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Make A Guitar Pickup

by Leperello Mikesiah on November 5, 2007 Table of Contents Make A Guitar Pickup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: Make A Guitar Pickup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: Make your pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: Drill holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: Assemble the bobbin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: Riggin' up a pickup winder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 5: Winding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 6: Soldering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 7: Potting the pickup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 8: Finishing Touches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 9: It Is Time! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 3 4 5 5 6 7 8 9

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Intro: Make A Guitar Pickup

How to make a single coil guitar pickup! This will show you how to make your own guitar pickup. It won't look or sound exactly like a regular pickup, but its a fun and interesting project. What You'll Need: Stuff: -Paper - 42 or 43 gauge copper wire (very thin) - Six steel machine screws and nuts - Neodymium (super strong) magnets or one long bar magnet - Thin plastic (like that on a cd case) or Thin pieces of wood - Wax - Wire - Solder - Superglue Tools/equipment: -Dremel and dremel accessories -Screwdriver -Sewing machine (optional) You can go out and buy all these things, but you can probably find most of them within old crap you already possess. For example, I found the copper wire in a pair of broken dog clippers. And if you don't have some of the equipment you can always improvise. Here are some links I found useful while learning how to make my pickups: Stew Mac--Pickup Building (especially "Single Coil Pickup Kits") A guy who made a humbucker. GuitarAttack Look at Winding pickups "Guerilla Style" to see more about the sewing machine pickup winder idea.

Image Notes 1. The finished product!

Image Notes 1. Another pickup I made and installed in my acoustic guitar. It's being held in with a plastic CD case, which isn't exactly attractive, but it works. :)

Step 1: Make your pattern

There are just a few parts to a pickup, and the bobbin(the thing that holds the coil) is the first thing you need put together. To do this, you'll need to do is make up some kind of pattern for your bobbin. You need one piece for the top and one for the bottom. Look at the pictures and factory made single coils to get the general idea. You can make it in the traditional shape, with rounded ends, or you can be lazy like me and use a more squarish design. Either way will work. Then you'll need to transfer this pattern onto the material you're using for your bobbin. You can use plastic (from a cd case, for example) or thin pieces of wood. Wood works well because it's easy to work with and has a unique look, but I decided to use plastic for this pickup. Last of all, cut out your bobbin pieces.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Image Notes 1. My top secret pickup plans. For classified eyes ONLY!

Image Notes 1. Mark yer drill spots!

Step 2: Drill holes

Now you need to drill the holes for your post pieces. Before you drill mark where the holes will be, as this isn't exactly something you want to do freehand. Usually the strings on a guitar are about 1cm apart, but check the spacing of the strings to be sure. Also, you'll need to mark two holes on the bottom piece of the bobbin (see last pic). These are for wrapping the beginning and ends of your copper wire around when winding. MMkay, since I'm not exactly the Dremel whiz, I drilled some holes in a piece of wood and used this as a guide. It also helped me to sort of shallowly drill the holes a little bit so the dremel didn't go all crizazy on me.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Image Notes 1. Mark yer drill spots!

Image Notes 1. I used this piece of wood as a guide.

Image Notes 1. It's the next drilleration!

Image Notes 1. Don't forget to drill these holes!

Step 3: Assemble the bobbin

After your bobbin pieces are drilled, you're ready to assemble. First, screw the screws part of the way into the top piece of the bobbin. Then sandwich a spacer of some kind between the top and bottom pieces, as shown in the picture below. I prefer to get the two outside screws and a middle one in first, just to be extra sure they're all even. If you used screws that were too long, like I did, you'll need to cut off the excess. Just be sure to leave enough so that you can put the nuts on later and they'll be secure.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Image Notes 1. Use a spacer as shown to make sure the screws are all even.

Image Notes 1. You'll need to remove these ends before moving on to winding.

Step 4: Riggin' up a pickup winder

There are a lot of things you can use as a pickup winder. You could use your hands, obviously, but that can be kind of slow and inaccurate. You could also use a drill or electric screwdriver. I chose to use a sewing machine, mainly because it's really easy to rig up and use. On the side of all sewing machines there is a wheel type thing that spins around. This is where you want to secure your bobbin. I'm not sure about other sewing machines, but on the one I used there was a small, short screw on this wheel. I removed this and stuck a longer screw through one of the holes on the bottom piece of my bobbin and secured it in the wheel.

Image Notes 1. Secure your bobbin to your sewing machine here.

