Making a Single Coil Pickup: Complete Guide (**UPDATED**)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- Donations to my PayPal at md4239@gmail.com (paypal.me/md4239) are always appreciated.
Chapters:
0:00 Pressing the Magnets
2:01 Gluing the Flatwork
3:17 Sanding it Smooth
3:46 Taping the Magnets
5:32 Thread Tapping the Mounting Screw Holes
6:56 Correcting Mistakes - Replacing Magnets
7:54 Spool Holder & Tensioner
9:22 Tinning the Magnet Wire
9:54 Tying the Eyelets
10:21 Mounting Onto the Winding Plate
10:40 Traverse Limiter
11:51 Winding Time
12:20 Repairing Wire Breaks During Winding
14:04 Tinning & Tying the Magnet Wire (Again)
14:21 Soldering + Wiring + Signing the Pickup
15:38 Wax Potting
16:06 Magnetizing
16:35 Outro
---------------------------------
Complete Pickup Testing Tutorial:
• Complete Guitar Pickup...
^^^ All credit there belongs to "Antigua Tele" on TDPRI and Ken Willmott (rigatele on TDPRI), who guided me step by step through the entire process and are another couple guys I owe a massive amount of credit to.
----------------------------------
1 Ton Arbor Press can be found here:
go.harborfreight.com/coupons/...
------------------------------------
Complete Single Coil pickup build, from soup to nuts. Check out my eBay store for some of my handwound pickups here:
www.ebay.com/usr/md4239
Major, MAJOR credit to Rob DiStefano of Cavalier Pickups, as well as Steve Kubica. If it weren't for them, I would not be doing guitar work at all or winding pickups with anywhere near this amount of precision and finesse. Or at all. Rob first reached out to me on TDPRI when I posted a picture of me using a DeWalt cordless drill to wind a pickup, telling me that if I needed help, to just shoot him a message.
And 5 years later, and dozens of pages of conversations online later, here we are. And I won't even get into the first times I started hanging out at Steve's house and watching him work on guitars, and him showing me the ropes of guitar setups and fretwork at the tender age of 15 years old, back in 2005.
--------------------------------
My eBay store with Handwound Pickups and more:
www.ebay.com/usr/md4239
Instagram: Follow for pictures and updates on my work. I usually post more regularly here than on UA-cam:
slight_return
Bandcamp: My music and covers in high quality .WAV file format:
md101089.bandcamp.com
Imgur. Snapshots of my guitar work and wiring diagrams:
guitarmd10.imgur.com/all
**NOTE: 12:20 - Splicing Magnet Wire:
Poly nylon coated wire strips with nothing but a soldering iron. The flux doesn't affect the insulation but distributes heat from the iron more evenly and ensures a smooth tinning process with minimal risk of snagging and breakage of the wire.
For Formvar or Plain Enamel wire, I scrape the insulation off carefully with a #11 Xacto blade. Those will not strip with a soldering iron alone and need to be mechanically scraped off before tinning. In hindsight I'm wishing I remembered to include that in this video, as it is really important to mention.
I would really like to see a reverse engineered S.D. p-rails pickup.
@@Charles-Darwin Great thread here, actually with input from Frank Falbo himself, who invented the P-Rail:
guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7894/seymour-duncan-rails-analysis-review
I don't have a video planned on the P-Rail yet. But that's a great thread going over the design and an analysis of all the available specifications.
This is truly a professional presentation. For the first time your beard looks absolutely perfect. Often it looked like you were being kidnapped by a steel wool pad. Your timing is spectacularly professional. The sound is perfect. It is as though you decided to bring in a pro to put it all together. SNAZZERADINI!!
This is some absolute madman level of detail and finesse. I’ve delved deep into some of my own stuff with electronics, etc, and I can’t imagine the amount of hours and frustration that you must have endured to get here. It shows true dedication and also curiosity to help fuel the progress. Well done.
Thanks so much! It took me about 5 years to get to this point, and I owe it all to Rob DiStefano of Cavalier Pickups, who got me started on my pickup winding journey, and has selflessly conversed with me and answered all my pickup related questions for 5 years, as well as Steve K., my guitar tech mentor and friend over the last 20 years, who got me started on my guitar tech journey to begin with when I was about 14 years old, and Antigua Tele from TDPRI and Guitar Nutz 2, who introduced me to the concept of testing pickups. Ken Willmott too was extremely helpful in my e-mail correspondences with how to set up the scope and his Integrator unit.
