beezelbubba
Shitty Buddhist
How the hell do you wind w/42 gauge wire without breaking it.
This stuff is as thin as hair!
This stuff is as thin as hair!
Pickup winding ? for Muttley, JCH, or any of you other fools
- Thread starter beezelbubba
- Start date
beezelbubba : No doubt StewMac will want to sell you some machine to do it for several hundred dollars. I wish GFS, Allparts or WDmusic etc would start competing with them in the luthier tool department, Their prices are just too much for some home hobbyists and they really don't have much if any competion, pretty much a monopoly on the market. And there's better paints out there than colortone, Better hardware and a fair few better and cheaper luthier tools out there. (although they do have several really good books on building and setting up guitars)
muttley600
Banned
How the hell do you wind w/42 gauge wire without breaking it.
This stuff is as thin as hair!
lol, yeh it's pretty much thinner than that and more fragile...
What are you trying to wind onto? Are you using a winder of any type or trying by hand.
As far as handling the wire itself you need to just let it come off the spool which should be stood on it's end on the floor.
If you hunt through the HR build thread and my LP build thread there is some stuff in there on how I do it. Both are linked in the top sticky but I can't remember which page so just scroll through. JCH has a slightly better setup and is a little more ahead of the curve than I am on winding so he may chip in. Let us know what you are attempting and how? I know from your past threads that you will find your own way in the end..
I have some videos somewhere of my winder and I'll try and link to them..
beezelbubba
Shitty Buddhist
LOL. I'm using a rather Rube Goldbergeque device made from an old sewing machine, a mic stand (holding the wire spool, which is small,) and a six pack of IPA.lol, yeh it's pretty much thinner than that and more fragile...
What are you trying to wind onto? Are you using a winder of any type or trying by hand.
As far as handling the wire itself you need to just let it come off the spool which should be stood on it's end on the floor.
If you hunt through the HR build thread and my LP build thread there is some stuff in there on how I do it. Both are linked in the top sticky but I can't remember which page so just scroll through. JCH has a slightly better setup and is a little more ahead of the curve than I am on winding so he may chip in. Let us know what you are attempting and how? I know from your past threads that you will find your own way in the end..
Far too embarrassing to subject myself to the ridicule of posting pics.Time to brows your threads.
muttley600
Banned
OK, first thing is dont use anything to hold the spool of wire. Set it on the floor on it's end and let the wire just run off as it's needed. To tension it as the winder turns you are best just letting it run between the tips of your fingers as they pinch but not hold the wire. It's a feel thing.
Here's the winder I put together and I still use it with a few modifications these days. I must have done well over 200 bobbins on ti by now...
https://homerecording.com/bbs/equipment-forums/guitars-basses/pick-up-winder-build-hr-design-build-guitar-347930/
I have a video somewhere but I'm fucked if I can find it... Hang on..
Here's the winder I put together and I still use it with a few modifications these days. I must have done well over 200 bobbins on ti by now...
https://homerecording.com/bbs/equipment-forums/guitars-basses/pick-up-winder-build-hr-design-build-guitar-347930/
I have a video somewhere but I'm fucked if I can find it... Hang on..
JCH
El Nacho
Very cool. I'm excited for you that you're giving this a try. As muttley mentioned the only way to de-spool the wire is from the end. Using your fingers to tension the wire takes a little practice, but you'll get the hang of it. I did it that way for years, but now I use felt tensioners even when hand winding. It helps by keeping things consistent, and it's one less thing that you need to concentrate on while winding. Some people prefer holding the wire with a piece of felt, or cloth while they guide it, though I never felt it was needed. I still wind most of the fender style pickups guiding by hand, but I built an automatic traverse machine a while back that I use for everything else.How the hell do you wind w/42 gauge wire without breaking it.
This stuff is as thin as hair!
Try going slow 'til you get the feel for it. You'll be fine. 42AWG is the biggest wire I use. You should see some 44
That stuff's THIN!Here's my automatic machine;
@shoom, Showing some genuine interest, or advising from actual experience are beneficial contributions to a discussion. Stating negative opinions about something of which you know very little only makes you look foolish.
