Anyone built their own pickups?

[Damonjames]

I think I may have posted in the wrong section before so thought I'd put it here too. I was reading about how tim commerford winds his own pickups. Anyone ever tried to do it??

[Dad3353]

It's very simple to do, with little outlay save patience. Plenty of explanations on t'web etc. Do home-spuns sound good..? Ah, that's very much more difficult. Not many recipes for assured success except try it and see. Do a couple and surprise yourself...

[untune]

I've pondered it and drawn up plans for some, even sourced the vulcanised fibreboard for the bobbins (search for knife making supplies, it's often used as decoration in the handles and can be bought in sheets of different colours ahnd thicknesses) but never bit the bullet. I think it'd be a fun experiment if nothing less, you could probably adapt a drill to wind the wire and there are plenty of resources on the net for making a reed switch/counter from old calculators.

[tommorichards]

heres some magnet sites: [url="http://www.magnets2buy.com/acatalog/Alcomax-cylindrical-magnets.html"]http://www.magnets2buy.com/acatalog/Alcomax-cylindrical-magnets.html[/url] and some others [url="http://www.first4magnets.com/8mm-dia---max-245kg-pull-79-c.asp"]http://www.first4magnets.com/8mm-dia---max-245kg-pull-79-c.asp[/url]

[lettsguitars]

emagnetsuk. Pcb works for the flat work. Fibre board is cheaper in large bits but that's a lot of pickups. You can wind them using a hand drill (the kind you wind by hand). You have to keep the wire nice and tight but you can also do this by simply holding the wire between pieces of felt. Thin wire (.42swg) and 20x5mmx20mm alnico rods will do it for a humbucker. Bar magnets are good, but they need steel 'rails'.
The handdrill gets clamped to the bench with a piece of .5" mdf with counter sunk carraige bolt that gets chucked into the drill. The wire bobbin stands on the floor directly beneath the winder. Make sure you sand any burrs of plastic of the bobbin. Fix flatwork to the mdf 'winding plate' with double sided tape (vinyl floor tape b&q). Wind the drill with one hand and tension/guide the wire with the other hand. Takes about 20 minutes. You need a very steady hand to do this and it's pretty simple to set up a tensioner with guide posts. Tape down the wires and lightly sand off the coating to test the output and seal again with laquer.
You can then pot them in wax i you can bung up all the holes in the cases. This is easy with wooden cases that have only 2 holes or so. Plastic cases with exposed pole piece designs are always going to be tricky. You can dip string in hot wax and wrap that around as a lively alternative. Potting basically stops the pickup turning into a microphone.

Edited August 18, 2012 by lettsguitars

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='lettsguitars' timestamp='1345328926' post='1776420']
emagnetsuk. Pcb works for the flat work. Fibre board is cheaper in large bits but that's a lot of pickups. You can wind them using a hand drill (the kind you wind by hand). You have to keep the wire nice and tight but you can also do this by simply holding the wire between pieces of felt. Thin wire (.42swg) and 20x5mmx20mm alnico rods will do it for a humbucker. Bar magnets are good, but they need steel 'rails'.
The handdrill gets clamped to the bench with a piece of .5" mdf with counter sunk carraige bolt that gets chucked into the drill. The wire bobbin stands on the floor directly beneath the winder. Make sure you sand any burrs of plastic of the bobbin. Fix flatwork to the mdf 'winding plate' with double sided tape (vinyl floor tape b&q). Wind the drill with one hand and tension/guide the wire with the other hand. Takes about 20 minutes. You need a very steady hand to do this and it's pretty simple to set up a tensioner with guide posts. Tape down the wires and lightly sand off the coating to test the output and seal again with laquer.
You can then pot them in wax i you can bung up all the holes in the cases. This is easy with wooden cases that have only 2 holes or so. Plastic cases with exposed pole piece designs are always going to be tricky. You can dip string in hot wax and wrap that around as a lively alternative. Potting basically stops the pickup turning into a microphone.
[/quote]
useful.... and the chance of making something sounding good?