So this is my way of giving back. I've thought of doing online courses, but for now I've preferred sharing my knowledge and information and experience for free. Just as all these people did with me.
I've experimented a lot on my own, but nothing ever would've happened without a tremendous amount of help and guidance along the way. By putting this information out here for free I hope to educate more people about how guitars work, what makes them tick, and how to get started on teaching themselves how to do it, if they're so inclined.
And pickups are just 5 years out of 20. Guitar truly is a wealth of an experience and there's no end to what you can learn and do with it. My friend and mentor Steve is in his 70's, been doing guitar work full time since 1969 and he's still learning new things every day.
Thanks so much for the comment and the encouragement. And I hope to post more in-depth videos in the future covering even more details and processes for other people to learn from. I can only hope it helps people as much as my teachers helped me. Some of this stuff is so complex that figuring it out on one's own would be just about impossible.
@@guitar_md I found you because I am working on this art installation wherein I want to build my own very "basic" pick ups using a single magnet. I'm using belts and pulley to rotate a disc which on the edge holds a guitar pick of sorts that will pluck strings each with their own pickup. I started looking into pick ups and then with UA-cam and chatGPT started delving. At some point during all of this your video came up and I learned just how truly deep and detail oriented one could get with all of this.
And it's not just that you understand the science of it but also the tiny details like ensuring that the thin copper wire doesn't snag on the pickup body. Something that I would imagine came from breaking or tangling many wires.
I finished a huge art installation recently that I had been working on for many years. It required tons of LEDs, sculptures, custom music, and Ableton running Teensy arduino for converting MIDI to voltage.
The amount of work to get things completed the way I wanted with very little compromise is a true test of will power, frustration, moments of joy, and stubborn tenacity.
So, when I see videos like yours I see a person who truly understands how much work this is. I can imagine how much in your isolation you've probably tripped out on the concept of flowing electrons and electromagnetic waves. Phenomena that inspire and transcend beyond just making music.
So, I appreciate your response and I appreciate you giving back, because also as a video editor I realize too how making these videos is no small effort. Especially in trying to make them accurate and thorough.
Thanks again!
One of the best “how to” videos - and I’ve seen many - that I have had the pleasure of coming across. Really well done! Many thanks and kudos.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate this. Comments like this keep me going. Every video like this that I make is a tremendous amount of effort and every time I wonder if I can keep doing this -- the support goes a long way in motivating me to continue. Thanks again.
Your attention to detail and passing this on through your videos is truly spectacular. I Immensely appreciate the effort you put into this. Well done!
Thank you so much! Made my night! I'm doing my best to do even better videos. Detail's the name of the game. I'd love to do a video on some of the lenses I use to capture all this stuff as well.
I've developed a huge interest in collecting different camera lenses -- not to the level of my obsession with guitar, but close in its own way.
You also reminded me that I have to finish another video about a pickup repair. I did a very tricky wire splice repair recently that I got some great super closeup footage of using a sort of Frankenstein macro lens and 2.5x magnification snap-on lens. Can't wait!
SO, A GOOD EXPLANATION MATT. PROUD OF YOU.
this video is so relaxing and informative
I will probably never make a pickup in my life, i was just curious about the process, but im gonna leave a like and comment just because of how much effort you put in this video, you did an awesome job man.
Thank you so much. Really appreciate this. Comments like this keep me motivated to continue with making new videos. Made my night!
Great timing, I'll give this a watch and start winding my strat project pup, in a couple days!
Truly a great video, thanks for sharing!
Fantastic video. I bought a set of his pickups because of these videos. They feel substantial, look sharp, and sound excellent!
Thank you so much for your support. And so glad you're enjoying those pickups. Thanks for letting me know!
i sure got excited about the winding process. I knew that unless the clamps were stew-mac it could be complete insanity!
Fascinating. Thank you.
This is awesome. Top flight content. Would expect a video like this to have 2M views. Thank you!
This comment is as good or better than 2M views -- and these really do keep me motivated to continue making more content.
Lots of good stuff on the way! I have my uploads spaced out so I don't burn myself out. But I'm very excited for many things I have in the pipeline. Thanks so much for the support!
That was just nearly good! More please!! An thanks for such a great instruction!!
