You're onto a winner there Gav!Quote:
Originally Posted by stan
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You're onto a winner there Gav!Quote:
Originally Posted by stan
Stan, funny thing is, Wildfire is the same of one of MY pickup designs.... But if you / Gav want it I won't mind, having two different Wildfire pickups isn't that bigga deal!Quote:
Originally Posted by stan
Wildfire pickups - I love the sound of that :). Mind if I make a few Callum? Naming rights indeed Stan. All this before I've even touched any wire! Ha!!
cheers,
Gav.
thats a great name Gav Wildfire, now you got to make them live up to the name ! haha
Yeah I'm fine with it haha! My Wildfires are hot Strat pups. Got a few more names in the doc, but I think Stan may have hacked into my PC and stolen the file to get these names....Quote:
Originally Posted by gavinturner
Dont want to steal Callum's name if he had it first
Cant call them Up The Creek though...
Firestorm pickups then....
Haha "Up the Creek"!
Firestorm sounds cool and it's not on my list!
hi guys,
Finally received 2 rolls of 42-AWG from Stewmac. Now we are ready to rock n roll! I just need to find a spare 2 hours to get this "Firestorm" signature single coil set started! The first pickup will be the guinea pig to get all the resistance measurements done. Hopefully I can measure every 500 winds or so. Or should it be more frequent? Only a bit of experience will tell. To be honest, there isn't much point measuring before the 3K, 4K or even 5K mark, so it would be useful to know about where this starts.
cheers,
Gav.
AWG 42?
Crickey. That's is apparently 0.063mm in diameter. That is significantly less than 3/5's of 5/8's of a SBBH*.
You won't want to put much tension on that!!
* SBBH = Standard British Ball Hair
woohoo! Let the fun begin
That's why it is always recommended to use a bit of felt when holding the wire or use talcum powder.... And a VERY FINE touch!Quote:
Originally Posted by Rabbitz
Exciting times Gav!
Good one Gav best of luck. I'll be watching with interest. I'm keen to build a winder between all the builds
Thanks guys. It's time to actually see if I can get this done!
cheers,
Gav.
Slowly, slowly... argh
Attachment 3356
Good luck mate.
go at it Gav! Firestorms Rock!
I've read somewhere that about 5000 winds gives you a pickup in the lower end of the resistance scale, so it will be interesting to see the results
hi guys,
I finally got some time today to start wiring my first set of 3 single coil strat pickups. The first step in getting the pickups wound is to assemble the pole pieces into the flatwork, and that's what I ended up tackling. The pickup kit that I purchased from aliexpress.com came complete with the flatwork (with eyelets already inserted), alnico V polepieces (unmagnetised) and push back vintage wire to create all 3 pickups.
Attachment 3470
The pole pieces were already bevelled on one edge, removing one step in the process (phew). The pole pieces that came with the kit were the following sizes: 3x18.7mm, 1x18.3mm, 1x17.5mm and 1x19.8mm. Referring to the pickup winding guide from Stewmac as a rough tutorial, I assigned these pole sizes to the string positions as follows:
E: 18.3mm, A: 18.7mm, D:18.7mm, G: 19.8mm, B: 17.5mm, E:18.7mm
Using my regular hammer, I bashed the non-bevelled ends of the pole pieces into the bottom flatwork, making sure that the eyelets were facing up. In preparation for lacquering the completed bobbins, I also covered the eyelets with a little painters tape. It took more effort than I was expecting to get these pole pieces seated - the holes in the flatwork are quite a deal smaller than the diameter of the pole pieces themselves, and this combined with my sausage fingers meant that it took quite a bit of effort to get them hammered in.
Attachment 3471
With the pole pieces now in and standing, it was time to get the top flatwork installed. To make sure that it was installed at the correct height, I created two 11.5mm high guides out of plywood to sit either side of the pole pieces. Held in place with a rubber band, these allowed the top flatwork to be hammered home without mishap. To help me, I created a small tool from a piece of perspex whose 55mm diameter hole fit over each pole piece and allowed me to lower the flatwork around it. This was another useful hint from the stewmac winding guide, and it really saved my bacon!
Attachment 3473
Although it took a little bit of fiddling to get all the pole pieces lined up with the holes in the top flatwork (especially the lowest B string pole piece) I soon had all the pole pieces hammered through and looking great! After the first bobbin was assembled, I went on to complete the remaining two. Yet again it took more time than I was expecting (most time was taken with the initial hammering pole pieces into the bottom flatwork) but finally I had all three bobbins assembled and ready for the last step in their assembly.
Attachment 3474
This last step is to spray the entire bobbin with lacquer to make sure there's no electrical conductivity. This was achieved using the dregs of my White Knight acrylic cans from a previous build. I used a piece of hookup wire through the screw hole to hold each pickup for spraying and later hanging to dry. The painters tape hopefully stopped any lacquer from coating the eyelets!
Attachment 3475
So there you have it, 3 assembled strat pickup bobbins ready for step 2 in the process - magnetising the poles. I need to source some rare earth magnets from Jaycar during the week so that I can get this done, so stay tuned..
cheers,
Gav.
