Guitar Pickup Potting - How To - DIY - Eliminate Microphonics & Squealing - Easy Effective -wax
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- Опубліковано 5 лис 2021
- Easy to do and Very Effective. Step by Step method showing how to safely pot your Pickups.
(also see this for tele type guitar feedback fixes • Telecaster Esquire Fee... )
Potting "damps' the sympathetic vibrations of the coil wires. These vibrations are the primary cause of microphonics and squealing. This will not only greatly diminish feedback but will usually give a more solid sound to the pickup.
This technique works on Stratocaster and Telecaster type single coil pickups as well as Gibson style humbucker and P-90 pickups. There is no need to remove the covers of humbucking pickups to do this although cleanup is a bit of work.
Bass pickups can also benefit from potting
I use wax ( paraffin in this case) as it does not react with the insulation on the windings. although lacquer will work it may react with some of the different insulation materials that pickup wire (magnet wire) use
DIY tutorial lesson
Paraffin Wax is good, but the paraffin is flammable if a direct flame ever comes in contact with it (which should be very, very rare in guitars - a la Hendrix following The Who). Some people use bee's wax which I think (not sure) is not very flammable. Another thing about any wax is that it is soft and has a low meting point. So, if your axe is ever exposed to say a 120 F day (like maybe at a summer outdoor gig) the wax can start to run and pool inside your axe's cavities, not likely, but it can happen. I think shellac/lacquer (like what is used in transformers for the same reasons) is better. It too is flammable but at slightly higher temperatures than wax and dries hard and won't soften until over 180 F.
There's a reason why Fender started using wax and why most of other pickup builders do.
The lacquer does not penetrate deep so you can end up with a very microphonic pup.
Also, lacquer deteriorates with time and lacquer potted pickups can't be serviced.
This has inspired me to add an AM Crystal Tuner and Detector to my Bass. Have you ever picked up radio stations in your guitar/amp due to bad wiring, grounding, or shielding? I am going to add a switch and a tuner cap so I can dial in local AM radio stations ON PURPOSE FOR FUN AND EFFECT.
It you transfer your wax pot to a stand with a DC motor and an off balance weight on the shaft, that will cause a wide spectrum vibration through the wax and pickups and that will work out more air (sort of like in concrete pouring where they poke and vibrate the cement to work out air bubbles).
Your pickups look like they're made with superb quality. Plenty of wire and they look nice and tight... then you pot them. I bet they sound fantastic. Only change I'd make would be to use cloth wiring for the lead and ground.
Cloth vs PVC jacketed leads will make no difference in durability or tone. The best electric guitar pickup leadout wire is solid copper 26AWG in a Teflon Jacket. Teflon is very durable and will not melt (even if you touch your soldering iron to it). But Teflon coated wire is expensive. I have been in Aerospace and Defense for decades, we never throw away scrap wire - even short lengths. I go through the pickin's and grab a foot or two of what I need.
Also, I twist my lead wires with 2 twists per inch to introduce some mutual inductance; in an unbalanced audio frequency application, twisted pairs only help with the higher frequency return path in the wires. Remember, AC takes the path of least inductance, and AC travels along the "skin" of a wire. So, theoretically, the higher frequency tones will not couple through other wires if you twist them. This can reduce noise and may subtlety alter the tone (which way, for better or worse, will depend on your experments). But at audio frequencies (below 20 KHz), these AC effects are not prevalent in electric guitars, so twisting or not should have little effect on tone, but twisting signal and grounds is prudent for any impedance and frequency response. Also, twisting the wires adds a tiny bit of capacitance in the wires and this may attenuate very high frequencies, but again, at about 120 Ohms impedance (Z) of twisted wires with such short lengths and the relatively low frequency of the audio spectrum, and the moderate impedance of the pickups, this added capacitance (about 2 pf) should have virtually no audio detectability.
Hello, I just that following your advice. With supercheap extremely microphonic squier pups. It seems to work fine. Greetings from Germany.
glad it helped out!!!