You're welcome! And much, much more on the way. I haven't done any pickup stuff in a while, in terms of videos -- but have some big things planned!
Great work. I'm contemplating rewinding a dead strat pickup which I like. I've unwound it about 100 turns and haven't found a break in the wire. I suspect it might not be a break in the wire, but simply corrosion coming down from the poles and into the coil. Maybe it's best to just re-wind it. I've never done this but I'm watching your channel and there's plenty of very helpful information.
Thanks for the video. How do you remove the wax from the wood surfaces? I am using now plastic for the spools and glue the wood to the top after waxing as i was tired of the wax which remained always sticky on the surface
Thank you, dude!
excellent job sir! imo
Thank you so much! I'm planning another upload of this video as well, but in "ASMR" format....just workshop audio, no talking. Some people enjoy that.
Thanks again...made my morning!
IMHO no need to update videos, i have no clue what amount of time it takes to do an update but i' awere of the fact that it takes a lot of time and effort to make such video in a 1st place.
On the other hand i understand when person wish to do something perfect and always come up with new oneness that He would like to add. But that leads to a ''never ending story'', to be honest i never made video and one of the reason is that. I dislike that in my character because it's not pratical and it drives some people around me cr..y ☺.
Anyhow with you all the best in your future work
Pardon me if i sad something ''wrong'', i respect you same as i respect each and evry person on this planet and probably more due to you've shared walkthrough with people and it will be of great help for them.
M
Earned a sub :D never owned a guitar since they are so expensive where i live compared to the income but damn i love watching these videos!
Alucinante!!! 😀👍
Do you know of any producer of custom bobbins? E.g. squared ones.
Master!
Very cool. What do you use for shielding? Tape or the paint like StewMac sells?
Thanks! I actually don't use shielding and have no experience with it. But I'd probably opt for copper tape if I did.
I have made many noiseless pickups however. Made properly, those can be great. Most noise canceling technology, whether shielding or stacked coils, tends to lose a lot of high end along with the buzz.
I've been curious about shielding the actual pickups. DiMarzio has done this. The concept is a bit odd as they say to not connect the copper tape all the way around the coil or it'll remove the high end frequencies. Very odd as I'm not sure how it removes buzz without doing that.
Hey Guitar MD
Big fan of your tutorials
Where I live it's a bit difficult to get the alnico magnets. Can I use the ceramic ones to get the vintage fender 60s tone?
You can use ceramic, but it has to be used with steel poles. It may be possible to get closer to vintage Fender '60s tones by under-winding the pickup. Basically, steel poles increase the inductance, which lowers the resonant frequency, which means you get a darker tone.
A typical turn count on a Strat pickup is around 7,500 - 8,000 turns. You might try using 6,700 or 7,000 turns. The pickup will have less output, but it will also be brighter/more sparkly sounding. If Alnico rod magnets are not an option, this is one thing I would try. You can also use neodymium magnets with steel poles. I've used neodymium bar magnets and disc magnets. I don't think it matters much. The main thing is you'll need steel poles for the bar magnet to magnetize.
Let me know if you give it a try! And remember, less turns = brighter tone and more turns = darker tone, all other things being equal.
@@guitar_md Thanks a million. You're a legend ❤
where did ya purchase the reamer from thanks so much for the info
The exact one I use is here. "Monster" brand, model 500-001012: 3/16 ST FL RHC Reamer:
www.ebay.com/itm/144794756840?hash=item21b670a6e8:g:~IIAAOSw4JpjZBbD&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8Fbc%2F92Aq0s5EtF4CKC22p3mIbRQxH5X2c9dW745Vi%2F%2FZL5B2fnj%2BPkfJEHOZ2E4CA1RJAOrtwOTkPcVIGK3eBXGUVrbd%2FMvmw9a3iZP0RjT7H5VFGkSDPA045SDaBH2FK6QFsrwL%2Fy1G2wQNY0Ak70xX%2Fknfe2%2Fo6H1ubZXlPs8%2F%2Bwxz3ep9Xt2E0dkJmrHgMnsLnJAy%2FMUSkakffxwL0bh18xfIgCaRPxLSdhXGDb8F%2FkoelmTKI0pGDTCi2iDoPQPWLeQNiqZ8cjbul9cT5LotqvUEGTJftShNvmFAMdvWjzdUbu98O52y7I8GcYofg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMmJL_qOli
Anything similar will work, though
Congratulations on the video, it's very professional and informative. I have a question: what kind of counter do you use to verify the number of windings? I've noticed that magnetic sensors aren't able to count accurately at high speeds, so I imagine you've used an optical sensor. If so, could you provide some helpful guidance on how to source and build it? Thanks and bye!