Step 5: Winding
Pickups are made using very thin copper wire, 42 or 43 gauge. I would recommend buying your wire in a spool to make the winding easier, but you can find this kind of wire in other objects if you want. For example, I found mine in a pair of old dog clippers. However, just a slight warning, the winding will go more slowly if you don't have a nice round spool. To start winding, wrap a few inches of the copper wire around and through the left hand hole on the bottom piece of the bobbin (the other hole is used to secure the bobbin to the sewing machine in step 4). Wrap the wire around the bobbin at least ten times by hand. Then, starting slowly, press down the sewing machine pedal as you let out wire from the spool. It's very important to remember that if the wire breaks, you'll have to start your winding over. That's why you need to get the tension just right. You don't want to hold the wire too tight or it will break, and if you hold it to loose it will tangle. I've read many different opinions on how many winds a pickup should have. I usually put on as many winds as the bobbin will hold and it seems to work. My opinion is that if it looks right, it's probably close.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Image Notes 1. Secure your bobbin to your sewing machine here.

Image Notes 1. This is where you secure the beginning... 2. ...and this is where you secure the end.

Step 6: Soldering
Once you're done winding your coil, you need to solder the lead wires. Before you can solder though, you need to scrape the reddish coating off of the wire that is wrapped around the two holes on the bottom piece of the bobbin. You can use very fine sandpaper, your fingernail, or the end of a little screwdriver (see pic) to do this. Usually the beginning of the coil is soldered to black wire and the end is soldered to white wire. I couldn't find any white wire so I used red instead.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Image Notes 1. An example of what your soldering job should NOT look like.

Image Notes 1. This is another pickup I made that I did a better job of soldering.

Step 7: Potting the pickup

Potting or saturating a pickup with wax is done to help keep the wires in the coil in place and prevent the pickup from becoming microphonic. I used Gulf Wax (candle wax) to saturate my pickup because it was available, but you could also use a mixture of 80% candle wax and 20% beeswax. Melting the wax directly on top of a heat source, in a saucepan on the stove, for example, can overheat the wax and cause it to become highly flammable. And we do not want to lose our eyebrows while making guitar pickups do we? NO! So, to melt the wax, I filled a big container about half full of almost boiling water and placed a smaller container inside. A tin can works transfers the heat from the water to the wax more effectively, so use one if you have one handy. Gulf wax comes in blocks, which don't melt very quickly, so I used a knife to break the wax into smaller pieces. Then I put this wax in the smaller container. When the wax is completely melted, hold your pickup by the lead wires and submerse it in the wax. You will see bubbles coming out of the coil and you need to leave the pickup in the wax until the bubbles stop. For me this seemed to be about 5-10 minutes, but for you it could be longer. Take the pickup out of the wax and wipe of the excess while it's still in a liquid form.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Step 8: Finishing Touches

There are just a couple more things left to do! After your pickup has totally cooled from the potting process, you can put the magnets on your pickup. The magnets you need are called neodymium magnets(they are also known as power magnets, or super strong magnets). When you put them on you have to make sure their poles are all facing the same direction. You can check their direction using another magnet, of course. Super glue them in place when you're ready. This is easier said than done, though. Super strong magnets seem to go everywhere except the place you want them. When you finish doing this, it's a good idea to wrap something around the coil to protect the fine wires. I like to use thread seal tape/ teflon tape because it's easy to remove if you need to fix your pickup. And that's it! You're done!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Image Notes 1. You can see in this pic that I put washers under the nuts. I only did this because I didn't trim the screws enough and needed to make the tops of the nuts level somehow. 2. these are the magnets!

Step 9: It Is Time!
This is the crude rig I use to test my pickups since I don't have a spare guitar to ruin. Also on this page is a picture of another pickup I made.

Image Notes 1. This is what I use to test my pickups. Twist your lead wires on to these, plug the other end into your amp, and hold your pickup over the strings of a guitar to hear the sweet sound of success! (you might have to turn the volume on the amp up a bit)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

Image Notes 1. The finished product!

Image Notes 1. Another pickup I made and installed in my acoustic guitar. It's being held in with a plastic CD case, which isn't exactly attractive, but it works. :)

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Comments
50 comments Add Comment view all 370 comments

shockrokka2431 says:
Is there a way I could wire the pickup to an electric guitar jack

Mar 15, 2011. 1:10 PM REPLY

ghcmja says:
Hello, I've made it, working OK, except I have a terrible hum.... What should I do? Do you made any shielding?

