I think I'm going to give building my own pickups a go

LeftyInNeedTypical

Me and my friend were talking about different bands and their impact on the world, and we started talking about this one band, who he mentioned built their own fuzz boxes and effects boxes, so I thought, "Wow! Wouldn't it be cool to build my own pickups?!" Simple thought, but if I do it, it will be fallowed by not so simple actions. So have any of you done this before? Or am I on my own? I also found a pretty cool Website Guide to pickup building. Here's the link if you're interested! http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Music_p004.shtml

feedbackismyfriend

you can get kits here

JaguarOW

That's a very cool idea, make sure you keep us posted on how it goes for you, good luck 😀

Earth

I cant see them sounding as good as dimarzio, duncans, gibsons etc cause they have years of experience to inject into their products. Building pedals almost always yields a fun and usable item, I cant see this being the same with pickups personally. I think the first ones would suck bad. Also i would do a mega-sh!t-ton of research before starting!

Plus, building pedals doesn't require you buying a $400 winder!

feedbackismyfriend

Earth said:
I cant see them sounding as good as dimarzio, duncans, gibsons etc cause they have years of experience to inject into their products. Building pedals almost always yields a fun and usable item, I cant see this being the same with pickups personally. I think the first ones would suck bad. Also i would do a mega-sh!t-ton of research before starting!
Plus, building pedals doesn't require you buying a $400 winder!

who says you have to buy the winder? The human body is capable of winding a coil it'll just take forever. However, that's actually how he originally proposed doing it so I figure it's not an issue

LeftyInNeedTypical

JaguarOW said:
That's a very cool idea, make sure you keep us posted on how it goes for you, good luck 😀

Thanks! I suppose it'll be a pretty hard job, as it has been mention wire winding might be an issue, but a few of my uncles were inventors and they might have wire winders. But I just think it might be a fun little project to try during winter break. Though it might cost me some cash.

Robbmonster

When I first saw this topic, winding was the first thing I thought of.

I don't know much about it, but I understand some pickups can have thusands of windings, and this would not be easy to do without machinery. Just the sheer amount would be difficult, as well as keeping it tight.

Also, how would you go about making bobbins, covers and poles?

phaeton

i read somewhere about a guy who wound a bass pickup using a handdrill, so it may not be so hard to setup a simple winding machine yourself.

i think he just clamped a handdrill in a vice and attached the pickup to the gear and set the wire on a spool and just kept turning.