How to make a Dimebucker

[Matt]

Does anyone have an idea how id wind a pickup like tha dimebucker, for example what sort of wire should i use, and would this be achieveable using a sewing machine.

i hope to use this as a start to a more major project.

Matt

[psw]

GOOD ON YOU MATT

Matt has taken my advice and started his own thread as I did with my sustainer ideas. I hope we can all watch and learn.

It's virtually impossible to replicate commercial products but hand made pickups often sound better. Find a supplier of bobbins like ALLPARTS and magnets. Check out pickup making forums and pickup winding.

Have a look at designed to wind website for winding machine ideas

And everybody immediately look at this web site for pickup details and the ultimate collection of HUNDREDS of switching options -

Pickups and Pickup Selection Website

Look around at what you have about (cordless drills, drill presses, electric toys) that spins and see what you can adapt

You might not end up with the pickup you want, and if thats all you want go out and get one it will be cheaper, but you might get one that's even better.

Leo Fender and the Gibson guys effectively hand wound all the early pickups and the inconsistancies of this process makes them the best you can get. Mass market pickups can't match them

good luck

psw

[Alarung]

A Dimebucker is merely a humbucker, with steel rails instead of the traditional polepeices.

It also uses a Ceramic magnet, which will make the pickup sound brighter, some might say harsh.

According to a Harmony Central review, the "secrect to the Dimebucker's crunch is the small amount of metal mass in the core of the pickup". I'm reading this to mean that they have a very small core, and as such can fit more windings on each coil.

And at 16.25K Ohms for the whole unit, they're probably using a VERY small gauge of wire. A P-Bass pickup generally carries abot 10K Ohms. A normal humbucker has about 8K.

So we have a Humbucker that has roughly 2 times the output of a regular humbucker. A fine gauge of wire 44 or 45, coupled with a ceramic magnet, might be able to do this. But to pull it off proper you'd need research, and development, and money...

PSW made many good points. His advice is solid, and is well worth heeding.

Google for Pickup Winding and designs, that sort of thing. You'll find some interesting stuff.

[jefm]

I'd say above average for the amount of metal in it but I haven't measured

[Matt]

Thanks guys

I have actually done alot of research over the past 6 months or so, Really what I wanted to know, was some idea of the guage of wire. I thought it might be 44.

Ive managed to get some rare earth magnets, so im planning now to use them as small poles, or at the bottom connected to blades.

These are BL**DY strong, so im going to have to have the PU set pretty low.

does anyone know how hard it is to wind using 44 or 45 wire?

PS in the DGB website, looking at the specs for the humbuckers, in the 2nd bit theres three sets labbeled RG WG RK what does this mean?

cheers Matt

[Jon Bell]

does anyone know how hard it is to wind using 44 or 45 wire?

It's very thin and quite easy to break. Don't over tension and keep an eye out for snags.

[lovekraft]

...in the DGB website, looking at the specs for the humbuckers, in the 2nd bit theres three sets labbeled RG WG RK what does this mean?

It's the color code - R=red, G=green, W=white, K=black

[Matt]

Thanks.

Ive just found out a useful bit of info for anyone thinking of making a bladed PU, stanley-knife blades are good conductors of magnetism, and plus they are cheap and already blade-like.

Matt

[psw]

Hey Matt

Here's some advice...

What you are contemplating is not going to be like any other pickup type and the results will be totally unpredictable. I say this as encouragement to experiment but don't try to copy (I dont see what's so good about dimebags pickup other than it is very hot)

Rare Earth Magnets are really strong but after experimenting with them for a couple of years I have to tell you that you are dealing with something different.

The main thing is that for a given strength rare earth Mags are significantly smaller and so their field shape is different. The magnets are there to create a field in which the vibrating string causes disturbances that create electrical signals in the coil.

It is the shape of the field which is vital. A stanley knife blade (good idea) is very thin and will cause a very narrow field to be created. This will sense a very narrow part of the string and may cause weird harmonic effects.

Too strong a field will actually inhibite string vibration.

The shape of the coil is also important as is the number of windings. Thinner wire is generally used so that more windings can be wound in a given space. The problem with overwinding and thinner wire is it drastically effects the resonant frequency (Q) of the pickup and therefore it's tone.

The reason pickup design has pretty much stuck to conventional designs and shapes is that it is generally accepted that Gibson and Fender created the standard which can only easily be emulated by copying pretty much the materials and configuration of these models. The dimebucker may have blades (?) and overwound hot output but it's still basically a humbucker if you get what I mean.

Anyway, make of this what you will. Personally, if you want to try out new materials and stuff, the world needs more like you. You may not know but my first post was about rare earth magnets so you could look that up. I have worked a bit with pickup design and their use and they are used in my sustainer driver.

If magnetics and the shape of magnetic fields interests you, find a copy of the free magnetic modeling software FEMM. It's pretty easy to use and makes the magnetic field visible. There are some pickup makers who use it and have posted on their sites examples of various pickup fields and variations they've tried.

enough from me, hope this helps

psw

[Matt]

WOW!!

psw you GOD, this was exactly the constructive feedback i wanted.

In sense what you were talking about was exactly what i was thinking.

The Dimebucker was really just an example i was useing that i thought alot of people could relate to.

See this is exactly what i think is wrong... I mean fair play to the people who devote their time in trying to recreate a 'vintage' sound, and all due respect. But just because two big companies produce some good products, i dont see why that has to be the dataum for everyone else?!

My view is that we should be trying to look at as many different designs and alternatives as possible in hope to better a 50 year old design. I mean 50 BL**DY years and we still have the same basic design!!! ( not to say it isn't already a good design ).

anyway thanks alot, ill check out that magnetic design thingy, -it sounds like exactly what i need.

Matt

P.S.(W. -ha ha... sorry no disrespect! -couldn't resist) im following youre sustainer thread with much interest, good to see an actuall picture of it, but where exactly is it gonna be placed?