DIY Pickups

[christobean]

hi, has anyone ever attempted to make their own pickups? i am just wondering, because i was telling a friend about building your own effects pedals, and he was asking about pickups.
any feedback at all would be appreciated..should i bag the idea or look into it more?
thanks!

[The Tone God]

Recoil

Andrew

[Mark Hammer]

I make my own, and have done so for nigh on 20 years or more.  It's easy to do.  You just need wire, coilforms ( http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Pickups:_Parts.html ) and a steady hand.  You'll be pleasantly surprised at what is possible.

In general, though, you should head over to the pickup-makers forum at Ampage.  There is a very established and knowledgeable community there of people who are as savvy and respected for pickups as Zachary Vex and Ton Barmentloo are for pedals.  Hell, you don't even have to ask questions.  Just scroll down through the last few months of postings and there'll be plenty for you there.

Happy winding!

[christobean]

ok, thank you.. i may end up bagging this idea for awhiletho  ($27 for the wire alone!!)

[Mark Hammer]

You may be able to get the wire for less in smaller amounts. I'd happily loan you a couple of different spools if you lived near me (Ottawa) because I have more than I need.  Some folks will sell 1/4lb spools.  Alternatively, approach your local music store and see if you can find some busted pickups they don't mind getting rid of cheap or for free.  Sometimes youcan take a lousy underwound pickup and put that same wire to good use on another coil.

[christobean]

i live in philadelphia, thanks though!
that is a good point, theres a used/repair music shop near me that i will check out

[SolderBoy]

There's a couple of books to check out also.  Jason Lollar's is quite good - gives a plane for a DIY winder.  And there's a book called "Animal Magnetism".  Its a little bit eccentric, but worth a look.

For hobby stuff, you don't necessarily need a fancy electronic winder...

http://www.robkidd.homestead.com/PickupWinding.html

a counter sure helps, though.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

a counter sure helps, though.

For a mechanical counter/winder, the model aircraft guys sometimes have something.
I notice Dick Smith (australia) had a crappy model plane under $10 with a plastic winder that goes to 999. (I was there taking back a pillow phone that was open circuit.. had a very hard job trying to stop them putting it back into stock, I bet they did when I left). Pretty hard to choose an exchange item, went for WD40 

[pyrop]

Quote from: SolderBoy on Today at 04:11:07 PM
a counter sure helps, though.

I have seen a cheaper way to do it. All you need is a $2 calculator, a magnet & a reed switch. Pull apart the calculator, wire the two wires from the reed switch to each side of the contacts of the "=" button, place the magnet somewhere on the winder and the reed switch located so as the magnet flys buy it activates the reed switch. To start push "1" then "+" then start winding and it will keep adding +1 each time the magnet flys past the switch!!!! I found this a week or two ago on the net. I'll look for the site and post the link if I can find it.

pyrop

[pyrop]

Here is that link for the calculator counter
http://galileo.spaceports.com/~fishbake/counter/count.htm

pyrop

[nelson]

that is a cool idea, but 3 turns per second? Thats only 180RPM.

[brett]

Hi.
I don't know anything about coils, but I know that Hall effect sensors (ugnXXXX, $2 each) have many advantages over coils (for detecting changes in magnetic fields) and could be used in a pickup.
A Hall-effect pickup has been on my "inventions to invent" list for a while.... but there's only so many hours in the day.
cheers

[Mark Hammer]

that is a cool idea, but 3 turns per second? Thats only 180RPM.

I stick a narrow long bolt through the middle of coilform, and secure it into the chuck of my hand-drill (the old-fashioned turn-the-handle type). The hand-drill gets secured to the bench via a vise.  As you turn the handle, the coilform spins like a propeller. My current drill delivers up almost 4 spins per handle-crank, while the old one was 3.25 turns per crank.  Once you get going, you can turn the crank at about 80rpm for a while (5 minutes at 4x80rpm = 1600 turns = <30 minutes per pickup, with occasional rests to loosen the wrist).  Because I have a couple of big spools of wire (big enough that they are too heavy to turn, so the wire has to be slipped off the spool over the end of the spool), I stick the spool on the ground over a black background (more in a moment) with the end pointing up The distance between floor and bench-mounted drill is important for providing a gentle-enough angle for the wire to slip off the spool without breaking.  The black background is so that I can look down and see the copper wire in the midst of the blur of a spinning coilform.  Wire tension is maintained by my thumb and index finger pinching it.

This is NOT the sort of method I would recommend to everyone, since a) not everyone uses big clumsy spools of wire (I lucked into mine at a surplus place), and b) this is a method for those who make so few pickups that they can't justify sinking money and time into a big mechanized setup.  But it works nicely for me.  Again, please go to the Ampage pickup-makers forum, where you can ask Jason Lollar such questions and get an answer from someone who knows what they're talking about (which is Jason, in case that sentence was ambiguous! )

[WGTP]

I'm curious about the different "scatter" winding styles/methods/techniques that are supposed to produce different tones/Mojo/distributed capacitance using the same hardware/resistance/etc.  Anyone know anything about that.   

[hank reynolds 3rd]

I remember seeing someone ages ago winding a pickup via an old turntable, not sure where the site was (a couple of years ago now) or how they got the counting done though...

[SolderBoy]

From memory, my grinder-winder does 8 turns per handle rotation.  Since taking that photo, I've redrilled the crank, and moved the red handle part much closer to the centre.  Its very little effort to do 1000 RPM.  And I use a hall effect sensor.

[Mark Hammer]

There are two aspects to the use of mechanical winders.  One is consistency of turn distribution, and the other is speed.  Quite frankly, when you consider how much time it will take to install a pickup and rewire the instrument, taking a bit longer to wind the pickup itself contributes very little to the overall time of making the changeover.  I wish most stompboxes could deliver that much pleasure in that little time-to-completion.  Hell, you could handwind without ANY mechanical aids and it would still be faster than the average stompbox.  So unless you're attempting to go into business, don't worry too much about speed.

As fopr mechanical distribution of turns on the coil, what you should be most concerned with is simply having them be snug, so as to avoid microphonics, and not having them so bunched up in one corner that they won't fit inside the cover, won't let two coils snuggle up close together, or place undue strain on the bobbin and cause it to buckle.  That's the reason why I mentined sticking a uniform dark surface underneath my spool, so that as I look down on the wire and coil I can easily see how the wire is being distributed as the coil is spinning.  I move my fingers back and forth distributing it fairly evenly, but with a slight scatter.  Copper stands out nicely against a piece of black bristolboard or felt.

The issue of mechanical scatter-winding is really only of relevance to those who are attempting to replicate aparticular tone over and over again.  If all you want to do is experience the pleasure of making your own PUPs for a couple of instruments, at the rate of maybe 2 or 3 coils a year, I wouldn't worry about it.  Wind something dependable, and learn to appreciate its uniqueness.  If you want some predefined tone, then I'd suggest skipping the learning part and buying a product from someone who has put in the time to figure out how to replicate a given tone.

[WGTP]

Heck Mark, that is all to practicle and doesn't deal with Mojo at all. 

[christobean]

thanks for the feedback guys, keep it coming
i found the site using a turntable http://home.worldonline.dk/jradmer/pickups.htm
the only problem is, i dont have a turntable so i will usethe hand drill method if/when i follow through on this project.

this may be jumping the gun a bit, but has anyone made optical/noiseless pickups themselves? anyone ever played through these types of pickups?

[The Tone God]

You have to deal with if the coil spins too fast too. The wire can break or leave large air gaps with the wire flying around.

Andrew