Making Your Own Pickups

[malebolgia]

i know its been talked about but it's still unclear to me where do the wires go that come from the pickup? is it like before you start winding you put a wire from the begining and one at the end of the wind? someone please help me! or is this more clear where do the wires from the pickup come from?

[Mr Alex]

i know its been talked about but it's still unclear to me where do the wires go that come from the pickup? is it like before you start winding you put a wire from the begining and one at the end of the wind? someone please help me! or is this more clear where do the wires from the pickup come from?

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One wire joins the beginning of the coil, and one joins the end of the coil. The beginning is usually the ground, the end is usually the hot. Nice and simple.

[malebolgia]

i know its been talked about but it's still unclear to me where do the wires go that come from the pickup? is it like before you start winding you put a wire from the begining and one at the end of the wind? someone please help me! or is this more clear where do the wires from the pickup come from?

←

One wire joins the beginning of the coil, and one joins the end of the coil. The beginning is usually the ground, the end is usually the hot. Nice and simple.

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hwo is this done with a shielded wire? or a bare?

[Mr Alex]

err, you can use a shielded wire, or you can use bare, its all up the situation it will be used in, but shielded will usually help(shield is ground).

[psw]

Here's a tip...

how is this done with a shielded wire? or a bare?

I always use shielded but with two cores for a single or four cores (ie four wires inside a separate shield) for humbucking pickups. This allow you to reverse the phase, split or parrallel coils without any danger of reversing the shield and means there will never be a need for future modifications if you want to use such functions in the future.

For instance...you may have a single coil with a ceramic magnet on the bottom say, and you one day want to make it reverse wound/reverse polarity in relation to other pickups for a humbucking effect. Turn the magnet over and reverse the wires and you're done. However, if the shield is an earth, you will need to reverse the shield and all.

Remember also that the pickup wires are very delicate...a small lead (core) wire will be far easier to attach than a shield. Soldering shields takes more heat that can damage the fine wires by melting the enamel insulation shorting the coil, or simply breaking it...this is a disaster if it's the inner wire as you have no chance of unwinding to find the end...which as suggested is/maybe the earth/ground/shield.

hope that helps...p