Feb 1, 2011. 4:55 AM REPLY

ghcmja says:

Feb 1, 2011. 12:03 PM REPLY OK I know the answer for my q.: the magnets were very weak..... the stronger magnets are improve the output voltage dramatically. So don't forget to use a really strong magnet.

Lunchbox0329 says:

Jan 26, 2011. 6:19 PM REPLY Does the copper wire all have to be touching the screws or does it matter? I'm sure by the 5000th wind you are bound to over lap

Zacharydmccrea says:

Jan 18, 2011. 9:15 PM REPLY You need to attach the pickup to an output jack and have some kind of string contraption (such as a guitar) to make the sound.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

ryerath says:
how do you connect the pickup to an amp after all of this???????

Dec 7, 2010. 3:24 PM REPLY

Zacharydmccrea says:

Jan 18, 2011. 9:10 PM REPLY You need to attach the pickup to an output jack and have some kind of string contraption (such as a guitar) to make the sound.

Zacharydmccrea says:
Can the top wood part be painted (if I use wood)? Will doing so affect the sound?

Jan 18, 2011. 9:00 PM REPLY

Cheezit says:
does Enamel coated wire, sorry if this is a ridiculous question, i'm new to this.

Jan 11, 2011. 10:27 PM REPLY

Zacharydmccrea says:
What are the dimensions for this?

Jan 11, 2011. 10:20 AM REPLY

BadgerDervy says:

Nov 7, 2010. 7:09 AM REPLY I did this, but it was very quiet because I used bolts that weren't very magnetic as polepieces. I tried it again using alnico magnet polepieces and it sounds good to me, sound demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa37BO9XbBA Thanks for this instructable. I found it really useful.

renegade_rabbit says:
Seen the video, sounds damn good. Awesome job

Jan 3, 2011. 4:04 PM REPLY

Leperello Mikesiah says:

Nov 9, 2010. 10:36 AM REPLY Sounds good!! Quite similar to how mine sounds actually. Thanks for sharing, really, it's cool to see this has helped so many people. :)

quietthomas says:
Um... you haven't actually said (that I can see) where to PUT the magnets when super gluing them on.

Jun 12, 2009. 4:23 AM REPLY

11richie21 says:
you super glue them to the nuts

Aug 1, 2009. 10:52 PM REPLY

mrmerino says:
ouch!

Jan 3, 2011. 8:36 AM REPLY

byhalk says:
Which orientation?

Sep 22, 2010. 3:38 AM REPLY

saxman12 says:
will this pickup work with nylon strings?

Dec 12, 2010. 6:19 PM REPLY

Sabazius says:

Dec 28, 2010. 12:07 PM REPLY No, the magnetic pickup works by creating an electromagnetic field. When the metal guitar strings vibrate, they alter the magnetic field. Different vibration frequencies (i.e. different pitches) have different effects on the field, which is why the amp can produce the appropriate sounds given the right electrical input from the pickup. If the strings are nylon, they won't change alter the magnetic field. For a nylon-stringed instrument (or any that doesn't have metal strings) you have two options, a piezoelectric pickup (which turns the actual vibrations of the instrument into electrical current) or a microphone. There are a multitude of Instructables for making piezoelectric pickups, and making a basic one is as simple as sticking a cheap piezoelectric transducer onto the body of your instrument and connecting it to an input jack. Hope this helps :)

zemun says:
sory,i need help,so where i put the magnets

Nov 28, 2010. 9:20 AM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

BadgerDervy says:
Mine had no bubbles..... I found this quite disconcerting, but so far my pickup seems to work.

Oct 24, 2010. 9:22 AM REPLY

zazarul says:
if use a big screws.... it can or not

Oct 22, 2010. 3:52 AM REPLY

neo01124 says:

Oct 16, 2010. 4:54 AM REPLY Hey great article!! I built a pickup according to this and it sounds great. But after the first day there was a terrible hum, i redid all the soldering rechecked all the visible points for any breaks in winding. What could be causing this sudden buzz??

fret tech says:

Oct 19, 2010. 5:36 AM REPLY in reality, though good for some basic info, this is not the realistic way to create a truly viable working guitar pickup. the required materials, build, design "recipe" and tooling for a superb real guitar pickup would take it out of the cheapo diy realm. all that said, humbuzz from a working single coil pickup is expected, since the coil is a transducer that will ferret out 60 cycle hum and radio signals. the amount of humbuzz is related to the pup's orientation with regards to signal interference. if the pickup works - i.e., induces a signal from a vibrating steel string - the noise level will be based on many things, from materials to design to build to usage. it's also possible that the coil has shorted out, effectively reducing the number of coil turns.

