Wood Pickup Bobbins

[verhoevenc]

My question is this:

If I got a humbucker pickup like this:

How difficult would it be to remove the plastic pieces where the magnets stick through, use them as a template and make some wood ones, and then attach the wood ones.

I know it CAN be done, cause duncan offers it... but only with other COLORS:

Chris

[marksound]

It's not something I'd want to try.

How about making bobbin toppers out of veneer instead?

[verhoevenc]

Yeah... I just did some extra research myself and found that the bobbin isn't just a flat plastic piece on TOP... it's one on top, one on bottom, and a collumn that all the wire is wrapped around.... NOT what I thought. I thought it was JUST the top plastic piece.

But yeah, I want my wood a little thicker than just venner... so my next idea is taking out the pole pieces and without taking ANYTHING else off (ie: wire and everything cause I DON"T wanna rewire it) sand the top part of the bobbin down until it's really thin... maybe make it HALF the thickness, then add the wood equivalent on top of the same length I sanded down, and then replace the pole pieces.

Chris

[thegarehanman]

...I believe if you take the magnets out, the coil will collapse and you won't be able to get them back in. I think your best bet here is to either wind your own pickups on wooden bobbins or to make a lace sensor style cap, for them, out of wood. That always looks really nice anyhow.

peace,

russ

[verhoevenc]

For single coils, I'm gunna agree with you, but on a humbucker (what I plan to do it to) it won't.

The bobbins are as such:

So therefore, if I take out the pole pieces (so they don't get sanded down when I sand the plastic) all it'd be is them coming out of those little holes, and the collumn of the bobbin should keep everything nice and intact. ESPECIALLY if I only take them out of the "screws" side (cause those are made to come out)(which is what I plan to do). Cause the look I'm going for is that "zebra" pickups look, but instead of black and cream, I'm wanted black and "natural spruce"

Chris

[frank falbo]

It's probably unrealistic that you can sand one half of the humbucker and leave the other intact. If it were me, I'd completely disassemble the pickup. But I've done that a lot anyway, and I've made pickups. They're very delicate when disassembled, so I don't know if it's the best idea for a first-timer. Anyway, I would remove the coil you want to modify, desolder it's two leads from the cable, and then sand it. If you sand it too thin, there is a risk that the coil (because it's wound under tension) would deform the bobbin top before you had the chance to laminate the wood to it. And spruce is so soft it won't help anyway. So you could have one coil where the ends curl up a little. Otherwise it's a novel idea, and worth a try.

[verhoevenc]

yeah, I'm not trying this on any like NEW pickups. I've got another thread asking for broken/old unuseable pickups so I can try it out on those first.

Chris

PS: What would you say is TOO thin? I was planning on sanding about HALF the thickness, and then adding spruce of that missing half thickness on top. And I might not sand it, I may just sit watching TV and slowly scrape it to thickness with a scraper, etc.? So I MIGHT use a more accurate method.

Edited September 21, 2005 by verhoevenc

[thegarehanman]

Why not make a cover that just sits on top of the bobbin and has a lip around it the thickness of the top of the bobbin? Then it would look like the whole top of the bobbing was wood.

[verhoevenc]

kinda like inlaying the bobbin into a wood top for it.... I like it!!!

I'm getting some broken pickups to test my idea first, but if that doesn't work, i'm goin' for your idea (cause it seems yours will be slightly harder)

Chris

[thegarehanman]

That's basically the same as making a wooden cover for it. If it were me, I'd go the whole 9 yards and cover the whole pickup.

[verhoevenc]

I know, I would too, but I'm LOOKING for the wood bobbin look, not a wood cover look. Cause like I said earlier, I want that zebra pickup look, but instead of cream and black, i want natural spruce and black.

Chris

[Mattia]

Spruce and black? Eesh. I'm with Frank here. Sanding down the bobbin's gonna be risky, and deformation is a very real danger. I'd settle for adding a little bit of spruce, and ebony on the other bobbin, and supergluing it down. You'll probably want to saturate a thin piece of spruce with CA glue fi you want to get it anywhere near hard enough, and trust me, even then, I bet it will get pick marks, etc. on it.

I personally wouldn't use Spruce in this application at all.

[marksound]

Sounds like a heap o'trouble.

If it were me, and it isn't, I'd do the bobbin topper thing. Brian has a couple different veneer toppers, and he might be able to come up with others if you ask nice.

http://www.universaljems.com/cart/bobbin.htm

[Stalefish]

I think you should just try winding your own pickups with wooden bobbins.. Like the others have mentioned, there are just too many things that could go wrong.. Besides, since you'll be getting old pickups, as you said, you could even scavange some of the magnets and what not from the old pickups.. Saves you having to buy new pickup parts..

Thorn Guitars did something like that on more than one of his guitars, if I'm not mistaken..

Here's one of 'em..

[crafty]

Wow, that Thorn is insane! That was a good idea to build the wooden bobbins and then send them to WCR to be wound.

In either case, you're not going to get good results trying to "inlay" a piece of wood into the bobbin. Even if you completely take the whole pickup apart, you're not going to be able to get an even sanding or scraping on that coil without destroying it. It's impossible to do perfectly without a full machinist's setup and not even worth wasting your time for the effort you're going to put into it.

Shave a nice piece of spruce and make a bobbin topper for it. If you're good, it might take you an hour and you'll still get the effect you're looking for.

[ToneMonkey]

Have a look here. The bloke is on these boards, I just can't remember who it is.

http://www.swinesheadpickups.co.uk/

I think he'd probably do a zebra version for you if you want. I think these are vaneer.

[Mickguard]

Well have you seen these GFS pickups? --or are you going for a different look?

He's got a mahogany set too...the link's for a buy it now ad, he also puts his stuff up for auction, you can usually get some decent prices that way.