Meteorman
Tele-Afflicted
that's the same counter I bought, Marty.
you can see the yellow plastic sensor right under the motor in my set-up.
DIY Pickup winder
- Thread starter Meteorman
- Start date
that's the same counter I bought, Marty.
you can see the yellow plastic sensor right under the motor in my set-up.
Looks like I’m in good company. I’ve installed the same counter in my machine but haven’t used it yet.
I wound a lot of pickups on my DIY winder and found that slow and easy always got me great results. I don't sweat the RPMs and the scaterness of the windings makes for some really great tones. Most of the pickups I've wound I've used for many years now - so if it took 1/2 hour to wind a pickup - I'm totally good with that. I did get a MojoTone winder thinking eventually that it would help me to get more consistent winds to work through some experiments - and it is easier to use - but I'm not so sure my winding speed or layering of the wire is all that much better.
Meteorman
Tele-Afflicted
Put the winder to work last night.
seemed to produce 2 functional single coils, which I'll call a reasonable success for my first efforts.
8,400 winds of 42 on neck and 10,000 winds of 42 on bridge
Of course I haven't heard them in a guitar yet.
Still have to string wrap and wax pot.
have some technique bugs to work out on treatment of coil start and end leads
seemed to produce 2 functional single coils, which I'll call a reasonable success for my first efforts.
8,400 winds of 42 on neck and 10,000 winds of 42 on bridge
Of course I haven't heard them in a guitar yet.
Still have to string wrap and wax pot.
have some technique bugs to work out on treatment of coil start and end leads
RickyRicardo
Friend of Leo's
Nice job. I think the neck pickup is a little low on output though. A Tele neck pickup is usually wound with 43 and are in the 7.0 - 7.5 range. That's the fun of winding your own. You find your favorite method and figure out what sounds good to you.
RogerC
Poster Extraordinaire
Dude, I thought I was clear that no other projects were to get started until the Muzzlecaster was started and done 
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Meteorman
Tele-Afflicted
Yeah, I had no idea where it was gonna end up. I was just glad it wasn't infinity....
I did do some research and took some solace when I saw that 6 is in the "vintage" zone for a tele neck.
and also for Strat pickups, and some folks swear by strat pickups for the tele neck.
that's my story and I'm stickin to it....
Dude, I thought I was clear that no other projects were to get started until the Muzzlecaster was started and done
you were indeed good sir.... several years ago !
I believe you also agreed at that time to be the design consultant for said Muzzlecaster project, and I'm still waiting for the first set of drawings...
again, this is my story... I will not be dissuaded from it by shiny objects.... except homemade winders, and maybe a grossly overbuilt wax potting system, and...
Looks good. What kit did you use from ToneKraft? Which wire did you use?Put the winder to work last night.
seemed to produce 2 functional single coils, which I'll call a reasonable success for my first efforts.
8,400 winds of 42 on neck and 10,000 winds of 42 on bridge
Of course I haven't heard them in a guitar yet.
Still have to string wrap and wax pot.
have some technique bugs to work out on treatment of coil start and end leads
lookin' good... a little tip you may want to follow.. many winders cut two little notches at the solder points. This so the 42 AWG is kind of protected.. it only takes a momentary lapse to brush those winds at the ferrule to cit them ... one side is no problem, but on the other,, it can be a nightmare...
r
r
His is about where the number was for the neck pickup in a 52 Clone set I got from Mojotone. Certainly not 52 specs, being wound with 42 awg, and it was way too Strat like for my taste. I guess that's what a lot of folks want though.
Looks awesome! I always found that winding my own Tele Bridge pickups to be some of the most rewarding projects - mine always need potting to play at any volume that approaches being at stage volume. I had to warm up to the tone of the neck pickup wound with 42 wire a bit, what I found out in the process is that it made the Tele even more versatile and unique and I raised the height of the neck pickup a bit, added a bit more overdrive on the preamp and used the volume and tone to dial in the tone I wanted. The neck pickup with 42 wire is not really a Strat or a Tele - kind of a mix of the two where the neck and bridge pickup played together was a lot more useful then with a Tele neck pickup wound with 43 wire.
Meteorman
Tele-Afflicted
this telecaster flatwork was from Philadelphia Luthiers.
I have some P90 kits from Tone Kraft coming in the mail - hopefully - been waitin a while.
that's Remington/Elektrisola 42awg poly
excellent tip - thank you good sir - had not seen that in my YouTube research.
One source (and I agree with it 100% now) suggested the multiple wrap of the coil start tag end around the eyelet BEFORE winding the coil - I didn't do that - I did the eyelet wrapping for both ends AFTER the coil was wound.
Futzing around with the start lead at that point, when one booboo fouls the whole punchbowl, was kinda nerve wracking
that's comforting, and supports my self-delusional story for why I used 42 in the neck.
the real backstory is I just haven't shelled out for any 43 wire yet.
I'm the guy (aka the cheap sum-bee) that likes to ease into things
42 and 41 wire have a more responsive and less compressed sound IMO than 43 - but 43 on the Tele Neck pickup is a great fit for more of a Jazz tone. My favorite Tele Neck pickup is done with 42 wire where it had about 6k of wire and then, because the AL5 magnets made it sound a bit thin, I wanted to thicken the tone a bit so I soldered some more wire on the end and wound it out to 6.7k where I needed to use teflon tape around the wind to get the cover on. I originally did it with 42 wire because 43 was tougher to wind and thought it was worth an experiment and ended up really liking it.
The Tele bobbin is an interesting one because the wire is wound tight to the magnetic field but the bobbin is really high - which I think makes the tone a bit deeper: Just the opposite of the P90 which I think is generally mid-heavy.
RickyRicardo
Friend of Leo's
I do my neck pickups with A3 mags, 43 wire and around 8500 - 9000 winds. It's what I think a neck pickup on a Tele should sound like and using A#3 means I can put on a few more winds. Of course that's very subjective.
I'm not sure where this guy got his info but I've tried out some of the specs and have been happy.
http://www.skguitar.com/SKGS/sk/pickup_specs.htm
and this one:
http://www.guitarhq.com/pickups.html
I think I got the same one (offa eBay, but the sensor and counter look the same). It’ll handle the max speed of my motor, as I recall.
crazydave911
Doctor of Teleocity
Well Strat in the neck of a Tele is my preference and I've never messed with #43 though when I started winding it was #44 on Teisco pickups lol. Lately I've been experimenting with neodymium magnets that you are supposedly never supposed to use lol. One thing I will say with them is less is more. The one I made for my latest Snakehead conversion was 6.1k (my favorite neck wind) and I used the short 1/4 X 1/4 neodymium magnets and as others have noted neos tend to bring out the bass and I love the squishy jazz tones and a bonus, made it reverse polarity and in the middle position combined with the twangy bridge pickup it becomes a VERY flexible humbucker and did great justice to Allman Brothers songs, especially Melissa, my fave . As always YMMV
. As always YMMV 
SnidelyWhiplash
Friend of Leo's
I have an older Fender neck pup in my 50s T-style. It reads 5.7k & it sounds great. You can't always go by #s.
crazydave911
Doctor of Teleocity
AmenI have an older Fender neck pup in my 50s T-style. It reads 5.7k & it sounds great. You can't always go by #s.
Barncaster
Doctor of Teleocity
BARNY!