neo01124 says:
Acrually the end connections were not proper, I think that was causing the massive buzz. But I disagree when you say that this pickup is not realistic. Here are some sound samples from a pickup I made exactly according to this procedure http://soundcloud.com/neo01124/sets/pickup-test Here is a raw recording http://soundcloud.com/neo01124/pickup_raw I have placed the pickup on a $50 acoustic guitar. It sounds OK for the relatively little amount of effort that went into it.

Oct 19, 2010. 7:15 AM REPLY

fret tech says:

Oct 19, 2010. 9:03 AM REPLY *EVERYTHING* about guitars (or most anything else in life) is subjective. if yer happy with the tone of yer pickup, well by goll that's super good!!!

neo01124 says:
True!!

Oct 19, 2010. 9:42 AM REPLY

Formatt says:

Oct 26, 2009. 2:30 AM REPLY Now here's a question. Say I didn't bother with poles and instead slotted a neodymium (or other) bar magnet in to the bobbin and wound directly on to it. I'd presume that this would result in a pickup but would there be an adverse and intolerable effect on sustain? I could certainly see it affecting the strings as such but who knows really?

fret tech says:

Oct 19, 2010. 5:43 AM REPLY there is "recipe" for building *good* single coil pups - this applies to materials, design and process. deviating from "vintage" formulas can be fun stuff, but it's all pioneering and the results can range from horrible to spectacular. there are a number of pup designs that employed wrapping wire directly to bar mags. mags are essentially alnico, ceramic or neodymium - each of these come in a variety of "flavors", and all of this will affect the finished pup's tone and output. so many variables to deal with ..... Oct 26, 2009. 2:34 AM REPLY Ah, pay no attention to me. It just occurred to me that bar magnets are typically magnetized through the thickness not the width. I'd have deleted the comment to save me the egg on my face but some fellow out there may be wondering the same thing sometime.

Formatt says:

themadtreky says:

Oct 27, 2009. 7:00 PM REPLY i was looking at pictures of a "mini-humbucker" I might be wrong, but it looked like it had two bobbins wound around bar magnets, the placed on either side of a row of slugs.

Formatt says:
Similar idea but not the same. That would work because it's essentially the same as putting the magnets on the bottom. The N or S is still the same across the poles. In my scenario the magnet was the poles and both N and S would be acting on the string. Which may be a problem? I'm not sure.

Oct 29, 2009. 4:28 AM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

DK69 says:

Oct 4, 2010. 10:38 AM REPLY Yea you are basically right, it would cause major problems with many aspects of a pickup, drastically affect the sustain, harmonics, string vibration, resonant frequency, just about everything. The screw acts as a flux concentrator creating a sorta bump of flux lines beneath each string, the screws side by side sorta squeeze these bumps together making them more narrow, but extending them further outward and the string passes through the flux field. Your idea of a bar magnet is not as bad as you thought, but also not the best, but magnets CAN be polarized not only end to end but side to side as well, thing is, the flux it more outward in the middle and would really affect the outer strings. Just for curiosity sake, a ring magnet or donut shaped magnet can be made with multiple alternating poles on outer edge, it has to be a multiple of 2, like N&S, or a 4 pole N,S,N,S or an 8 pole is NSNSNSNS, they use these to measure turns or 1/4 turns or speed etc... along with magnetic sensors such as hall effect switches, HEY I just had an idea a linear hall effect electronic guitar pickup??? Its theoretically possible! Thanks for making me think LOL

zazarul says:
how use any screws

Oct 11, 2010. 1:10 AM REPLY

ski4jesus says:

Oct 10, 2010. 10:16 AM REPLY you dont have to have a microphone to record, the guitar IS the microphone. just plug your guitar into the amp, then plug the amp into your computer in the microphone input. then open the program "recorder"(the name varies on computers, but it is a default program) and record it into a file then post the file. good luck, ima try this when i get a chance haha

zazarul says:
how many turns?

