Brilliant DIY construction of your 3-pole pickup modules, especially the inclusion of the copper bars. Inductance and magnetics are 2 of the most difficult elements of pickup design. You seem to understand them better than most DIYers. Well done Sir !!!
Pat Kindell Thank you so much Pat. I'm glad you liked the video. I really just try to take things I've learned from previous endeavors and apply them to any new project disregarding popular myth or convention. Thanks for taking the time to watch this long video and leave such kind words.
- - -Pat Kindell Nothing difficult at all. All it takes to be inductive is a lot of wire, for magnetism - slap any magnet. I usually take the strongest I can find. This dude try to bust all stupid mythology around pups.
I just discovered your channel. Stewmac might not like this video but I think it is clever and inspiring. I have built guitars and tube amps for over 40 years and I have to say, I like how you think outside of the”box”. There is SO MUCH profit motivated and repeated misinformation online I seldom pick up new ideas. I have hundreds of beautiful bits of tropical hardwood too small to use in a build ....until now. I will be checking out more of your videos. BTW your presentation is clear and well organized. Thank you amigo!
Thanks Musicamex. I am so happy when someone understands what I am trying to do on this channel. Not everyone does but the people that do have made the best viewers and subscribers someone could hope for. People are usually so kind and helpful on this channel as well as letting me know how the info has helped them. That just makes my day I feel very lucky. I am so glad you have found a use for your exotic wood collection. I'm sure they will make some beautiful pickups. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this kind inspiration comment bro. This is the kind of thing that keeps me going and the reason I do this stuff. I appreciate the time you took to do so and you are most welcome.
Awesome bro, I hope you gave it a try and Id love to hear how it went, its a steep learning curve at first but if you can get 1 made and working your off to the races.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to type out such a kind comment Terry. I appreciate the support and encouragement. I also have to admit I was well pleased and a little surprised at just how well the ideas I had came together to nail the sound I was looking for.
Way back in the Day, there was a Japanese guitar that had six individual single pole pickups, mounted in a staggered line across the strings. TAKE IT TO THE EXTREME!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such an enthusiastic comment. I'm glad you get what it is that I am trying to do and I appreciate the subscription as well.
Awesome! that's what its all about, stick anything you can grab together and see what it does. You could very well invent the next big idea. Maybe a pickup wound with aluminum coil wire ceramic magnets and 12 cone shaped pole pieces is the ticket maybe it will be junk? but somebody has to try it.
I’ve been slowly gearing up to start making my own custom pickups, but I’m very much hoping to experiment with the form factor. Your video has given me a lot of insight!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write such a kind and friendly comment. I love it whenever someone gets the point of the channel and can dig the unorthodox attitude and style. Thanks bro that's Awesome. Im sure you could already tell but greetings and salutations from the muscle shoals, tri-cities area. I was raised around all things music and talk like Goober and Gomer Pyle. LOL Shazayum Ayndy. I appreciate the kind sentiment and interest Randy truly.
Thank you for watching and leaving such a nice comment Fred. I started this whole pickup making thing with a ruler a coil from a hair shaver, some nails and 2 fridge magnets and when that worked and actually sounded good I knew I had to make a set for my next project. I have been pleasantly surprised with the results each time. I'm so glad you can appreciate my unorthodox style and attitude, Thanks again.
Thanks for the sub Randy. I'm glad you can deal with my unorthodox style. I am also happy to hear that you are going to do some pickup experiments as you stated in your previous comment. I hope you hit the magic combo and make the mack daddy pickup from hell.
I never had the bug to start building guitars from scratch until last year even though I've done my fair share of kit guitars, a couple Warmoths, and flea market rescues. If it weren't for what you do here I never would have seriously considered also spinning my own pups. Now it's a mild obsession, and I've got the confidence thanks to you... You fucking legend. I already subscribed and bitchslapped all the things.
Wow! Curtis Thank you SO much. I don't know what to say? I do know that I am so glad I was able to help you out. This is why I do this stuff. You made my week Mr.Litchfield. Thank you again this means so much to me. I appreciate the time you have taken to watch the videos and give feedback as well as the time it took to write this great inspiring comment. I know that if you keep this can do attitude and think outside the box you will be able to create something way better than you could ever buy because no one knows what you want as much as you. You can also be so much more proud of it when you know what it took to make and you know you did it yourself.
@@heavymetalATC I've been "assembling" guitars since about 2007, I'm working on getting things set up in my garage to do a neck build from scratch, and I'm nervous about it because It needs to fit an existing body. After that I hope to start building as much as I can. I bought Will Gelvin's guitar course thing, and it's rough as far as production goes but it has a ton of info, and I didn't even look at his pickup winding video until after I watched your P90 one. More to come! I'll be watching too.
