(Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

[Greyum]

As I have a lot of free time over Christmas this year I’m doing a guitar build (upgrade) and I’m wondering peoples thoughts on winding your own pickups by hand or rewinding an older pickup to see if you can get more life out of it?

It’s a lot of work so I’d be only doing it if there is a clear “yes this will vastly improve your pickup” as 42 gauge wire is tricky to handle (but I have previous experience dealing with sensitive equipment.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

It's better to start off winding your own instead of trying to rewind a pickup. Rewinding can be a whole lot more difficult, and all you can do is change the wind pattern or reduce the amount of wire, plus theirs a big risk of damaging the pickup if you don't know what you're doing.

When I started off I just bought a big spool of wire and Asian single coil copies, then I got into humbuckers and finally rewinding.

 

[jeremy]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

#32 wire is huge for pups. most pups use #42 or #43, some go smaller with #44 or #45 and ive seen as big as #38 but never #32. doesnt mean you couldnt do it i just dont know what to expect

 

[Greyum]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

#32 wire is huge for pups. most pups use #42 or #43, some go smaller with #44 or #45 and ive seen as big as #38 but never #32. doesnt mean you couldnt do it i just dont know what to expect

Typo, I meant 42

 

[AlexR]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

The main skill for winders is in fact winding. It is most likely that your first dozen attempts or so will go badly wrong. Then once you succeed in getting wire onto the bobbin you then have to learn how to wind to make something worth putting in a guitar (as in better than even the cheapy pickups you get for $20).

 

[zionstrat]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

The main skill for winders is in fact winding. It is most likely that your first dozen attempts or so will go badly wrong. Then once you succeed in getting wire onto the bobbin you then have to learn how to wind to make something worth putting in a guitar (as in better than even the cheapy pickups you get for $20).

I still use primitive winding gear (sewing machine and my fingers for tension and completely agree... It took 5 or so coils before they weren't too lose or constantly breaking wire, so plan on a learning curve.

Also agree that winding your own design will give u far better results because you learn from mistakes.

When I rewind, it's usually to save a favorite pup, and even then, I pass on most.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[AlexR]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

I have never tried winding myself.......but from all accounts you have to go into it thinking of acquiring a new hobby, NOT in order to save money or think you will be able to save time with tone chasing (your ability to put wire on a bobbin knowing how it will sound is probably a good 1- 2 years worth of experience away).

Not only will the consumable parts probably cost you more than a SD pickup pair would do, but then you have to get the tools and setup to wind them.

 

[jeremy]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

go price a 5lb spool of #42 nom/max pe from mws, this is not a cheap hobby to get into if you are serious about it. its a lot of fun and once you get decent you can make some cool stuff on a whim.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

go price a 5lb spool of #42 nom/max pe from mws, this is not a cheap hobby to get into if you are serious about it. its a lot of fun and once you get decent you can make some cool stuff on a whim.

Off topic, wondering if there have been threads on good wire at discount?
I buy spools from wherever the price seems best and haven't noticed quality issues, but imagine I may have been lucky.

 

[Davii]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

I've been getting 1kg reels for around £30, but the price has gone down all of a sudden, so that price might be temporary.

I sold a guitar to fund a CnC mini coil winder, with the anticipation of combining an interest in doing my own thing, via a programming route if I wanted to. At the point I started selling some of my efforts on eBay a couple of months ago, I'd spent circa £1500. Admittedly, 50% of that was the winding machine, but the rest was (and conitues to be!) lots of smaller purchases that can quickly mount up :O

So much fun though, and I'd hoped to share working on it all with my Dad, but unfortunately cancer was out to get him before we could

 

[Greyum]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

So much fun though, and I'd hoped to share working on it all with my Dad, but unfortunately cancer was out to get him before we could

Feels...

I got into guitar because of my dad, he showed me my first chords as he was fighting cancer as he was having trouble playing the chords near the end. I now practise using his acoustic on loan from my mom.

The second guitar I want to make is a bit of tribute to him (as it will be flat top so I can veneer it properly but it likely will have to made from scratch).

But I digress, I've order some pickups parts. My plan is to handwind them using modified manual egg beater and a vice... yes the wire is a bit pricey but I'm planning to try a few things to see how they turn out.
What ever pickups I decide don't work for my final guitar projects will be sold, hopefully enough to cover their cost, but more so I don't end up with pick-ups everywhere... I live in an apartment for the next few years.

 

[AlexR]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

The key, I have heard from new winders, is getting the tension right. The first few attempts I think usually results in broken wire. A quick perusal of the reviews from wire sellers backs this up.....

I really hope I'm wrong here......but I doubt you'd get anyone to buy the pickups you wind initially that you don't want - unless your friends can audition them. Given each one will have almost $40-50 of parts, someone unknown will simply buy GFS to get something cheap, or Duncan if they want something that has a guarantee and a known tone.

good luck.

 

[Greyum]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

I really hope I'm wrong here......but I doubt you'd get anyone to buy the pickups you wind initially that you don't want - unless your friends can audition them.

Fair comment, however I only have 1 semi-hollow guitar at the moment and I’m looking at making 1 eventually 2 guitars (after that who knows). So if I make/modify a pickup and it’s good but not my ‘style’ I’m not going to trash it. Wire ain’t cheap so I’d rather see if I can sell it to someone else even if it’s at a ‘loss’, a drawer full of unused pickups does nobody any good.

If people like them, well will go from there but I’m not holding my breath.

I’m also exploring options of recombining coils into different humbucker sets, so that a bit less winding and more soldering.

 

[Davii]

Re: (Re)-Winding your own pick-ups?

One thing that caught me out, was the type of bobbin the wire was on - smaller ones, 250g ones in my case, were intended to be rotated as the wire came off, and not over the top of a stationary one. What tends to happen, is the wire snags on the bobbin, causing a break, and Davii has a hissy fit. I was simply ignorant to this, and although it's not an issue with the larger 1kg reels, they were too expensive for me when starting off, so it wasn't until I was angrily venting my frustration at the wire vender that I found out what was going on!