the pickup to increase the pull, or
perhaps replace the magnets (Alembic used to sell "Strat boosters" which
were add-on magnets to increase the field strength.  We now know that
too much tug decreases sustain, but if your original magnets aren't very
strong, boosting them a bit wouldn't hurt).  If you can remove the
polesor move the magnet around (if you have separate magnet and poles),
you might try reversing the polarity on one of your pickups, relative to
theother pickups (i.e., when the top of your self-wound one is placed
near the top of another, they come together, rather than push apart).
If younow wire in the new pickup out of phase with the others,
combinations of

pickups should yield hum-rejection.  If you are deft, and like to live
dangerously, you might also consider adding windings to pickups you
already like.  I find most commercially available pickups probably have
room for another 800 turns or so (about another 1k impedance).  Just
remember to be very careful when desoldering and removing that first
outside winding.  I wouldn't recommend winding your own for everyone,
but quite frankly, the number of pickups is increasing exponentially,
and I am completely unable to decide what is more appropriate for my
needs than what else.  Winding my own eliminates the need for choosing.

M. Hammer



    

    A few years back,two other guitarists from my band bought an old pickup
    winding machine for pennies.Included was a large reel of wire,an
    adjustable tension clamp,and a counter.We did not have any literature
    on how pickups were made,so we experimented from scratch.
    	We bought some Alnico magnets the correct length & diameter,made
    formers from thin plastic,and started winding.The first thing we needed
    to figure was how the number of windings affected the sound.
    	We did this by winding 5000 turns,taking a tap,winding another
    1000,taking a tap,etc,until we couldn't get any more turns on.....11,400
    We then took wires from the tappings to a RS rotary switch,and
    installed the whole thing on a Hondo strat-clone.
    	The results were entertaining.The sounds ranged from a very
    thin,breezy,Tele-like tone,thro' the Stratty sounds to a full,ballsy,
    almost Humbucker sound.Some range for one pickup !!! I never got round
    to installing one like that in my own guitars,but it's a thought.....
    	Anyway,a coupla weeks later,we got a book by Seymour Duncan on how
    REAL pickups are made (and were made,in the old days) and it kinda 
    stopped us experimenting so wildly.We each made some custom pickups,and
    rewound some for a local music shop,and the machine still sits in my
    friend's garage.
    	One really interesting fact from the Duncan book;- he has a theory
    about the "vintage pickups were much better" syndrome which seems
    obvious now.The quality was extremely variable in the early pickups,so
    through the years,all the crap ones have been changed by the owners for
    better ones.So it follows that most guitars with old pickups still in
    them are probably the pick of the bunch.With modern technology,the
    perfect pickup is easily replicated time & time again.
    	So says the great God Seymour,Creator of the Stacked Humbucker,
    Lord of the Pafs and the Alnico King.
    					  Jim.
    

  There is a book called Animal Magnetism for Guitarists. They show how
to make some bass pickups... I don't know the authors name though.

JD

    I've seen that book in the Stewart-MacDonald's catalog, it's available
    there.
    
    Greg

   I have to correct myself on the title:


             "Animal magnetism for musicians"
                  ISBN: 90-9001858-1
                  EZ Tech Publications

I got it at Stew-Mac's also. This book is imported from Amsterdam.

It's a really interesting book. It shows five different bass pickup 
configurations, roughly how to make a bolt-on bass, and different wood
types.

/J