I have a video on the turn counter I use here:
ua-cam.com/video/9eE5oJsod-c/v-deo.htmlsi=4eNXtTonbTM5dMMh
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions. It's the most accurate setup I'm aware of and easily handles my PenPal lathe at full speed, which is 4300 RPM. It's not cheap but for the performance you get, it's well worth it. Nothing better or more accurate out there.
Credit to Rob DiStefano of Cavalier Pickups for turning me on to this. The guy is a true genius and a living legend. I wouldn't know how to wind pickups at all if it weren't for my years of correspondence with him on the TDPRI forum.
When making a Tele bridge pickup with a baseplate, should the baseplate touch the pole pieces directly? If not, how do you seperate them? wax the pickup before adding the baseplate?
I always put a strip of Kapton or Black Cloth Acetate tape over the polepieces before mounting the baseplate. Same way I wrap the poles before winding.
Black cloth insulating tape is much cheaper, and is extremely durable. I know people who've used Scotch tape or masking tape, but I prefer electrical tape for these things.
One strip over the back, over the polepieces, then you can mount the baseplate. My method is to do that, then thread the screws into the baseplate to hold it in place, then into the wax bath it goes.
16:26 Is this process necessary when we use a bar magnet?
Nope! If you're using a bar magnet, you're good to go. Those are fully magnetized, and will magnetize the steel poles. You can actually screw them up if you try to do this (can demagnetize the bar magnet)....don't ask me how I know.
I've been meaning to make a humbucker build video. Would love to do that. It would be a great followup to this one. Thanks for the comment!
So the inner start wire position is the negative and the last outer wire end is the positive? Did I see that correctly?
Guitar pickups generate alternating current, so there is no positive or negative like there is with direct current. Either the start or finish wire can be connected to either ground or hot.
When combining pickups, there is an interaction between the sine waves of each coil, and that's where you can have phase issues. At that point, the orientation of the wiring does matter.
But only when two coils are wired together. This includes humbuckers.
This does get a bit complicated but hopefully that helps a bit. Let me know if that clarifies anything or if you have any questions regarding this!
@@guitar_md Thank you for clearing that up! I get it now.
Can I connect this pickup with my laptop in my DAW with a headphone jack?
I'm not sure a headphone jack will work. For use in a DAW, I personally use a dedicated USB audio interface such as the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2.
Then you can use the dedicated jacks (combination XLR or 1/4" -- just plug your 1/4" guitar cable in) to plug in your guitar.
I mostly use Reaper (my DAW of choice) these days for playing guitar, with the 2i2 interface. I'm also currently experimenting with low impedance pickups for use with an interface. The cleaner/flatter EQ from low-Z pickups may be favorable for direct-in playing. But more experiments needed.
Hope this helps.
Did you ever use lacquer before winding or always tape? Fantastic video 🙏🏻
No, but Fender used to pot their pickups in lacquer, not wax. I recently rewound an original 1951 Nocaster neck pickup and it was clearly lacquer potted. The lacquer did not penetrate very far into the coil either.
Interesting stuff! I wouldn't use lacquer to insulate the magnets before winding as it breaks down over time, and I've seen many broken pickups that had no wrap around the magnets.
I've occasionally seem some pickups with masking tape around the mags that failed as well. I use black cloth electrical tape around the mags most frequently, actually, but didn't mention that in this video. Kapton tape is good but I think the black cloth tape is more protective.
Shellac is also more user friendly than lacquer. I may try shellac potting at some point. Wax potting does raise the capacitance of the pickup, typically by 40pF to 50pF but this depends on the size and shape of the coil.
Shorter coils seem to increase by less than taller coils with wax potting but this is such a small difference it might not matter unless at an extreme.
The lowest capacitance pickups I've made are with 1/8" coils and 48AWG. Interesting stuff!
My understanding is that you use rhe black tape before the winding? I wish there was a book - all the books I find are historical. Anyway, thanks
For your time
@@robertlassiter Yes, the black tape is before winding. The purpose is to protect against the wire breaking, from the magnets corroding over time. Corrosion can build up on the magnets and as it does, it can break the delicate wire.