@@curtislitchfield1378 Awesome, As long as you get the scale right you should be good, but my suggestion on getting a good fit is to make it somewhat over size and sand it back until it slips in. I also don't believe like many people do that a neck has to be mega tight, especially if you are going to then put finish on it. what will happen is it will crack the body and hang up and then shift (creak) all at once during temp and humidity changes causing tuning instability. I'm also sure that someone else like a "pro" will have a very different building style than myself. I'm coming more from the shade tree mechanic or home-spun machinist type of view point and not so much in the traditional old-school approach. I'm sure those guys would consider me a HACK but I like it that way.
Well the body has a standard American fender strat neck pocket. and there's a guy on the interwebs who sells a template for a Jazzmaster Baritone that will work as a conversion neck. I'll be doing a 28" scale. Should work out. I'll be making it out of Wenge so I'm not planning on putting a finish on it, should simplify things.
I know this is old, but it popped up in my recommended side bar... I love your mythbusting... I've been using plumber's flux forever when soldering guitar electronics, or any electronics for that matter.. Works fine.
Got my money's worth out of this video! Thanks for sharing your informed madness. :) I'm all about using birch popsicle sticks, corrugated cardboard, bamboo skewers, and gorilla glue to address every human need.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write a comment D. I'm so glad you get the point of what I'm trying to do here. With enough thought and ingenuity you can make just about anything into what you need.
I copied your wooden P-90 but used red maple from a pallet and I was impatient waiting for my package from Remington Ind. so I used a few coils from some salvaged motors, three different ones in all with the ends soldered as each one ran out and coated with Mod Podge. It was a bit touch and go there and I had serious doubts as to whether I was still gonna have continuity but hot damn I stuck er on my acoustic guitar using the extra wide top and bottom of theflat work to grab the soundhole, shit it sounds way better than a piezo for sure and thats with no tone or volume control yet! Im frickin addicted to makin pickups now! Immma try this split coil setup too! Thanks alot Clem!
Hi man! Just wanted to say that I love your videos. Every video shows some smart idea or something I didn't know before. And that's still the fact that I'm more or less the same type of dude as you, building my own stuff and so on.
Thank you so much VOVA. Its definitely a type... I just happened to grow up around music and was poor and wanted stuff so I started dreaming that I could build it and I built a parts caster as a kid and messed with equipment mostly breaking it but a few years back I moved into this house and their was an old 70s bigscreen in the garage and I said yeah, im going to figure this stuff out I stayed up for 3 days reading and googling and trying to remember where the blue wire goes and where the orange wire goes and built a synthesizer oscillator on a 2x4 with parts out of that tv and nails as terminals. That kinda set me off. Thanks again for watching.
Ah, I have never been to that part of the country before but I sure did put a mega-ton of hours into Oregon Trail on MS-Dos when I was younger. LOL "a member of your party has dysentery"..."Sue has a broken arm"..."Go back to the trading post Y or N?" Hahahaha
I just found your channel. I love this series! I love the use of the ultrasonic tester with the biomed sticker as I'm an old retired BMET. Keep putting out these amazing videos!
Thank you for taking the time to leave such kind words. I am glad you can appreciate my unorthodox style. I apologize for my absence and for taking so long to respond I took quite a long break from youtube but im back now with better gear, fresh attitude, more projects are piled up and ready to work and answer comments and questions. I didnt even know what that device was before I looked it up. It was found in the bushes of a McDonald's by the maintenance guy. He know I mess with electronics so he gave it to me also not knowing what it really was. It had stickers on it from a hospital way across town that had closed down years ago so... Who knows how it got there but its now repurposed to continue a life of rock and roll. LOL Thanks again for the viewership and encouragement.
Just discovered your channel and watched all your videos. You have encouraged me to find an old used guitar and try to build and modify my own pickups. Your information is all very useful. Keep doing what you doing.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Alex. It can become an addiction of sorts LOL. Once you get sound from that first pickup the ideas start flowing and it opens a rabbit hole miles deep. Its a fun hobby and can be pretty economical if done on the cheap.
@@heavymetalATC unfortunately I live in South Africa so the availability of materials arnt as accessible. Just finding magnets at a decent price are a struggle, nevermind copper wire. We don't have any local suppliers and bringing in a spool big enough for 1 pickup would cost more than a decent pickup itself. I am however going to try and resume the copper from old pickups in cheaper guitars and see if I can do anything with it.
@@AlexMullerSA If you can find one that is unpotted that would be a great idea as you could roll it onto a spool easily for later use. Another place to find magnet wire that is unpotted is in transformers I built my first pickup on this channel from the transformer coil inside of a hair shaver. It is still fun though to take premade cheap pickups and mod them with different magnets like fridge magnets or any other type of magnets you can get from old dis-guarded items old hardrives have some super strong magnets in them also you can experiment with making different size and shapes of backplates or covers out of scrap metal... steel will give it more power and high end and copper will give it more low end power.
@@heavymetalATC thank you so much for that reply. I had no idea about the hard drives, I have a bunch lying around that don't work anymore, I'll get to opening them up. I'll also have a look out for items that might have some wire. I'm going to have fun with this.
