NinjaTaiken Posted December 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 (edited) Yeah, I should've labeled that picture The big orange block is the magnet. You'll have to make the blades tall enough to stick through the four layers of Forbon, plus enough to hold the magnet in place on the bottom. You can probably get away with using 43 AWG wire like on a Tele neck pickup. Keep in mind that single-coil sized 'bucker bobbins are TALLER than standard bobbins, so you should be able to put enough wire on 'em to get a fairly good resistance on both coils. For 12k resistance, wind both coils to 6k resistance--probably about 5000-7000 winds. ← Well that makes sense. Thanks. Guess this isnt as hard as I thought. What about covers? Could I get away with cutting off the top of a normal cover and painting the forbon white or something neat? Edited December 20, 2005 by NinjaTaiken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted December 21, 2005 Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 I was just thinking about the covers today, as a matter of fact. Yes, my job is that boring--I digress. Try to find some some pickup covers for single-coils that don't have holes in them like the ones on Universal Jems Pickup Cover page. Either leave 'em blank or cut slots for the blades in them. If they're not tall enough, you may have to buy two for each pickup and glue them together as a stack. Come to think of it, it's probably a good idea to pick up some covers because you can use them as a template for cutting the Forbon to the proper sizes, too. Keep in mind too that I've never actually done this, I'm just trying to show you how I'd do it if I was going to do it myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted December 21, 2005 Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 Hi all... This has got to be the hardest type of pickup to make. Small coils, thin wire, and custom blades and magnet. If you really want to do it I'd ebay or track down some cheapo pickups and rewind them. I'm in Oz but I've seen new cheapo pickups like these for A$30-40 bucks new. It's going to cost you in materials (if you can get them) that much anyway I would guess. The tone is mostly in the winding...magnets have a lot of hoodoo about them. Rewinding a cheapo pickup would definitly be the way to go I'd suggest... With this configuration you are not going to get a traditional sound. You certainly wont get a humbucker like sound as the thing is sensing a far smaller part of the string to a full sized humbucker... For humbucking effect ease of construction, and everything else a staked pickup is far more approachable. But still tricky. That aside...here's some resources anyway... Check out the seymour duncan web site. They have excellent drawings of every pickup to scale and with dimensions. Pick a type and click dimensions... Seymore Duncan Vintage Rails They have a new cover style I see: The old ones tended to be uncovered...here's the dimensions: You should be able to see exacly how the magnet fits between the rails from this too. Now, getting such a magnet and getting it all to fit together, let alone making the bobbins and rails themselves...and the winding...is going to be very, very hard...verging on the impossible, even! Still don't let that stop you! For my sustainer pickup/driver BTW I made a single rail pickup satcked on to a conventional single coil. For the cover I just got a spare from the local shop (very cheap) and cut the top out of it and filed it down. The top of the bobbin fitted this hole and the sides were protected by the cover...came up well and a snap to do. Hope this all helps both you and anyone else looking for info on pickup dimensions and construction styles...bye for now...pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ansil Posted December 22, 2005 Report Share Posted December 22, 2005 the bobbins is the tricky part. don't any of u own a sewing machine.?????? quite easy to wind on one of those if you have practice using one. thats what every pickup i have done {save one} has been done on. especially rewinds. made a little jig for strat pickups and there we go. seem to be finding blown fralins alot in clevegas here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted December 23, 2005 Report Share Posted December 23, 2005 So how would you go about using a sewing machine to wind a pickup? I've been thinking about using one of the sewing machines laying around my parent's house to wind up some pickups, but I have no idea how the damn things work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted December 23, 2005 Report Share Posted December 23, 2005 So how would you go about using a sewing machine to wind a pickup? I've been thinking about using one of the sewing machines laying around my parent's house to wind up some pickups, but I have no idea how the damn things work! ← 1) Take the motor out, so you just have a spinny thing and a foot speed controller 2) Mount it on a piece of scrap ply, or something 3) possibly make a 'flywheel' type thing out of, say, scrap corian, mount it on the shaft (this to 'smooth out' the spin up and spin down 4) mount bobbing, start winding. That's how I've seen it doen, anyway, and what I'm planning to do with the cheap surplus sewing machine motor I got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaTaiken Posted December 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2005 So how would you go about using a sewing machine to wind a pickup? I've been thinking about using one of the sewing machines laying around my parent's house to wind up some pickups, but I have no idea how the damn things work! ← 1) Take the motor out, so you just have a spinny thing and a foot speed controller 2) Mount it on a piece of scrap ply, or something 3) possibly make a 'flywheel' type thing out of, say, scrap corian, mount it on the shaft (this to 'smooth out' the spin up and spin down 4) mount bobbing, start winding. That's how I've seen it doen, anyway, and what I'm planning to do with the cheap surplus sewing machine motor I got. ← It could be great to have a foot pedal and all, but no chance my parents will let me take apart the sewing machine. Not yet atleast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted December 23, 2005 Report Share Posted December 23, 2005 So how would you go about using a sewing machine to wind a pickup? I've been thinking about using one of the sewing machines laying around my parent's house to wind up some pickups, but I have no idea how the damn things work! ← 1) Take the motor out, so you just have a spinny thing and a foot speed controller 2) Mount it on a piece of scrap ply, or something 3) possibly make a 'flywheel' type thing out of, say, scrap corian, mount it on the shaft (this to 'smooth out' the spin up and spin down 4) mount bobbing, start winding. That's how I've seen it doen, anyway, and what I'm planning to do with the cheap surplus sewing machine motor I got. ← It could be great to have a foot pedal and all, but no chance my parents will let me take apart the sewing machine. Not yet atleast. ← Heh. Check the classifieds/sewing machine repair stores for old motors/machines they don't want to do anything with. Oh, and a straightfoward light dimmer switch will reduce speed just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setch Posted December 23, 2005 Report Share Posted December 23, 2005 Most sewing machines have a large wheel at mounted to the main drive shaft, which allows you to advance the needle by hand. You could attach a DIY flywheel & bobbin holder to this using double sided tape, and use the sewing machine without any permenant modifications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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