I just repaired a pickup!!!

[zeegler]

One of the spare humbuckers I had sitting around in my parts bin was reading infinite resistance, so I figured it was buggered. Instead of just tossing it, I figured I'd take it apart, and see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. It turned out that one of the coils had a broken wire, right at the end of the coil. I unwound one coil's worth of wire, resoldered it, reassembled it, and it's as good as new.

I'm a fucking genius!! LOL. Just figured I'd toot my own horn a little.

[img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[metafaza]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

Congratulations on your talents! [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img] I had to do similar thing on my friends single coil. We had to cut the pickup to fit it into his guitar and in the process resolder the wires. I was only afraid that if the end going under would brake we're fucked up. We were lucky and talented [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] so everything worked fine.

[Ace]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

Yep, that's the way it's done!! Make sure that before you solder the wire back that you lightly hit it with 1000 grit sandpaper, since the wire is shileded with enamel. When you sand the enamel off the wire should get shinier.

[zeegler]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

Originally posted by Ace:
Yep, that's the way it's done!! Make sure that before you solder the wire back that you lightly hit it with 1000 grit sandpaper, since the wire is shileded with enamel. When you sand the enamel off the wire should get shinier.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well the wire is so tiny, I couldn't really tell if it got any shinier by scraping it with an exacto knife, so I just heated the very end of it with a cigarette lighter, and melted of the insulation. You could see the melted enamel balling up at the end.

[Ace]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

You have to look at it closely under a light to tell when the enamel is gone. I had never thought of the lighter idea. I still like the sandpaper method better, but lighters are more common than 1000 grit.

[metafaza]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

I use the lighter method, too.

[ApeDosMil]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

awesome job man.

is there anyway to modify/make your own pick up?

[etaeniura]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

Stew mac sells a pickup winder, and I once saw a place online that sells the bobbins and backplates, but I can't remember what site it was. It shouldn't be hard to find. I have recently had the notion that I may want to try my hand a winding a pickup-I have a couple old crappy HB's laying around I could use. I would just have to get the winding wire and magnets. It will probably take forever to wind it by hand though...that pickup winder is pricey. I think I read that someone started making pickups turning them on a record player. may have to try it out.

[Jim Shine]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

90% of dead pickups can be repaired. A good amount of those just develop bad solder joints.

[Ace]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

I've only wound pickups on a coil winder, which takes about 2-3 minutes. Considering there are 6-7000 winds per bobbin, making a humbucker at 78 rpm would take you about an hour and a half. And that's if the 43 GA wire doesn't break or get too loose. If you wind them too loose they go microphonic, and will sound like crap and have low output. If you wind them too tight the wire will break and you will have to start over. It can be done, just know what you're up against. Counting winds with a record player would be pretty tough too.

[zeegler]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

I'd like to try winding my own. I wouldn't have a clue where to get the parts from though. I guess the more winds, the higher the resistance is the rule of thumb. What else affects a pickup's sound. Type and size of magnet, wire gauge, coil height. What else?

[Ace]

Re: I just repaired a pickup!!!

Everything you listed, and then some. Different types of wire insulation sound different too. Also if you encase it in a Faraday cage(a grounded metal box, like Les Pauls have). More windings affecting resistance is more than a rule of thumb, it is a fact. However more resistance does not equal more output. Resistance is simply how hard you have to push current to get it to travel through the coil. More wire = more resistance. The reason that we measure resistance is that actual output varies by how hard you hit the string, distance from the string to the magnet, gauge of string, etc... there are so many factors, and measuring resistance can be done while the thing is sitting there in your hand.