Timber Pickups

[dash]

just wondering i there is any logical reason why a pickup bobbin cannot be made from timber??

just juggling an idea in my head, and thought it would be cool to match the pickup with the laminates in a neck through guitar/bass.

i don't mean just using a timber cover, but actually making it out of timber.

anyone done this??

cheers

darren

[GregP]

There's no reason you couldn't. Swineshead pickups uses them for at least the top of the bobbins, on request. Not sure if he uses wood for the whole shedilly, though. Jon's a member here, so he may even see this thread and respond.

Greg

[dash]

thanks for the link greg, i tried on google but couldn't come up with anything

[psw]

Plastic, Timber...as long as it's insulated and you can get it to the right size, you'll be ok. You'd probably need to use a couple of layers of veneer or icecream stick thin slivers of wood. There's been a few DIY pickup making sites that show pickups being made of wood.

I'd like to make some out of aluminium. I see Lace has got something called the aluminitones or something. Theory has it that there are interfering eddy currents from using conductive material like this (even though it's not magnetic) but I'm not fully convinced. Afterall, a lot of pickups have metal covers over them...why not make the bobbins out of it?

I'd be interested to know what else could be used. Making the bobbins is the hardest part!

psw

[DannoG]

Wood would work. I'd stay away from metal-although the magnet wire has an insulating layer to keep it from shorting to other winds of wire, it is very thin and can breakdown over time. You could wrap tape or some insulating material around the bobbin, but some adhesives actually eat through the wire insulation. The few bobbins I've made are out of ABS plastic and I haven't tried potting them yet to see how they handle 150 degree F wax.

[ToneMonkey]

Yup, as far as I know, wood is fine. The only problem I can see with it is that the insides of pup would have to be supersmooth so that the wire won't catch on anything and snap (which is very easy to do).

[frank falbo]

You're best off laminating it with something else, like a standard fiber material or graphite. The technique would be different based on your construction needs. For a humbucker, you need the bobbin to have inner walls for the wire to rest against. You don't wind directly onto the poles. Those walls are extremely thin to be wood, and the wood will get splintery and possibly cause a break over time. I would use a plastic bobbin and shave down the top real thin, and then overlay veneer. You could also shave down the top until it's gone, and you just have the bottom and the inner shaft. But that doesn't leave much glue surface for the top of the bobbin. That's why I'd leave the top intact, just wafer thin.

For a single coil you can make the whole bobbin top from wood, but I'd still laminate it to something. The wood will curl along it's grain line if you don't. Then the winds could expand or the top could curl right off one of the magnets.

Hey you could "epoxy pot" the pickup so it penetrates everything, including the wood grains and then sand and buff the top of the bobbin, using the epoxy as a high gloss finish. I guess you could use thin CA too.