winding own pickups...i got a question?

[shadoweowl]

hey i have wound pickups before the latest was a bridge humbucker for my saber
but now i am going to wind my own stacked singlecoil and i was curious if one of the coils should be reversewound for it to be hum canceling and how many windings i should use to make it sound more fat like a p90? please help me with serious answers?

 

[Dan025]

well the direction it is put on the bobbin doesn't matter as long as you wire it so the direction of the coile from ground to hot goes clockwise on one and counter clockwise on the other. if the coils go on the bobbin in the same direction wire start to start with the finnishes being hot and ground or vise versa.

as far as sounding like a p-90 good luck, the coil shape is different, core material is different and magnetic field shape is different.

i'd advise you to get a multi meter that reads inductance if you can find one. get a p-90 you like and take a measurement.you may want to use pole screws with permanent bar magnets. try different magnet placements, between the coils north faceing poles south facing outward or below the coils. or maybe try a base plate with normal rod magnets like a smaller version of a telecaster bridge, the plate has a tendency to thicken up the sound.

maybe troubled treble will have more as far as specifics for number of turns ect...

 

[shadoweowl]

wow thank you but as far as the magnets go , rods is my only choice because i havent got any bar magnets left and im pretty much broke
but you mentioned the a metal baseplate what metal would be best? and do you think i can get a good warmth out of a very high output single because the bridge pickup i wound is 21.4k
and would like to wound the single so it matches in the neck position?

 

[Dan025]

try to pm troubled treble, i haven't wound pickups... yet. maybe TT will share some of his trick and secrets with you to get you in the ball park on the neck pup.

the base plate changes the magnetic field and i think it can influence the inductance, maybe, im really not sure. im not an expert on inductors but i know a property of the core called permeability is a factor in the equation and i think core mass has something to do with it too.. i know the base plate is not at the core but being such close proximity it may do something.. only testing can tell.

if you are using 42gauge wire that is one hot single coil. i don't know if it will sound like a p-90 but it'll definately have some warmth.

 

[ShannonH]

Hi Guys, I'm new here, but I do wind pickups regularly....

The trick to sounding like a P-90 is to use steel pole pieces. This is a major tone component. I have heard of guys using nylon bushings to fill the holes in the pickups and then threading them. Screws commonly used are 5-40 size, and available from mojotone.com.

The steel baseplate will boost the bass side a bit, but I have heard that they aren't always needed. I usually use one. It can be a very thin layer of steel too.

As to magnets, you can use the little ceramic ones from cheap squier pickups. Use two, and place the same pole side to the screw. Here's a link to a really cool build:  http://www.skguitar.com/SKGS/sk/winding2.htm

The above opinion about winding both in the same direction will work. If you use 42AWG, you won't be able to exceed about 7.5 - 8 k. That's ok, it will be plenty loud. If you want it bright, you really need to wind it under 6k. The 7.5 - 8 range is where most p-90's live, but the humbucking equation is going to alter the tone a bit. Remember it's going to sound "p-90-ish" not like the real deal.

Peace,

Shannon

 

[Alfang]

I've wound a few of my own pups with good results, I've also tried to copy other pups sounds and that gets harder to do. I'd say if you build one with good quality parts, with the windings good and snug you will make a pickup with a good tone.  It may not be the tone your after, but you may end up with a great sound for a future build,

Good luck and keep us posted with your results, good or bad