Repair Seymour Jb Jr.

[Maverick_Matt]

I have a seymour duncan JB Jr. that i bought off of ebay about 2 years ago. A few days after i bought it i went to install it into my guitar and in my ignorance, chopped a wire off to short. So, i took the pickup apart and began to attempt to find the wire's origin and though it would be as easy as just replacing a wire. It wasnt i eventually pulled all of the lead wirs out of the pickup. The windings are still intact, i have the housing and all of the magnets are in place. Can this pickup be repaired by me at home, where would i find this information?

Edited July 18, 2007 by Maverick_Matt

[SwedishLuthier]

The end lead wire can easily be found and re-soldered. But the start lead is soldered to the beginning of the coil wire. In the core of the coil. This pickup has to be rewound to be useful. If you are the least interested in winding pickups, this is your chance. Or save it for later. Winding pickups isn’t as hard as the manufacturers claim it to be. You can find most info needed here. Do a search for winding (anyone remember that hilarious Lego-winder thread?). OR go to the pickup maker’s forum.

http://music-electronics-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=11

They even got a sub-forum for pickup winders. But is rewinding isn’t your thing; take it to a pickup maker for a rewind.

[ihocky2]

Can it be repaired by you? Yes

Will it sound the same as when it left the factory? Probably not.

Without a pickup winding setup and getting the tension right and the windings right you won't get the same tone. You might be able to get close, but it is unlikely you'll get it right on. But I would give it a try. You should be able to get fairly close. For all you know, you might get something that you like even better. When you choices are to trash something or to try repairing it, it never hurts to try first.

[crafty]

Duncan will probably repair it for you at a reasonable price.

[SwedishLuthier]

Without a pickup winding setup and getting the tension right and the windings right you won't get the same tone.

Ihockey is in general on spot. I just felt the need to add my opinion on a thing or two. You don’t need a specila pickup winder. You can do it with a hand held power drill:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_p...67.html#details

OK, a singlecoil but the basics are there. Check out their instructions for their HB kit and you got it.

Then to the wire tension. The tension plays little or no role at all in the tone you will get from the pickup. A loose coil will squeal, but you can pot it and StewMac has instructions for that too. In this case you just have to figure out what gauge of wire that is used and find the DC resistance value of the pickup. DC resistance isn’t the best way to wind a pickup. Turn count is way better. But that info is seldom available. Anyway, you measure the resistance and wind until you get roughly the same. Don’t worry about the winding being less than perfect. There are players that can tell if the pickup is a “scatter wound” boutique pickup or a pickup wound on a digital CNC winder, but very few can actually tell it by listeneing. Most players need the price tag to be able to tell!

Have it a go. It can be almost as addictive as guitar building.

[ihocky2]

Thanks, for the info about the scatter winding. I always read that two identical pickups that had one scatter wound and one machine wound would sound noticably different. I should have been a little more clear about the affect tension will have on the tone. I meant that have less tension would result in looser windings, resulting in less wraps which means lower DC resistance. That will change the tone, but not the actual tension it self.

[Hugh]

Can you do me a favor, and take a bunch of pics of the inside of the thing?

I've been looking at the three I own for a while wondering what it looks like in there.

Are the coils separate and just really skinny?

Whatever you do, don't trash the thing. Somebody like me is always willing to buy stuff like that and try to fix it.

[SwedishLuthier]

Thanks, for the info about the scatter winding. I always read that two identical pickups that had one scatter wound and one machine wound would sound noticably different. I should have been a little more clear about the affect tension will have on the tone. I meant that have less tension would result in looser windings, resulting in less wraps which means lower DC resistance. That will change the tone, but not the actual tension it self.

OK, I agree about the tension.

About scatter wounding: The supposed effect is that a coil that is wound so that every next turn of wire is placed just next to the one before will have a different capacitance than a coil that is scatter wound. The difference in capacitance will of cause change the way a guitar circuit behave. So I was a little too hard on the scatter wound phenomenon. Of cause there will be players that hear the difference. There are even players that hear the difference (in blind tests) between the battery brands in their pedals! But Mr Joe Average will not hear the difference. Scatter winding maybe make up for at most (very personal opinion) like 5% of the sound of the pickup. But scatter wound is mostly used as one big marketing hype that doesn’t come close to reflecting the impact it has on the sound.

But what do I know. As I hand guide (very few guys do actual hand WINDING) the wire on my pickups, they are all scatter wound so I cannot make real comparisons.

[Mike Sulzer]

The cable capacitance is bigger than the pickup capacitance, so presumably different length cables have more of an effect than scatter winding. Also, hearing a difference and hearing a difference that really matters are two very different things.

Thanks, for the info about the scatter winding. I always read that two identical pickups that had one scatter wound and one machine wound would sound noticably different. I should have been a little more clear about the affect tension will have on the tone. I meant that have less tension would result in looser windings, resulting in less wraps which means lower DC resistance. That will change the tone, but not the actual tension it self.

OK, I agree about the tension.

About scatter wounding: The supposed effect is that a coil that is wound so that every next turn of wire is placed just next to the one before will have a different capacitance than a coil that is scatter wound. The difference in capacitance will of cause change the way a guitar circuit behave. So I was a little too hard on the scatter wound phenomenon. Of cause there will be players that hear the difference. There are even players that hear the difference (in blind tests) between the battery brands in their pedals! But Mr Joe Average will not hear the difference. Scatter winding maybe make up for at most (very personal opinion) like 5% of the sound of the pickup. But scatter wound is mostly used as one big marketing hype that doesn’t come close to reflecting the impact it has on the sound.

But what do I know. As I hand guide (very few guys do actual hand WINDING) the wire on my pickups, they are all scatter wound so I cannot make real comparisons.