This is the place to find out about pickup winding and making your own pickup winding machine. Has a source list for pickup making parts and supplies. Related Gear: MIDI Guitar Pickups
21 thoughts on “Basic Pickup Winding”
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Hey yalls, I’m bored out of my mind and have decided that I want to make a really lousy pickup out of scrounged parts…. I have a whole bunch of really rather powerfull magnets out of hard drives, wires from the back end of tv ray tubes and lots and lots of free time, can anyone point my in the direction of basic pickup making tutorials or something?
thanks…
Kyle
It’s all about getting the magnets (type & strength), coil size and wire type & wire gauge right. It’s alchemy. Most of the time, if you stay with alnico 5 type magents, you can get good pick response and clarity. But there are so many variations. It also depends how strong the magnets are. Generally speaking, leaving the magnets at the strength they are and making a coil (or coils) with the same gauge wire but with extra winds will darken the sound. Leaving the coils alone and adding stronger magnets will give you an edgier sound. Leaving the magents alone and adding coils with lower gauge witre (meaning more turns of wire on the same sized coil) will increase output but also darken the sound-but not in the same way as option 1 does. Then, you get into custom ceramic magnet formulas, and all bets are off. That’s how custom manufactures can get a strat coil to sound like a P-90 or whatever. Also, the material the bobins are made of. Most cusom people like the transparencey of the impregnated paper over palstic bobbins becase they feel the paper bobbins don’t interfere as much with the magnetic field that set up around the coil.
Check out a Tele PU-the magnets ar very powerful, but the coil is really big too. You get a PU with both very good output and very good pick response.
Gibson and Fender really did everyone a big favor by getting the basic PU sounds right back in the early 1940’s. Since then, it’s all been about refinement, and personal preferences.
p.s. I know I’m not ganna get anything close to good tone, so dont yell at me about that… I just wanna see if I cant make a pickup out of scrounged parts
dude,
use old turntable to create a pickup winding machine
: p.s. I know I’m not ganna get anything close to good tone, so dont yell at me about that… I just wanna see if I cant make a pickup out of scrounged parts
Bwah ha ha ha bwah bwaha ha…….thanks! fer nuttin’!
Hey, all.
I’m building a Chapman Stick-style instrument and am looking for anybody who can help me determine how pickups for a touchstyle instrument should be wound… I’m assuming more winds would be preferable, given the subtler vibrations of the strings. I plan on following the Wal bass technique of winding a pair of mini coils for each string and attatching them to an etched circuitboard. Who can give me a ballpark range for wire gauge and number of winds?
-CHris
I would like to learn in details about how to make the best electric and box guitars, if possible please do send me all information and diagrams possible. Thank you.
Regards
Nadeem R.
Does anyone know where I can buy about five Alnico 2 grade humbucker magnets? Also, where could I get the parts to make a mini humbucker or just purchase a dead one that I could experiment with? Thankx to all. Jerry
It’s not just about getting magents-you need to get magnets that are the correct type and strength for your application (in this case, your ‘application’ is the sound you want to get). Producers of magnets for the big manufacturers don’t sell retail, they sell in huge bulk to the manufcturers. You can’t call them up and order 5 or 6 magnets like they put in custom shop strat coils.
I purchased 18 1/8" by 3/4" alnico magnets years ago,(and I don’t recall the source) and popped them into some extra Mexican Strat PU’s with plain steel posts & an induced magnet that were sitting around. (I typically buy Mexican Strats with good weight used, for cheap, and then put professional grade PU’s in.)
Anyways, the sound had more clarity and more ‘quack’. However, they always sounded much thinner that standard Strat PU’s. My guess is the coils weren’t wound heavy enough to meet the extra magnetic force.
You’d be better off to buy a ‘dead’ PU, being sure the magnets are okay, and fool around with winding the coils on you own.
If you still want to source the magnets yourself, type ‘magnets’ into your web browser and do some research.
Finally, if you can sit and hand wind a PU coil, my hat goes off to you! That wire is sooo thin it’s like a spider web.
Thankx Dee for the time you took to answer my post and lend your assistance. It’s been a couple of years since I was looking for certain magnets in order to rebuild some dead pups I had. I now have no problem getting them through my supplier. Took some time though. Thank you again. Jerry Amalfitano AmalfitanoPickups.com
I have purchased 3/16 x3/4 alnico 5 rod magnets in serious quantity. I’m willing to sell to other winders starting @ about 1/2 what a mag company wants for 100 and up. I’ll discount in larger quantities.
Thanks
I have a pair of Fender Jazz pickups without any windings. I’m wondering if I can put the 2 together and wind as one; will this accomplish anything, or is it a waste of time and wire? I want to put it on a bass I’m building from assorted parts saved over 20 years. More of a Frankenstein type creation than anything. If yopu give me some feed back, I’d appreciate it. BennyB
i have a guitar with two humbucker passive pickup.but my guitar sound is very bad especially when i used it for slap.my guitar is 4 string. please give me an advice to modify my pickup guitar.thanks
want to repair a bass guitar pick up pleaaaaaaaaase help
I have a pair of Fender Jazz pickups without any windings. I’m wondering if I can put the 2 together and wind as one; will this accomplish anything, or is it a waste of time and wire? I want to put it on a bass I’m building from assorted parts saved over 20 years. More of a Frankenstein type creation than anything. If yopu give me some feed back, I’d appreciate it. BennyB
Ed,
My friend is a machinist who also plays electric guitar. He is out of work right now and would like to take this
opportunity to make his own pick-ups. He has asked if I could find plans for a winding machine on the net. If you could
help me out I’d be very grateful. Also, if you have any questions you’d like to ask him about this subject I can forward
them to him.
Thank-you very much,
Heather McKenzie
: Ed,
: My friend is a machinist who also plays electric guitar. He is out of work right now and would like to take this
: opportunity to make his own pick-ups. He has asked if I could find plans for a winding machine on the net. If you could
: help me out I’d be very grateful. Also, if you have any questions you’d like to ask him about this subject I can forward
: them to him.
: Thank-you very much,
: Heather McKenzie
Hi,
Kevin O’ Brien sent in plans for a winding jig to
stewart macdonald guitar supply company it was listed in
one of their catalogs. go to stew-mac.com and link to
tech talk. Free plans to build a pick-up winder!
hey there…I am designing my own electric violin and I am looking for some good resources for pickup design and implementation…wondered what you would reccommend..
thanks
Bill Blackwell
Bremerton, WA
pls do send me any idea bout powerful funk bass winding or modified pickups…..
thanks.
Jason,I recently put togerther a winding machine.Where can I find suppliers who I can get parts from in small quanities.
This is a hobby and not a source of income for me so I want to first see if I can build some succesfully.
also I wonder if you know where I can get a pickup for a les paul jr,you know the one with the big ears.Can one
of these be made? thanks Ed