Cool. Lots of little processes in this ! I'm definitely keen to make something like this down the track so keep us posted mate. Loving it
awesome work Gav the bobbins look great ! Must be exciting times winding your own pickups after the long journey so far. Can't wait to hear these first batch of pups belting out some tunes !
I too am super keen to build one of these winders and make my own so watching with intererst
Should be sweet hearing the Firestorms! I'd do the eyelets last to eliminate the tape
Good stuff Gav, looking great.
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great progress Gav, and cool to see the process
Thanks guys. We'll see how it goes when the real action starts :).
cheers,
Gav.
Great step by step Gav, interesting to see the winding process as you progress.
Thanks Tony!
cheers,
Gav.
hi guys,
After a successful trip to Jaycar in search of rare-earth magnets, I'm ready for the second step in the winding of a set of single coil Stratocaster pickups - magnetising the pole pieces. To do this, two magnets are needed with opposing poles. The magnets are mounted with opposing poles facing each other and the pickup is passed between them.
Using my son's orienteering compass, I determined the polarity of each magnet and stuck them to the jaws of my nut-making vise with just enough room for the pickup bobbin to slide comfortably between them (nothing like wrestling some strong rare-earth magnets!).
Attachment 3489
Attachment 3490
Once the magnets were in place, I took each bobbin in turn and passed them through the gap. It was pretty damn hard keeping the pole pieces from sticking to the magnets! I did 40 passes with each bobbin to (hopefully) fully magnetise each Alnico V pole piece.
Attachment 3491
To allow for noise cancelling when the middle pickup is used in parallel with either the neck or bridge pickup, the middle pickup needs to be RWRP - or "reverse wind, reverse polarity". Half of this equation means that the polarity of the pole pieces for the middle pickup need to be the opposite of the others. Therefore, having passed the bridge and neck pickups through the magnets in a "north facing" configuration, for the middle pickup I reversed the direction to create a "south facing" polarity.
Attachment 3492
After more struggling against the pull of the magnets, a quick polarity test of all three pickups showed that I had succeeded in creating a "reverse polarity" middle pickup.
With the pole pieces magnetised, it's now time to crank up the winder and see if I can get some 42 AWG wire on these bad boys. Let's hope I don't break the wire first time out! I will be going quite slowly so fingers crossed for no mishaps. I will also be stopping every 500 winds or so to measure the resulting resistance of the coil. That should complicate the process quite nicely ;). Anyway, I need to go steal some nail polish before I continue on, so stay tuned for the next installment!
cheers,
Gav.
this is a really interesting detailed build thread Gav, had no idea there were this many steps/stages in building a pup.
You got nail polish on again that you need to remove before the next photos ?
I was just thinking Gav, couldn't you make some plastic runners so you can pass the poles through without getting stuck to either side? If I remember right from physics the plastic won't interrupt the magnetic field, only widening the distance between the magnets will.
2-3mm poly runners and just slide the poles through?
Food for thought anyway...
great idea Nicko, he can try that once he removes the nail polish haha
LOL Wokka. Not that I'm averse to a bit of nail polish if the occasion is right, but the polish is to re-coat the wire after I take a resistance reading ;).
Nick that's a great idea. At one stage i tried to use a pen to do something similar. maybe some perspex either side? Hmm will hunt around for candidate materials.
cheers,
Gav.
Hmm might be yet another great use for milk bottle plastic! Thanks Nick!
cheers,
Gav.
might need something thicker than milk bottle plastic Gav, those magnets have a fair bit of pull.
Had no idea what the nail polish was for Gav, thanks for clearing that up bro !
If you're planning on making a few sets it might be worth making a jig with the magnets flush in routed holes and using hard poly sheets on either side so it's more permanent and user friendly.
Cool idea! I'll definitely look into this Nick. Maybe I'll make some poly "covers" to go over each magnet so that they are open at the back (to stick to the vice) and covered on the pickup side.
cheers,
Gav.
worth making a jig Gav, sure you will come up with a cool design
might be worth making it adjustable width for humbuckers ?
somehow incorporate your cool little vice
Yeah that's the thing Woks. Needs to be fully adjustable for hums, p90s etc etc. Time for the thinking cap..
cheers,
Gav.
maybe you could attach a magnet the plastic guides (each side of the main magnet) and the main magnet sticks to the centre of the vice face.
Glue may work not suure you will have to experiment
Try getting a few slabs of perspex and drill a hole in two of them to get the magnets flush then glue the other sheets on top, kind of creating a sandwich, which can then be attached together and there's your jig!
Made a wire caddy today so that the spool can point towards the winding spindle. Didn't know how I was going to allow the wire to correctly roll off otherwise (without breaking it). This marks the final end to my winding procrastination - no more excuses!! :)
cheers,
Gav.
Now for the fun bit.....
Pro tip: Cut a square of chamois leather to hold the wire as you wind. This will reduce friction and the chance of breaking the wire (which is guaranteed the first few times until you get the hang of it)
Next fun project will be potting the pups.....