How does poly-coated wire make an electrical connection?

[MichaelScottPerkins]

About to wind my first pickup: Strat Style. Alnico 5 poles, 42 AWG poly-coated wire, All Stewmac stuff.

1. If 42-43 AWG is coated, either poly or enamel,when you first tie it to the brass eyelet of a bobbin, how does the poly-coated wire make an electical connection? Does the heat of the solder when you solder all the wires to the eyelets etc melt the poly/enamel and just connects that way, or does one need to carefully strip 42 AWG wire?
2. If the thin wire does snap while I'm winding the pickup... what do I do? Will the wire just scatter off the bobbin and end up like a birds nest in my hand, or can one recover? Do you need to unwind, and re-wind to make sure the tension stays at lest remotely the same? And again... if the wire snaps, do you have to strip the wire to tie it back on to the spool and continue? How else will it make a connectioin to itself? Do you solder the tiny connection?
3. Is it advisable to take a resistance reading while the bobbin is still on the winder, or do you pretty much have to take it off, take a reading, and then reattach it if you are not where you wanted to be yet?

These probably all seem like such obvious question to you guys, but to me, none of the online videos that I've seen address these three topics.

Thanks guys!

 

[AlexR]

Re: How does poly-coated wire make an electrical connection?

You need to scrape/melt off the coating to do soldering.

The most pressing concern of any new winder is to be able to wind a full bobbin and keep the wire intact. I think a breakage means start again.....based on the tales from experienced winders.

You cannot really/practically take an ohms reading mid wind - as there is no connection until you strip the coating, and the coating is there to prevent unwanted shorting. Winders will wind to turn count, as K varies based on tension and room temp amongst other things. Plus, until you have wound for a few years you are not going to know how your target pickup is going to sound. I would doubt that, even if every time you hit your say 6k target as your ideal strat pickup, any of the pickups you wound in the first 12 months would sound the same.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

How does poly-coated wire make an electrical connection?

A common magnet wire is SPN, which is solderable poly nylon. The insulation burns off when you solder.

Some people also scrape the insulation off.

You can splice wire, but it’s tricky.

You shouldn’t wind to a resistance. You wind by the number of turns.


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