Cloth Pickup Wrapping Tape

[frank falbo]

Well, I had typed a post, but it didn't seem to take, and I was getting error messages. So here goes again:

I've been doing a lot of pickup surgery lately, and as you know, once you remove the tape it's useless. Does anyone have a source for the cloth pickup wrapping tape? One of the pickups I did recently was a PRS and that has the paper-ish tape. That'd be okay too, but I'd rather have the cloth.

Also the search function was error-ing out too. Feel free to link anything to this thread and close it if it's already discussed at length somewhere else.

[thedoctor]

Frank, do you want the self-adhesive stuff or the harder, fiberglass stuff? 3M makes both and you can get it from any electric supply house. The white woven stuff is easy to use but the brown fiberglass looks better when you glue the ends. IMHO.

[frank falbo]

We had a good electrical/electronics shop in the area that closed. I've seen other kinds of tape that were similar, but I was hoping to find some guitar related link that said "here's the kind SD uses, etc" even if the price was a total ripoff, just so I could get the actual stuff. I'm looking for the black self-adhesive tape that SD and Dimarzio use to wrap each coil, and then whole unit. The fabric looks sort of ribbed. When I absolutely need to wrap a pickup I've been using electrical tape, but that's just temporary. I've made some cool pickups I'm going to want to keep around for a long time. Like a Quad Rails humbucker size from one super hot rails and another vintage style rails, with tons of coil configurations. Also I've taken some great pickups and added 4 conductor cable, or replaced short leads with long ones. Its not something I'll do a lot, just lately I've done about a dozen and they all need tape. I'll check around locally for an electrical house. The only kind I've seen commercially is thicker, and it looks a little goofy on a pickup. Also I thought perhaps one of us bought a ton of it and want to sell or trade for a little.

[thedoctor]

Frank, StewMac sells the real thing in 1/4" paper or 3/8" cloth. Both are black and durable. Part numbers are 5951 for paper, 5952 for cloth. I like to screw with otherwise under-rated pickups, myself.

By the way. I scored 100 feet of super nice 4-conductor phonograph pickup arm cable that is super shielded and a dream to work with. Makes converting pickups to 4-conductor a lot easier and better-looking. Am willing to share.

Edited March 28, 2005 by thedoctor

[frank falbo]

I've never seen it in their catalog, but sure enough, it was right there on line! Thanks. It looks like that pickup wire is new, too. I have a couple bobbins I'd like to rewind. We'll see how ambitious I get. As for the 4 conductor, I've got some, and I've also used old mouse cable with great success, although the outer wrap is sometimes a little on the thick side, which makes it hard to fit under the coils and through the baseplate.

Thanks again!