Benson Pickups, Fender Squier upgrade

[stan]

hey tony, I dont know what the medium means either, i guessed it might have something to do with the ohms. I might be right, or completely wrong, I don't know.

as for the rest, we'll have to see how they sound, if it's good, I don't mind if they are made of unicorn poop, haha.

wokka: just to make it tricky, these are righty knobs on my lefty LP. The pots are lefty as well, so I wind to 1 to increase the noise (they didnt have lefty ones at the time...):

[tonyw]

Yep true Stan doesnt matter if they are rolled in cow turd as long as they sound good.

I just get sick of the crud winders go on with about this and that, a great wound pickup is a great wound pickup, whether you did it on a singer sowing machine or a $10000 unit.

I guess the BS will never stop with these guys.

[stan]

true mate, i guess it's a way to try and sound different from the other brands decriptions

as for the A3 middle, I have no idea, but perhaps it is to give a contrast to the punchier A5s, mellows them down a bit when switched together, not sure.

I might just send the man himself an email

[tonyw]

I wind what i call a bomber, A5 on the bottom 3 A2 on the top 3 a B52 now that sounds different.

I also wind a A5 fatter magnet with a larger bobbin now that punches, you dont fit a strat cover on those babies.

But i never claim to have the mystic and mojo winders try and spruke about their coils, its sales crud. You want a 54 strat pup? i will drag out the heavy formvar wack about 7950-7960 scatter wind clockwise, A5 mag North polarity about 5.8k. Is it a 54 strat pickup? no just an attempt to replicate it...

[stan]

i think you'd wind a mean P90 tony...

[tonyw]

I have a pair ready to be wound mate

Stock P90: 42 plain enamel 10,000 turns counter clock wise approx 8.0k using A3 or A5. Back in the day Gibson used whatever was available A3 or A5 in magnets and all machine wound.

[Andy40]

Lookin good Stan...cant wait to hear 'em sing!

[stan]

thanks Andy, me too

[stan]

OK, some more soldering fun...
Remember that shot of the gloopy solder?



Well, add some heat with the iron, remove the wires, use solder wick (braided copper) to absorb the reheated crappy solder and redo :



Much better no twisted wires and each one can be removed individually if needed

Now for some orange drop goodness:

[stan]

Like the wires, cut a leg to length and bend the tip, put it through the lug and squeeze tight with pliers. Through the same hole is a wire to the 5 way switch, do them together:



Solder them, don't need a lot. If you are unsure, pull on the wire, if it comes free or seems loose, you need more, if not, you should be good to go:



Remember, more is not better.

If you don't have a trick setup the holds wires in place for you, then here is a quick way. Wire is positioned by my usual method, and in the direction and position I want it in when I solder. The other end is simply held in place with pliers, no holding necessary, fiddle a bit and it will sit where you want:



It's always a lot easier to have both hands free when soldering, try to avoid holding stuff in place by hand, you need one to hold the iron and the other to feed to solder.

Remember that any metal touching where you want the join needs to be heated and /or will absorb heat from the join, don't attach the pliers to bare metal wires, they can act like a big heat sink , drawing heat from your join, you could be there a while. Sometimes it won't , but if everything is working but it's not getting hot enough to melt the solder, that could be why.

That's why soldering wires to tops of pots takes longer, you are heating more metal.

As an aside, electronic components can be ruined by too much heat, another reason that less is best