Wish I would have just tried this before I ran out to get a new pickup 😂 I will still give it a shot as safely as I can because the original tele bridge pickup I really liked but, in a live setting it was just a nightmare.
potting is part of it .. have you seen this one? it addresses several caused of microphonics ua-cam.com/video/1dNe9MQhLP8/v-deo.html
@@thebrainard thank you, I will check that out as well to see if there is anything else I can start with.
hope you have success
Good stuff! Also you as a person shine through so not only was it informative but very entertaining as well!
I just got a 91' Mexican Tele that squeals a lot with fuzz and high gain. Looking for a solution lead me to your channel. Thank you so much for your content.
Thanks you for your kind words !! not to spam but have you seen this one?? ua-cam.com/video/1dNe9MQhLP8/v-deo.html
Do you sell your pickups on eBay or do you have a site I could visit & possibly purchase at?
I don't make many pickups. and they are a bit different. I have a VERY limited supply of 50's Siemens 44ga enameled Mag wire that I use. The pickups have a bit of natural compression and turning down the guitar volume does not 'dull' the sound.. when i do make them i post on Reverb .. look for 'folded space technologies' there .. I generally only make tele bridge pickups but do occasionally make a strat style .. they range from 200-350 depending on the format
Similar procedure for re-potting a pre-potted pickup ?
I guess once the pickups have been waxed, lacquer is not an option any more without totally deconstructing & cleaning the parts free of wax.
Lacquer saturated & coated (Fender) is an intriguing application material vs the wax.
if its wax potted I am pretty sure you could repot .. just let it get good and warm so the inner area wax melts and draws in some more wax. you could re-soak a lacquered pickup in thin lacquer. it could melt the old lacquer and soak in farther.. I am saying this from guitar finish experience .. nitro lacquer layers 'melt' into the hardened lacquer layers.. soooo maybe
@@thebrainard makes sense, like potted can be repotted. One would have to deconstruct & rewind a clean pickup unless the lacquer might have some effect as a wax solvent & break the wax down removing any waxy residue layer.
toaster chickenbacker pickups are very microphonic, have you ever done with those chinese/korean toaster pickups?
have not .. should work the same tho
I have a few vintage maxons from Japan. Not potted, and somewhat fragile. Mess with them and they come unsoldered, etc. Will waxing them stabilize them?
unsoldered? or do the little coil wires just break due to not being supported? a layer of wax 'could' give them some support ... but once in a guitar there is generally little chance of them breaking
@@thebrainard yeah the 2 ends came loose. I guess from the factory they were taken in place after connecting. I can repair it but on some old wiring I've chased breaks trying to make repairs. Wondering if wax would hold it still, and also if it would mess with the tone much. I know it will help the microphonic aspect
the wax will certainly help the stability .. worth a try ..good luck
Did you lacquer before winding , ore did you use some tape to shield the pole pieces ?
I used tape .. full mag coverage..
@@thebrainardI wonder why Leo never did the same with all his engineering prowess. Seems like such an obvious thing to do for any electrical engineer or tech.
good question .... according to some. if you use the outer end of the winding there is less chance of static ... I like the inner wire due to the shielding effect of the col so I have to be sure that there is a little insulation ...also he used 42 ga wire 1- less breakage due to heavier ga...2- insulation is probably thicker so not as much need for it .....3- probably not wound super tight so there would not be micro cracks in the insulation ... mass production protocols @@leobender2910
@@leobender2910
He was a cheapaskate and didn't want to use and spend more than he had to.
They had to convice him to put truss rods in the neck of his guitars.
He saved his company money by not having baseplates/covers on Strat pickups like Teles had.
The alnico rods were not taped off but he wind the pickup so the ground wire would always be grounded in the case of insulation faliure.
Are you uncle doug?
i don't think i am ... not sure what he thinks
Definatley Uncle Doug👍