Pickup simulator inductor parameters (Bazz Fuss and so)

[meffcio]

Here's the case - I want to build a few fuzz face type effects (mainly bazz fuss, for me and a few friends), but I don't wanna buy those fancy audio transformers, since there's nothing more I could buy together with them. Can I simply take a thin winding wire, wrap a few (hundreds) turns over a pencil, a nail, or something, and voila? 

[R.G.]

In theory yes.

In practice, no. If you think about it, a pickup is several thousands of turns of wire around a half-dozen magnetic slugs. You could replicate that, but it would require obtaining a quantity of hair-thin wire to do. You could just use a guitar pickup as an inductor. But it would pick up hum and noise.  You could wind hundreds to a thousand turns of thin wire around some kind of magnetic whatever. What kind of magnetic whatever gets complicated.

You could buy/find a couple of wah inductors and hook them up in series.

You could find ANY kind of small transformer that is about a 2.5-3cm cube and disassemble it, then wind your wire onto that and reassemble it. That's the best chance, I think.

Making a 1-4H inductor is not a trivial task. The magnet wire needed can easily get expensive, and the magnetic core characteristics matter a lot.

[chptunes]

Link:  http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm

-Corey