All it takes is one tiny break, and the whole pickup is toast.
Fender never taped around the magnets, as far as I know. All the vintage Fender rewinds I've done have showed nothing on the magnets at all -- not even lacquer. It appears as if they were simply wound around the magnets, then potted in nitrocellulose lacquer.
The black tape serves exactly the same purpose as the yellow Kapton tape in this video. Just a different material. I think coating the magnets in some sort of protective enamel (like they use in the actual magnet industry) would probably be best, but this isn't feasible for most people.
I've thought about it. If you really wanted to future-proof a pickup for as long as possible, I think an anti-corrosion enamel and then a layer of Kapton or black cloth tape before winding would be the way to go.
Many vintage pickups still work fine as well. A layer of tape is certainly much better than nothing!
Not sure if Fender dipped their pickups in lacquer *before* winding, though I know many modern builders do this. I've never seen lacquer on the magnets on any vintage pickups I've unwound, but it may have been a thing.
The lacquer potting should result in a lower capacitance than wax potting. I haven't measured this yet, but I fully expect that. Wax potting raises the capacitance by a not-insignificant amount, even though it's debatable whether it's audible or not. I personally think it is.
But microphonics can be a really pain. Unpotted pickups are cool until you realize the sound of your pick hitting the strings is coming through a lot louder, among other annoying things. Wax potting dramatically helps to reduce this. Though some players might like that effect. I've made many unpotted pickups myself.
@@robertlassiter Check this out:
www.magnetexpert.com/technical-advice-for-every-application-magnet-expert-i685/corrosion-resistance-in-permanent-magnets-i684
"A very common coating used for permanent magnets is a triple layer of nickel-copper-nickel, however there are many other suitable options including but not limited to gold, silver, zinc, tin, epoxy, PTFE and various paints and lacquers."
"Alnico and ferrite magnets are both known for their resistance to corrosion, although they don’t provide the same level of magnetic performance of rare earth samarium cobalt and neodymium magnets. Some grades of alnico magnets do contain traces of iron and therefore will display some light surface corrosion over time if exposed to water. However, if exposed to other lubricants such as oil, solvents or alcohol, alnico performs very, very well. Traditionally, alnico magnets have been coated in red paint; it is not clear how or why this custom started but it is one still followed today with most alnico magnets instantly recognisable by their trademark red finish.
Ferrite magnets, also known as ceramic magnets, are made from iron-oxide and as a result they simply do not corrode even when submerged in water. Because of their unrivaled resistance to corrosion, ferrite magnets are very rarely coated, but as ferrite is a dusty material some applications will require some surface treatment to avoid the dust spreading."
-------
It's worth noting that the magnet wire is made of copper, and copper + aluminum (the 'Al' in AlNiCo) together create galvanic corrosion. So this idea that AlNiCo is resistant to corrosion doesn't necessarily apply when wrapping the magnets with copper wire.
Even though the copper magnet wire has enamel around it, I think it might still interact with the aluminum in the rods. That, and plain old sweat from people's hands and moisture in the air.
Can you please explain the wicker disk in more detail? I don't see how it works.
From Azonic:
Why Use A Wisker Disk?
"Over 90% of basic dereeling problems are solved simply by using a wisker disk-regardless of spool size. A wisker disk is a simple and effective solution to most dereeling problems, as it maintains a slight, constant tension at all times, and prevents the wire from waterfalling, ballooning, breaking, and tangling itself and other wires.
Our wisker disks work whether the spool is in a horizontal or vertical position, create the pretension necessary when using other tensioning equipment, and provide instant wire control during the quick starts and stops of today's high-end winding."
They're nylon whiskers that maintain tension on the wire. The wire can only make it past the whiskers when it hits a certain amount of tension in grams, which will deform the whiskers and allow the wire to pass over it.
The best way is just to use one and feel it. The difference in tension is immediately noticeable.
One of the biggest advantages is preventing the wire from getting stuck as it dereels off the spool, which can render the entire spool useless.
If my Flying Saucer is not operating properly I'm gonna let you redo the Flux Capacitors. Gotta stifle that gravity!
What is the minimum rpm of that pen pal please?
Just measured it, and by my measurement, around 160RPM is the lowest speed.
Thank you kind sir