Anyone here built pickups?
I had some spare time at work (work in IT in some schools and had a day where I press a button every 10 minutes to get some PCs configured) and looked at some YouTube stuff. Didn't look difficult so thought it was worth a play!
Have ordered some bits to build a pickup winder - some of it will take a while to arrive from China - will post back here if I get anywhere.......
Measure once........
Measure again.........
Sod it - make tea!
I watched 4 or 5 YouTube videos about building pickup winders - basically a motor with speed control driving a shaft that the bobbin is attached to and a counter attached to bits of wood....
Counter and shaft have arrived - the rest of the bits are on their way.
Measure once........
Measure again.........
Sod it - make tea!
Some YouTube stuff
I found a 5 digit counter, a sewing machine motor with foot control, a pulley, axle and bearings on eBay - most of the bits are coming on China - sewing machine motor drives the axle via a pulley and the pickup bobbin attaches to one of the ends of the axle - the counter is used to count how many turns of wire have gone onto each bobbin.
Measure once........
Measure again.........
Sod it - make tea!
Bits have arrived and I have made a start. The motor intended to power a sewing machine, it comes with a pedal to control speed but the slowest speed is too fast so I will have to rethink. The counter works - a small magnet is CA glued to the pulley on the shaft - the sensor connects to the counter - the counter is battery powered.
Next update when I work out how to get the motor to start more slowly.
Measure once........
Measure again.........
Sod it - make tea!
I got the motor running at a steady speed and tried without success to wind a coil because the wire kept breaking - having watched some more stuff on YouTube the secret seemed to be to put the spool of wire on the floor directly under the winder.
I tried again this evening and after one failure after 300 turns managed to get 7500 turns onto a P90 bobbin. The wind took about 15 minutes.
The wind is a bit uneven, I need to adjust where the bobbin is attached - the coil is about 6.5k.
I have a cheap Strat body and Tele neck that I can bash into something to audition different pickups.
Measure once........
Measure again.........
Sod it - make tea!
If anyone's interested ...
Ash - who is Oil City Pickups - is planning on running some Build Your Own PickUp courses when Covid19 permits. He's based in East London, and is a great guy who really knows his stuff. I'm down as a pre-launch guinea pig, if we ever get back to anything like the old-normal.
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
If anyone's interested ...
Ash - who is Oil City Pickups - is planning on running some Build Your Own PickUp courses when Covid19 permits. He's based in East London, and is a great guy who really knows his stuff. I'm down as a pre-launch guinea pig, if we ever get back to anything like the old-normal.
Defo be up for that..is it being advertised? Is there somewhere yo can put your name down. I’ve always liked the idea of making my own pickups.
I have too many guitars...said no one in the world..ever!
If anyone's interested ...
Ash - who is Oil City Pickups - is planning on running some Build Your Own PickUp courses when Covid19 permits. He's based in East London, and is a great guy who really knows his stuff. I'm down as a pre-launch guinea pig, if we ever get back to anything like the old-normal.
Defo be up for that..is it being advertised? Is there somewhere yo can put your name down. I’ve always liked the idea of making my own pickups.
Not being advertised yet.
I think they were hoping to get it up and running late Q1 or early Q2. But then lockdown happened and all plans were put on hold. I should be an early test pilot, so when that happens and he confirms that it's a viable thing to do, I'll do a post here and let you all know.
?
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk
Would be good to get to grips making pickups with an pro....
Measure once........
Measure again.........
Sod it - make tea!
Hi Bill,
I'm doing the same, making pickup winder to make my own pickups, and waiting on parts from china. I'd be interested to see how you get on.
cheers
I have the P90 bobbin wound but have not made further progress because I haven’t got a a guitar to try it in.........
I have an old Strat shaped body that I have started to attack - I have removed wood from between the pickup routs and towards the upper waist so that pickups can be fitted to test without removing the strings - I have a neck and bridge as well - will have to work on ideas to mount pickups and to connect wires.
Measure once........
Measure again.........
Sod it - make tea!
oh boy!
Electronics aren't my strongest part. I would not try and build something like this on my own. Although I have my eye for a while on the stewmac's DIY winding kit. it's around 300 bucks and maybe I get it as a cristmas present 🙂 Interested if you guys know any closer supplier for wire or how else I can search for it (other than pickup wire).
Don't grow up! It's a trap!
Brocott.co.uk was where I got mine - I have used 42 AWG.
0.063mm (42 AWG) or 0.056 (43 AWG) enamelled wire on 500g drum.....
My winder works and has cost about £50 to build - will need to practice wiring coils but you only waste the wire if you go wrong.
Hope to test my first coil soon...
Measure once........
Measure again.........
Sod it - make tea!
@petersoyanov There is loads of stuff on eBay for pickup winding. A friend of mine is developing a winder but he is still waiting on a digital counter he ordered weeks ago. I think it’s from China and with COVID, things are not moving as fast. Stew Mac is excellent but but with trading tariffs, it’s expensive to have things shipped. I’m sure we can all make our own pickup winders, it’s just a matter of being patient, one day soon we will have the technology.
Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