Fiber Bobbin Humbucker

[Silence Kid]

Me sitting, thinking about dumb things:

Why wind humbuckers with plastic bobbins? Seems like you could stuff more winds in by eliminating the plastic surrounding the slugs; you'd sacrifice adjusting screws on one coil and one would need to re-think the baseplate screws... Actually, why bother with a baseplate (you could glue or sandwich a magnet in there?) Fender singles don't need them to mount; only tabs poking out from the bobbin are necessary. Funny that no winder of repute would bother with a plastic bobbin on a boutique single and only things like Fender Tex Mex pickups or lower utilize them, but plastic bobbins are relied on for humbuckers.

On a certain level it's 'unnecessary' and every (to my knowledge) humbucker has gotten along well without fiber bobbins... But it seems more intuitive to me?

 

[LtKojak]

Re: Fiber Bobbin Humbucker

You seem to have a lot of time on your hands... I envy you!

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Fiber Bobbin Humbucker

Duncan has made some plastic bobbin Strat singles. They would be just a smidge brighter. I have a certain model that I make in both forbon and plastic and that's how I know this.

 

[thanaton]

Re: Fiber Bobbin Humbucker

Me sitting, thinking about dumb things:

Why wind humbuckers with plastic bobbins? Seems like you could stuff more winds in by eliminating the plastic surrounding the slugs; you'd sacrifice adjusting screws on one coil and one would need to re-think the baseplate screws... Actually, why bother with a baseplate (you could glue or sandwich a magnet in there?) Fender singles don't need them to mount; only tabs poking out from the bobbin are necessary. Funny that no winder of repute would bother with a plastic bobbin on a boutique single and only things like Fender Tex Mex pickups or lower utilize them, but plastic bobbins are relied on for humbuckers.

On a certain level it's 'unnecessary' and every (to my knowledge) humbucker has gotten along well without fiber bobbins... But it seems more intuitive to me?

It's mostly authenticity for it's own sake. Once you change one thing, you might as well change a few more, and before you know it, there's no historic integrity to speak of. That was the mentality of the 80's, they saw up a Strat just to install a Floyd Rose, and now today's market just sees it as a desecrated vintage Strat.

Fender was using plastic bobbin pickups in their Am. Std for a while, though now they're installing Fat 50's, so while vintage correctness used to be a niche thing, it's becoming more prized, probably due to the influence of the Internet. The plastic pickups sounded fine, though.

Interestingly, the TV Jones Magna'tron is made with two fiber bobbins with AlNiCo pole pieces, though there is still a base plate and lot of other business going on.