Custom P-90 Pickup Build

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Sorry - no pickup work today...watching football and playing guitar!

Ok...football was cool....prepping to do a sound clip of the new pickup to post. Any requests on amp settings or songs?

John

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Tonight I'll finish up the sound clip for the new pickup. The goal is to hear the difference between the P-90 sound and the Strat-like sound.

A couple of points on the build -

1. I had to drill an additional hole in the base of the pickup for the four-conductor wire. I've done this before and I can detect no tonal anomalies. The challenge is to get four individual wires and a ground through the hole in the base near the middle of the coil.

2. Getting the magnet wire on the pickup involves a great deal of technique, and if you are considering making your own pickups, this will likely what will distinguish you from other winders out there. Yes, the way you guide the wire onto the pickup bobbin and the amount of tension you use affect the output and sound of the pickup. I have a technique I've developed over the years -- sort of like a guitar player who has played for a long time. If you are curious you can get that sewing machine out and give it a try:

www.guitarattack.com/winder/guerilla/sewing.htm

I recommend you start with this rig if you don't have a sewing machine hiding in a closet.

www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Electronics/Pickup_building/a-homemadewinder.html

3. Repairing pickups is really hard sometimes, particularly when someone has a memory of a particular sound which can't be reproduced. Safety Tip: Take care of those pickups and make sure you handle them with care. Keep them away from magnetic sources and use extreme caution when adjusting height and polepeices. Finally, do not try to adjust the polepieces on a Strat or Tele pickup unless they are specifically designed to adjust (Phillips or flat-head or hex-head screws in the bobbin). Most of the repairs I do are on Strat pickups where the owner tried to push the polepiece magnets up or down and broke the wire inside.

More to follow on pickups,
John

[Deleted]

how would one know how much wire to wind on without a counter? I would forget the count by the time I get to 100. LOL!
Do you measure the thickness of the wind? Hum..
I am still thinking of trying my hand a making my own pickups. I might wind up using my drill press. I seen where one guy hook up a seed control to his drill press.
I'll keep thinking on it. I mean everyone had to start somewhere. Just like building guitars. If I would never had tried, I would still be wondering if I could.

Do any of you remember the HO slot cars? I use to rewind them to make them go faster. Back in them days I did it on my own. I did not learn about how to do it from a mag... and we did not have the internet back then. It was one of them times, as a kid, that I thought to myself... I wonder what would happen if I did that... I did and I did make the cars faster. A few months later there was a story that came out how on to make HO cars go faster. They did exactly what I had done. So much for trade secrets... LOL!
EB

[dnic]

Sound tests even, wow very cool.

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Here is a shot of the two pickups after I installed the screws and metal spacer.  You can also see two magnets on the left -- remember...these pickups have two bar magnets.  Note that I labeled the pickups.  It is easy to get them mixed up -- best to keep track of them!

It is interesting -- the screws, magnets, and the spacers are the same as those used in Gibson PAF humbuckers.  You can see the baseplates in the left-rear of the photo.  As stated before, I had to drill an additional hole in the corner of the baseplate to accommodate the four-conductor lead. 

Here is a shot of one of the pickups with the magnets installed.  Note the four conductors coming out of the coil.  The wire colors corresponds to a Gibson pickup:  Red is the center coil start -- always hot; Black is the outside of the outside coil - always ground; the white and the green are the inside wires and to make this a high-power single coil, the white and the green wires are connected.  The red and the green connected make a S-Style single coil.

More to follow...

John

[GuitarAttack Forum]

I installed the base with the two brass screws and here is a shot of the end with all of the wires crammed in there!

You can see why the additional hole is required.  These pickup normally have a two-conductor braid-covered lead wire.

I tested both of the pickups then into the wax they went.  I waxed them for about an hour.  When you wax, make sure the temperature stays below 150 degrees F or you will warp the bobbins.  As soon as you take them out, test the resistance to make sure they were are still working.

Once they cooled down, I checked them in my test guitar.  Single coil goodness!

I put one in the bridge position of my FM Junior and made some sound clips.  Here is the guitar -- a mahogany FM that sounds killer!

John

[GuitarAttack Forum]

OK -- Here are the sound clips. I invite you to check them out. The video is only about two minutes in length.

I look forward to hearing what you think -- I believe you can really tell the difference between the two settings. I would use the single coil sound for rhythm and the P-90 sound for leads.

Thanks
John

[Deleted]

Pretty cool sounding.
EB

[dnic]

Absolute sensory overload. Three posts with pics and sound samples. Wow John you've been busy.

The sound is perfect, of course it's you playing, that makes a big difference. My guitar is Sapele back and Paduk front so that will be different too. It's only Les Paul like in the mahoganyish back and the mapleish front and the carved top. The body will be a Jonah body shape I'm sure it will sound great. The neck is the other half of the lam blank I made for the Les Paul copy, African mahogany, maple and wenge with a Bolivian rosewood fretboard.

[hoz]

I like. Thats going to be a great sounding guitar.

[GuitarAttack Forum]

I got word from Dane that his pickups arrived safely. Can't wait to hear how they sound in the new guitar!

John