"Wax potting" with caulk?

[Mincer]

Is wax really so expensive or difficult to work with that we need an alternative to it for potting pickups?

I've used wax for years and never had any problems or wished for something easier or better.

Maybe some people like finding solutions for problems that don't exist.

I think it was just that someone had no idea how wax works, or what it does. They figured that calk is similar to wax and that's what I have on hand....

 

[freefrog]

For the record, wax is often evoked as killing the "aliveness" of humbuckers played clean... As a matter of fact it increases stray capacitance and can kills the "good" microphony that some players appreciate in vintage Gibson humbuckers. That's why some winders use other materials (like lacquer) or do "flash potting", to keep wax outside the coils.

And objectively, there's technical limitations to wax potting.

Personally, I wouldn't try to wax pot a vintage pickup with butyrate bobbins, for example, unless I would want its bobbins to melt and warp.

So, IMHO and IME, alternative solutions are viable - and handy when it comes to immunize agaisnt squeal a costly vintage pickup without pulling it off the guitar nor submitting it to a mechanical / thermal stress.

For instance, I'm glad to have used soft silicone tape around loose screw poles in a P90 instead of wax: it works, it's reversible and the bobbin+coil were not harmed by manipulation or warmth (knowing that bobbin material becomes brittle with time in P90's and can then break easily).

Same thing with a DynaSonic that I've dampened with adhesive tape between bobbin and cover: it cured the squeal and ensured a structural integrity of the whole assembly without all the steps required by wax potting...

But each on his own, uh?

FOOTNOTE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOhkQK75edc

And a side note too: all that being said, I wouldn't recommend to dampen a pickup with a soft material pressing the coil wire. It can have a really detrimental effect on the resonant peak...

 

[Mincer]

After using non-potted pickups for a few years, I get it. As long as there isn't crazy volume and preamp gain, there is something to it.

 

[Demanic]

I can imagine that unpotted pickups going into a clean amp with moderate volume, probably sound fantastic. Either tube or ss.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[SweetClyde99]

I just used a tiny blob of clear silicone caulk to fix a microphonic pickup cover. It never occurred to me to just kill the whole tube inside the pickup.