Zhangliqun
Questionologist
Started on single coils to keep it simple. I made two.
I bought the Stew Mac single coil kit and a couple of their neodymium boride mags for magnet charging (the A5 rod magnets come un-magnetized).
THE FIRST ONE was literally hand-wound, meaning without the help of any machine, about 4 hours to get about 8,000 turns on it. It came out at 7.7k, and I put a tap in it at 6.6k. This pickup was intended for the bridge of my Strat.
Because it was hand-wound, it was extremely scattered, looking like a ball of yarn. Plus I occasionally snagged the wire on a burr or on one of the lead eyelets and put on several hundred more turns before noticing the problem, meaning I either had to pull all the wire after the snag back off which meant the wire got bunched up in knots which meant I had to break the wire and splice it a few times.
Between these splices (taped off which took up some space) and the criss-cross scattering, the coil was, wide, fat and kinda loose and sponge-y. The tone was smooth and sweet but lacked the punch and bite I wanted. Almost like the supplied rod mags were Alnico 2 instead of the advertised A5.
THE SECOND ONE was wound using my variable speed drill. I had attempted to take the original stock bridge pu and add about 3,300 turns (for about 9.5k with a 7.2k tap) by hand but due to snags and knots, it didn't work out.
Frustrated and not being in the mood to spend another 4 hours hand-winding, I said screw it -- I cut all the original wire off this stock Fat 50's bridge pu, then ran a screw through the center holes in the flat work, then clamped the part of the screw extending below the bottom of the pickup in my drill. VOILA! Instant speed-winding. I'd seen the pickups being wound at UGD and was amazed at how fast those babies could turn without breaking or even putting any undue stress on the wire being wound onto the coil. Same with my drill. It seemed no amount of speed was capable of breaking the wire. It's apparently not quite as delicate and more forgiving than you would think.
I did learn the hard way, though, to tape off those lead eyelets and to sand down any burrs to avoid the wire snagging on them during winding.
So I ended up with a very neat, tight coil with plenty of room to spare for more wire, pretty close to the specs of 9.5k with a 7.2k tap that I wanted. The tone on this one was the dead opposite -- very bright with plenty of bite, but very hollow mids. Kind of cold, actually, even though it was almost 2k hotter. (P.S., I used #43 wire for both.)
My next trick will be to find the happy medium, and the following experiments will be employed:
1) Same wind but stopping occasionally to put some tape in to widen the coil some.
2) Start with #42 wire up to about 5.5k, then splice and wind it with #43 wire the rest of the way.
3) Wind slower with more of an effort to scatter the wind to create some of that "ball of yarn" effect/appearance. Or maybe stop the drill occasionally and hand-wind a few hundred turns.
I'll stop here before I hit the 4,000 limit.
I bought the Stew Mac single coil kit and a couple of their neodymium boride mags for magnet charging (the A5 rod magnets come un-magnetized).
THE FIRST ONE was literally hand-wound, meaning without the help of any machine, about 4 hours to get about 8,000 turns on it. It came out at 7.7k, and I put a tap in it at 6.6k. This pickup was intended for the bridge of my Strat.
Because it was hand-wound, it was extremely scattered, looking like a ball of yarn. Plus I occasionally snagged the wire on a burr or on one of the lead eyelets and put on several hundred more turns before noticing the problem, meaning I either had to pull all the wire after the snag back off which meant the wire got bunched up in knots which meant I had to break the wire and splice it a few times.
Between these splices (taped off which took up some space) and the criss-cross scattering, the coil was, wide, fat and kinda loose and sponge-y. The tone was smooth and sweet but lacked the punch and bite I wanted. Almost like the supplied rod mags were Alnico 2 instead of the advertised A5.
THE SECOND ONE was wound using my variable speed drill. I had attempted to take the original stock bridge pu and add about 3,300 turns (for about 9.5k with a 7.2k tap) by hand but due to snags and knots, it didn't work out.
Frustrated and not being in the mood to spend another 4 hours hand-winding, I said screw it -- I cut all the original wire off this stock Fat 50's bridge pu, then ran a screw through the center holes in the flat work, then clamped the part of the screw extending below the bottom of the pickup in my drill. VOILA! Instant speed-winding. I'd seen the pickups being wound at UGD and was amazed at how fast those babies could turn without breaking or even putting any undue stress on the wire being wound onto the coil. Same with my drill. It seemed no amount of speed was capable of breaking the wire. It's apparently not quite as delicate and more forgiving than you would think.
I did learn the hard way, though, to tape off those lead eyelets and to sand down any burrs to avoid the wire snagging on them during winding.
So I ended up with a very neat, tight coil with plenty of room to spare for more wire, pretty close to the specs of 9.5k with a 7.2k tap that I wanted. The tone on this one was the dead opposite -- very bright with plenty of bite, but very hollow mids. Kind of cold, actually, even though it was almost 2k hotter. (P.S., I used #43 wire for both.)
My next trick will be to find the happy medium, and the following experiments will be employed:
1) Same wind but stopping occasionally to put some tape in to widen the coil some.
2) Start with #42 wire up to about 5.5k, then splice and wind it with #43 wire the rest of the way.
3) Wind slower with more of an effort to scatter the wind to create some of that "ball of yarn" effect/appearance. Or maybe stop the drill occasionally and hand-wind a few hundred turns.
I'll stop here before I hit the 4,000 limit.
