CuNiFe Exists! ( a little )

T

Tele-Bob

New member
Not selling anything here, just showing a cool project we just finished and thought you guys might enjoy seeing.

I am only posting this in the interest of showing something kinda cool.

We managed to procure some old CuNiFe rod and made some pickup frames, base plates, bobbins and threaded CuNiFe magnets. Here's a photo of our parts alongside Fender's vintage originals.

WRHBsidebysidelo-res.jpg


Here's a raw sound clip: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9143568

My Tele Re-issue Thinline through my Rivera Chubster 40 with a dash of reverb and a dead flat EQ. Raw.
 
Re: CuNiFe Exists! ( a little )

That's a really cool project. Sounds really good too, nice work, dude. :fing2:
 
Re: CuNiFe Exists! ( a little )

Well, after hearing the excellent job you've done with the project with the threaded alnico poles, I didn't think you could top it... the only thing I've got to say is: I stand corrected!

Great job, Bob. You should be proud of yourself.

I wish you all the luck in the world if this ever turns into a commercial venture.
 
Re: CuNiFe Exists! ( a little )

Tele-Bob said:
We managed to procure some old CuNiFe rod
Click to expand...
sounds interesting. Too bad fender couldn't do that for their 72 RI tele 'buckers. Those things would sell like hot cakes if they actually sounded like the originals. The 72s happen to be something pretty unique in fenders history, IMO. They look bad-ass.
one could make a killing if they had enough cunife magnet to make a good run of wide-range repros. the dang original ones get up to $400 on ebay.
 
Re: CuNiFe Exists! ( a little )

FuseG4 said:
sounds interesting. Too bad fender couldn't do that for their 72 RI tele 'buckers. Those things would sell like hot cakes if they actually sounded like the originals. The 72s happen to be something pretty unique in fenders history, IMO. They look bad-ass.
one could make a killing if they had enough cunife magnet to make a good run of wide-range repros. the dang original ones get up to $400 on ebay.
Click to expand...

This p'up set was designed by Seth Lover while he was working for Fender, and they have an unique sound.

Too bad that commercially never really took off.
 
Re: CuNiFe Exists! ( a little )

Can this CuNiFe stuff really be that hard to make?? I mean, they're all pretty common metals, its just a question of getting the proportions right... Right?
 
Re: CuNiFe Exists! ( a little )

Thanks for the kind words guys. We have worked really hard on this and when I discovered a stash of CuNiFe, decided to go ahead and make something with it!

The tough thing about making CuNiFe is that it needs to be manufactured as close to it's finished form as possible. In other words, if you're making .210 diameter threaded rod magnets, the CuNiFe needs to be manufactured in rod form close to the final, finished diameter.

Bear with me, I have learned more about this stuff than I ever wanted to know because I had to know the material I bought would actually work in this project. Not all CuNiFe will!

During the final heating/annealing process, a very strong magnetic influence is applied to the CuNiFe to orient the magnetic properties of the material. If you were to take a 12" x 12" x 12" block of CuNiFe and try to machine these parts from it, they probably wouldn't work because of the material's magnetic orientation.

In short, someone having this material made, would also need to have it "oriented" and that means "custom run" to the tune of $60K for starters.

I have enough for about 30 pickups that will all be spoken for before we can even finish making them, the reason I'm not pushing to sell anything here, just share the info.

In our research, we have also turned up a few interesting facts concerning WRHB's.

1) CuNiFe really needs to be re-charged every 20 years or so. ALL of the pickups we have tested, dismantled, re-wound, or passed through our hands have had weak magnets. They measured about 30% of their potential gauss rating. We have taken several dismal sounding WRHBs and simply charged the magnets restoring them to their former glory! But you need to do it with an industrial strength electronic magnet charger. Passive magnets do not sufficiently charge this material. ( I told you I know more about this stuff than I ever wanted to know! LOL! )

2) Fender used at least 3 different spec bobbins and two different wire types, (enamel & poly) in winding their WRHBs. The spec is supposed to be 6800 winds but the few dead coils we've unwound had a count closer to 6600 winds. All of these variations on specs make a noteable difference in sound. The reason you may like or dis-like these pickups may very well have to do with the particular spec and magnet gauss you tried.

All WRHB's are NOT created equally!
 
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Re: CuNiFe Exists! ( a little )

Tele-Bob said:
In short, someone having this material made, would also need to have it "oriented" and that means "custom run" to the tune of $60K for starters.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's a lot of money for the magnets only... I understand now why no one has tried again to make'em, not even Fender, that gave the p'up reissues to the Koreans with very close to appaulling results, I may add.

At this point, it'll be more economic to tune-up the recipe to threaded Alnico, isn't it Bob? I have that clip of the first prototypes you've made somewhere, I thought they sounded awesome!

Or you're going to the faithful reproduction no matter what?

Lemme know how things work out for you. Best of lucks!
 
Re: CuNiFe Exists! ( a little )

CuNiFe is out there and being manufactured for use in "highly corrosive" applications like immersion in sea water and such. People use it for seals and fittings and have it manufactured close to they're finished product. The problem is, their finished products are not close enough to what we'd all like to use this stuff for so, even if we could get their scrap, it probably wouldn't be useable.

I was able to find about 15 feet of LOL!, NOS CuNiFe? It's .250 in diaamtere and I have to turn it down to .212 before threading it, well within the material specs for machining. Once that's gone, I doubt I'll be able to find more but I'll keep looking. I can be pretty tenacious when I'm on the hunt for something, but it's taken me two years to dig this stuff up!

Thanks for the positive sentiments! We're just thrilled to have finally broken the CuNiFe drought, if only for a brief time.
 
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