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muttley600
Banned
OK...
Talk me through the multimetre part?
Talk me through the multimetre part?
JCH
El Nacho
I'm using it as a tachometer. When I built the optical interrupter switch for the counter, I included extra wires to connect the multimeter's frequency counter. 20hz = 1,200rpm.
Keeping the winding speed constant helps with the accuracy of the tension.
muttley600
Banned
I can build wind and pot any pickup I want cheaper and to a spec of my own. Surprisingly there are not many options for floating pickups out there and most are pretty crap..and I like to handwind rather than machine wound.. also because I can. By your argument why bother to do anything when you can pay to have it done?
---------- Update ----------
OK, so essentially it's a counter...
JCH
El Nacho
I got into it initially after reading the experiences of others, and to challenge myself with a new skill. There are certainly many pickups available for sale, and the majority of those are made with the production cost as the main criteria. The pickups made with the finest components, and the most skill can be very expensive to buy, but I can make them myself for a small fraction of market prices. I have control of all of the variables that affect the final result, and there are many to consider. I take pride in knowing that those that I make in my garage are comparable to the finest available. I have nothing against those who praise cheap pickups, but there are better choices.
No, it's not a counter at all. It only tells me how fast the bobbin is rotating so I can duplicate a pickup under identical conditions. The winding speed can affect the tension, shape of the coil, and with it the tone. I'm eliminating one of the variables.
muttley600
Banned
JCH
El Nacho
My counter is totally separate. It sits atop the machine, on the little angled block. The multimeter is measuring the RPM in real time. By keeping track of the
RPM I'm able to duplicate a pickup with more precision. The multimeter is measuring Hertz/cycles per second. 20hz equals 1200 rpm. (20x60) I made a lot of great sounding pickups by hand guiding, and scatterwinding, but the results were random. If I keep track of the turns per layer, tension, and rpm, my results are predictable.
RPM I'm able to duplicate a pickup with more precision. The multimeter is measuring Hertz/cycles per second. 20hz equals 1200 rpm. (20x60) I made a lot of great sounding pickups by hand guiding, and scatterwinding, but the results were random. If I keep track of the turns per layer, tension, and rpm, my results are predictable.
beezelbubba
Shitty Buddhist
Originally, the idea was to custom size my pickups to the instruments(cellos) I'm building, which are completely haphazard and arbitrary in dimensions, such as string spacing, string height, etc. It's kind of gone beyond that now, to just wanting to know how it's done.
beezelbubba
Shitty Buddhist
What do you mean by handwind? Not using a motorized winder?
muttley600
Banned
Not really. What I do and JCH has just saying he used to do is hand winding (using a mechanical winder but laying the turns on by hand much like a sewing machine). Machine winding is closer to what JCH is now doing by automating as much as the process as possible such as tensioning the wire as it winds and laying the wire in even layers. I prefer hand winding because I can scatter the windings on the boobin but as JCH says the results although entirely acceptable are less predictable.
Essentially hand winding means you do it on the fly. Machine winding means you set it up to do it uniformly... There is a difference but not one you need to worry about yet..
There are a bunchy of good ideas for DIY winders on you tube and many are very low budget and ingenious. It's how I got into this a few years back until JCH finally talked me into having a proper go...
muttley600
Banned
for my own reference. I think it helps a little. I know all about doing it by feel as that's how I did it for years.
jimistone
long standing member
You're a guitar builder. If I was a guitar builder and selling guitars and also repairing guitars I would see a need to wind pickups. I would invest in the equipment and learn the craft of winding pickups. Not being a guitar builder and more of a guitar assembler or alterer....I would either buy the pickup I want or pay someone experienced who has the knowhow and equipment...like you...to wind my pickups to my specification.
That being said, I like to learn knew things and aquire new skills. From that angle I totally get why someone would go to the trouble when they don't have the tools or the know how.