software

So I’ve got a set of Fender Fat 50’s on my 50’s RI MIM Strat. They sound good, dare I say even great -- but I want some more oomph from neck and bridge. I’m serious, the Fat 50’s really do sound great, and in terms of low-mid punch, I think the neck and bridge sound as good as Strat single coils can and still be 6.3-6.4k.

All well and good, but rather than blow $150 on two new pickups what if I add a few turns on my own?...…hmmmm….

I bought some of the #42 wire from Stewmac and got down to business the day it arrived. I really should have had a video camera running because the process -- the ham-fisted, jerry-rigging, thoroughly unprofessional quality of the work -- was so comical that it might have been worth a Pay Per View. The fussin' and cussin' that went on would have been worth the price alone and the close-ups of what was happening would have been gut-busters.
I had done the neck pickup earlier and added about 0.3k to it, and in spite of the sloppy and amateurish way it was done it turned out pretty well, well enough that I was encouraged to try the bridge too.

So I get started.

I was cutting some of the insulation off the pickup hot lead with an Exacto knife where it protrudes above the bottom quot;platequot; of the pickup so I could wind the extra coil wire on it and solder it in. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that maybe it would be a good idea to do this with the cover…..ON.

So, yup, you guessed it -- my big ham-fist slipped and I poked the coil with the blade and shorted it. After a few choice words about how the teacher who gave me my IQ test years ago must have felt sorry for me and skewed the results heavily in my favor, I cooled off and decided, well let's peel off the coil until we can get a clean read on the meter again. Maybe the cut isn’t too deep. I had to take about 600 turns off, which, considering it was a solid poke with an Exacto knife, wasn’t too bad. It started as a 6.4k pickup and was now reading about 5.87k, so it was a setback but not a disaster.

But the point is I was marching backwards. I wanted to ADD turns, not remove them.
END OF PART 1...

PART 2...

Anyway I get the end of the new coil wire soldered to the contact, scrape a little insulation off to make sure I’m getting a read, still 5.87k so we’re good to go. I put the wire spool on the end of a boom mike stand so it was sitting parallel to the floor and the wire would come off easily (except where it was wound close to the end of the spool of course) and I began the winding -- by hand. Inch by inch, turn by turn, Niagara Falls, blah-blah-blah...

I added about 1,800 turns and it took about 3 hours. And this is where I learned that maybe it would have been a good idea to use #43 wire.

Because the two pickup leads protrude above the bottom plate right next tot he coil, it's hard to add turns on the lower part of the pickup. This made for a big bulge in the coil toward the top -- a cross section of this pickup at this point would look like two well-endowed women back to back wearing push-up bras. But I figured, hey, this can be part of the experimentation on my quot;wide coilquot; concept, more bass and warmth but with sweet top end, blah-blah-blah. But as I neared the end, I started to worry that the coil was getting so wide that the cover wouldn't fit back on. I stopped for a moment to test fit the cover and this fear was realized. Too wide!!!
Okay, I've made it this far, I'm not giving up now! But I'm gonna have to stop here at 1,800 turns or there's no hope of fitting this cover back on. Not only that, because I had to wind the pickup middle to top, the little stretch of wire coming off the lead and onto the coil, which you normally see glued to the floor of the pickup was suspended about 1/16” above the quot;floorquot; -- putting the cover on would surely cut it. My high-tech solution? Cut a semi-circle out of the pickup cover with the Exacto knife right where the leads are so it won’t guillotine the coil’s connection to the lead wire. Problem solved.

Problem #2: Back to how to get this cover on... It hits me -- I know! I'll use the even more super-duper high-tech method of....(drum roll)….squeezing the coil between my thumb and forefinger with that exacting amount of pressure that professional scientists call quot;really hardquot;. Hopefully this won't cause some of the insulation to scrape off and cause a short. But it's either that or yank the 1,800 turns off and start all over again, so here goes nothin'...
I squeezed it quot;really hardquot; several times and the bulge did flatten out just enough that I was BARELY able to put that cover back on! I winced as it scraped all the way down, but it made it. I put the pickup back in the pickguard, and then here was the adventure of stuffing the wires all back in so none were trapped between the pickguard and the body. That took about a half hour. My only explanation was that it was getting late at night and my IQ was dropping even further.

Then the moment of truth. I plugged a short cord into the jack, set the switch for bridge only, dimed the dials and put the probes of the mmeter on the tip and sleeve….

7.35k! We have contact!!!

The boys in the NASA mission control room all jumped to their feet and cheered, pumping their fists.

At that point, I was exhausted and just went to bed and didn't bother putting the strings back on 'til the next day after church.

