Coating wire while winding?

T

Thaddeus j woopie

New member
The coils in old tube radios were all coated with either varnish, shellac or wax during the winding process, after setting coils are firm and hold shape.
Any feedback on doing this with pickups?
 
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Re: Coating wire while winding?

Do you mean after winding was finished? That is called wax potting, where you melt wax into a pot, heat it, and put a pickup in it. I don’t know about in the middle of winding. Shellac is a sealer and I’ve seen that being used before wire is put on.
 
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Re: Coating wire while winding?

Not potting post winding. Coating shellac onto wire as it is being wound, say if the guide rod and stops were wet with shellac, as the wire passes over the rod it would coat the wire as it is layed down just like old radio coils.
 
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Re: Coating wire while winding?

There is no need to do that with pickups. I think some single coil pickups or Tele pickups may have been varnished after winding to help with microphonic's, but not humbuckers. That is part of the charm of PAF style pickups. If you're going to use your pickups for high gain playing then you should wax pot them when you're done.
 
Re: Coating wire while winding?

Do you mean after winding was finished? That is called wax potting.... Shellac is a sealer and I’ve seen that being used before wire is put on.
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Not only no, but hell no. Using shellac or varnish used to be an acceptable way of keeping the wire in place and relatively undamaged in electric motors and other items with coils of wire. Wax potting is an easy, acceptable way to do pickups since they have no moving parts.
 
Re: Coating wire while winding?

I understand that it is not necessary, but is it detrimental to performance. I have strange ideas for coils but no room for bobbins.
 
Re: Coating wire while winding?

One of the key advantage of unpotted pickups is an extra depth to tone. Your idea is like potting. So yes there can be a downside. If you want the potted resistance to feedback practically any other method of doing it is better than your idea.
 
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