Oct 6, 2010. 4:04 AM REPLY

GuitarPIayer says:

Apr 13, 2010. 3:43 PM REPLY Can you give me a little more detail on how to make the "crude rig"? (like what materials you used and how to put them together) I want to make one without ruining my guitar also :)

DK69 says:

Oct 4, 2010. 9:14 AM REPLY One easy thing to do to check that the pickup works, take a Guitar cord, plug it into your amp, the other end I would use 2 small gauge jumper wires (auto jumper cables too cumbersome LOL), or tape 2 wires, one to the other end of cords tip, and one to the shaft of plug, make sure tip and shaft are not shorted though (it wont harm anything,it just wont work) then the two wires or jumper wire clips should be connected to the pickup, make sure if magnet wire coating is removed, if regular hookup wire remove insulation, connect the wires/jumper clips from guitar cord to pickup, turn on amp, adjust to normal to slightly high volume, maybe increase gain, and hold a cell phone to pickups, you should hear a tic toc,,, from the internal clock when phone is on, or make a phone call with it against pickup, its cool! But this will NOT assure you didnt reverse 1 magnet or something even so it wont hurt, more or less it proves the pickup has no breaks internally and no major bad shorts, the ultimate test IS still connecting to a guitar, or holding the setup rig over guitar strings with hand and strumming! Its cool try it! Even with a regular guitar and amp hold your cell phone up to a pickup with amp on! HAVE FUN, AND many thanks to Leperello Mikesiah for publishing this article Apr 15, 2010. 11:46 AM REPLY I used speaker wire and attached the leads from the pickup to that. Then I attached the other end of the speaker wire to a 1/4 plug (the real name of it is escaping me at the moment...you can see it in the picture, it's the black thing). It's one of those that you don't have to solder. Then I plugged it into my amp, held the pickup over my guitar and strummed a bit, and it worked. I know this isn't the best explanation, let me know if anything needs clearing up. xD

Leperello Mikesiah says:

DK69 says:

Oct 4, 2010. 9:21 AM REPLY 1/4 inch mono phone plug, preferably shielded and again thanks for taking the time to publish this and answer so many questions, if only we could live as long as this article will : ) your name will be remembered forever now! take care, Dwayne Kimak

zazarul says:
Aaaa......how many turns

Oct 4, 2010. 5:40 AM REPLY

zazarul says:
hey,if using steel its okay or not..in screw

Sep 18, 2010. 12:07 AM REPLY

DK69 says:

Oct 2, 2010. 12:27 PM REPLY the screw can be a variety of metal compositions some work better than others the easiest way to look at it is take your magnet, see which screws you have that seem to stick the best to your magnet and use them they have more iron if they are same size, but experiment too, I say at first start with what u have with best attraction for first try at it

zazarul says:
OK.......thanks

Oct 4, 2010. 5:37 AM REPLY

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/

sockless says:

Jun 7, 2010. 10:26 PM REPLY I thought you needed magnets in a pickup. Or does a ferrous core work? As I'm guessing that the amp will magnetise the core.

DK69 says:
You need it magnetized

Oct 2, 2010. 1:29 PM REPLY

DK69 says:

Oct 2, 2010. 8:09 PM REPLY I was just thinking what I said earlier, I realized what you were saying, yea the pickup does use a magnet its in the part list, but I did not read yet how the author said to place it, but I understand what you were thinking, you are right a ferrous material in place of the screws would not become permanently magnetized, affecting the LONG TERM sound quality to some extent so ideally if you want a great pickup the pickups screws would be better off being a ferrous material, for others info the ferrous material he questioned is made of large amounts of iron powder, mixed with carbon and other stuff into an epoxy like material and formed to shape, just like the internal old A.M. antennas with the black ferrous rod and 4 thin wires wound on it. ferrous materials stick to magnets, but dont hold magnetic fields when removed. Just for a note though, Eddie Van Halen used screws to wind his own pickups used in songs like eruption, now duplicates are available signed by eddie, and go for about $500 each

davidpaul23 says:
can i wind the coil directly on the screws....

Sep 21, 2008. 5:30 AM REPLY

DK69 says:

Oct 2, 2010. 2:23 PM REPLY teflon tape being thin would help protect the first layer of windings, dont wrap it thick, even scotch 33 electrical is a lill thick, but he is saying after its all wound you dip it in wax to coat, and sink into the windings just to secure them, and keep humidity out, other places would soak them in varnish for a minute then let it drip dry to seal the windings

Leperello Mikesiah says:

you wrap the wire directly around the screws. Is that what you're wondering?

Sep 21, 2008. 8:04 AM REPLY

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