But when I did -- surprise, surprise, this pickup now sounds GREAT! It retained all the chime and shimmer but added lows and mids in the sweetest spots of the frequency spectrum. It was like plain spaghetti sauce that tastes good but is just missing something -- it now has those small chunks of burger or whatever added to the sauce to make it meatier without the flavor losing its essential character. It has both chime and chunk. VERY bluesy...
P.S. Also, it was deliberately ultra-scatterwound. I brought the turns around the coil at all kinds of random angles. Can't help but think that helped some too!

Dude that's nuts. Glad it all turned out in the end. Literally!!

Can you say sound clips?

good read! ... glad it worked out for ya

i've often wondered if the work that we slave hardest over yields the best results

cheers
t4d

Fun read. I could actually see this going on in my head. I'm glad it worked out successfully.

Glad to hear it worked out for you. D!ck (JacksonMIA) and I have been thinking about rewinding a coil out of his Epi. Something around 8K or so. Definitely keep us posted.

Luke

Sounds like you had fun!, I bet you're gonna start rewinding all your pickups now?Originally Posted by Zhangliqunmaybe it would have been a good idea to use #43 wire.

I wonder how a puckup would sound with 2 different types of wire?...

Thats awsome.


Originally Posted by Funky PCan you say sound clips?

I can say it but I can't do it. Unfortunately I don't have the gear for that. I have to use my work computer just to this...


Originally Posted by Luke DukeGlad to hear it worked out for you. D!ck (JacksonMIA) and I have been thinking about rewinding a coil out of his Epi. Something around 8K or so. Definitely keep us posted.

Luke

In my case it wasn't a true quot;rewindquot;, as in from scratch starting with an empty bobbin. I just added 1,800 turns for a net gain (counting the /-0.5k loss with the Exacto Incident) of about 0.9k. If it was a full rewind, I'd probably still be winding that coil right now!


Originally Posted by rinse_masterSounds like you had fun!, I bet you're gonna start rewinding all your pickups now?

I wonder how a puckup would sound with 2 different types of wire?...

Can't say it was totally quot;funquot;, what with all the swearin' and fussin'. I plan on leaving the middle pickup alone anyway because it's fine just as is. I like my middle pu's thin and chimey to ensure the #2 and #4 (cluck) positions aren't muddy.

As for the different types of wire, that's a good question. The main difference #43 wire makes is that it takes less of it to reach a certain resistance level because it is thinner and therefore naturally has more resistance to current.

The secondary difference it makes is that if you take two coils and wind them to the same DC resistance (or number of turns, not always exactly the same thing), one with #42 wire and the other with #43 wire, the #43 wire coil will be narrower. Because the coil is more narrow, it won't pick up the longer wave lengths (bass and low mids) and it will sound thinner and brighter than the other coil wound with #42 wire.

As for whether the #43 wire in and of itself imparts a different tone (change in coil capacitance maybe?), your guess is as good as mine.


Originally Posted by rinse_masterSounds like you had fun!, I bet you're gonna start rewinding all your pickups now?
I wonder how a puckup would sound with 2 different types of wire?...

On the other hand, maybe I didn't fully understand your question. You're talking about a humbucker with one coil #42 and the other #43? Jon Moore made me one that sounds great! The screw coil is 6.7k with #43 wire (has to be because you can't get 6.7k worth of #42 wire on a coil!) and the slug coil is 4.5k with #42 wire. For more info, look for my review in here somewhere under quot;Medium Output Pickup Ideaquot;.

This idea was based on the quot;Hybridquot; mania that was going on in here for a while, mating high output coils with low output, e.g., a CC screw coil with a 59 slug coil, that sort of thing.

Great read bro!!! I am tempted to pull the trigger on one of those winding machines when I get done aquiring the last woodworking tool for my shop. Hopefully soon!!!!!


Originally Posted by theodieGreat read bro!!! I am tempted to pull the trigger on one of those winding machines when I get done aquiring the last woodworking tool for my shop. Hopefully soon!!!!!

That's where I feel myself headed now too, whether I like it or not. Gotta come up with $300 for that Schatten...


Originally Posted by ZhangliqunOn the other hand, maybe I didn't fully understand your question. You're talking about a humbucker with one coil #42 and the other #43?

No, I meant a SC with 1/2 amp; 1/2 of each wire, but the HB sounds cool.

Great thread


Originally Posted by rinse_masterNo, I meant a SC with 1/2 amp; 1/2 of each wire, but the HB sounds cool.

Gotcha.

But the same principles apply. If you wanted a single coil pickup at, say, 7.5k and you wired one with all #42 wire, it would sound beefier than if you wound it part #42 and part #43 because the quot;pure-bredquot; all-#42 coil would be a little wider.