What an amazing DIY and demonstration. Although I'm a bass player primarily, I'm still looking for "that unique sound" and I think these could be easily applied to basses as well! Those "Ice pick high" pickups blow out of the water majority of the overpriced boutique "vintage" garbage they push out these days. Well done sir! Subbed and can't wait for more!
Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement Bash. I'm so glad that you get what I'm putting out here. You seem to understand my point of view very well. I truly appreciate the subscription and I have recently come back from a break on youtube with better gear for video sound and editing and the ability to finally monetize so I plan on making higher quality content in the future on a much contestant basis. Thanks again Bash I hope you can narrow down just what you need to get the sound you are after.
@@heavymetalATC In that case welcome back and you're welcome! I'm glutton for this kind of stuff. Give me weird pickups, unique wirings and generally different approaches to making music and I'm there to lap it all up! :D Cheers!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write such a kind comment John. Hahaha Dont say that man, I cant handle that kind of responsibility. LOL thanks again brother I am very appreciative of the sentiment.
If you are making a Faraday Cage why not get copper tape then tape it to the inside area of the pickup? You could then wind normally soldering ground by the drilled hole as you did just wrapping it as a normal single coil would be through the hole 5 times or so the solder. The positive wire goes through a hole on the edge farther out avoiding the copper connection on the tape. After you solder down the positive wire, you could also put in a small dot of liquid electric tape on the inside of the bobbin or better yet just coat the bobbin before winding then coils after winding with it then add the copper tape - you thus would avoid possible wire short if when you soldered while supplying an insulator between the cage and the coils. Then you put on a copper top piece of tape over the coil windings. This would act as a true Faraday Cage the windings would have an extra insulator with the liquid electric tape and the copper would be the cage. Also when you wind them no more need for securing the lead off wires. You could solder lead off wires directly to the bottom of the bobbins. This some will say make your windings suffer as the tape/insulator takes up room. Offset this factor if needed (remember you are under winding the high 3) by making the bobbins a bit taller. You could even use a thicker wire if bobbins are tall enough. Making a bobbin taller one could also recess the magnets inside the bobbin. I have measured my LP and am in the process of making bobbins a little under 2 times as think. My math so far says it will still work if I bottom them all the way down. I will need longer screws and to make the threaded part built up from the inside of the plate with a few nuts and JBWeld. These are small mods the tricky part is getting the height just right. It will be a few weeks though as once I get the thing to fit I am going to get it scanned for 3D printing and also make a spacer if I choose to do by hand again. Of course there are other plans I have and am testing but your Faraday Cage is a great idea which I was approaching the way I described. When I saw your video I was thinking good idea but why did he do it that way? I also like the thought of making all wood bobbins. It would be cheap and not too hard to do with a table saw, small drill and a Dremel. I plan on trying that after watching your video using a mahogany board from the local hardware store. Maybe I will even do the back plate out of wood and glue in nuts for threading. That way the thing will vibrate more since it will be riding the router hole bottomed out all the way. Probably won't make a difference but I don't think anyone has tried it before.
think icepopsickle sticks would work well for those front and backplates think you can get those sticks in a jumbo size if you look a bit harder , there actually made from pretty good wood no knots or anything in them
The bassy explanation makes perfect since. Telecasters have a metal baseplate that changes frequencies, and they make baseplates to fit on strat pickups, which adds a little more presence to it.
Thank you Davey, It made sense to me and I think it worked pretty good. Most pickups use a copper coated steel base plate and that stretches out the magnetic field but it seemed to me that a copper plate while it wouldn't effect magnetic field would act kinda like a shock absorber for the electrons and kinda slow down the flow much like a capacitor in a tone circuit does. I tend to think of electricity like water.
@@heavymetalATC you're welcome brother. Keep up the good work. You experiment so much more with guitar electronics than Gibson has since the norlin era. I'm amazed at exactly how much more we have to learn, even with advancements in today's evolution in technology, and so far you are really the only one being productive. Thanks man, it always warms my heart when fellows like yourself reach out to their fans, especially if that fan is me! Take it easy man, and good luck to numerous more projects!
Good to know. I acquired a set of 3 Strat pickups years ago and they have a metal baseplate like a Tele pup. Never knew if they were any good but going to try them in a project now. Not sure what they are from. Probably some old import Japan Strat copy. I can tell they are old as the patina on the white covers is a dark yellow now.
You're not crazy at all, clementine. you're adding capacitance, really. I mean if you open up a box cap you'll see you got little plates inside with like the little wires coming off,and you'll have also a winding inside which determines the capacitance. Also that foil will add a little resistance too, further Making it like a cap. It should change the inductance of the coil as well, betting ya get a broader range of res frequency and a smoother high end, but gotta watch the rest of the dang video to see. Cool stuff, man
Thank you so much. That is exactly what it is as well. I love to do experiments and see if the things I hear and read about guitars online is wrong... and most of the time it is.
Great stuff. I made magnetic guitar pick for sale. I’ve used them for over a year, and I haven’t had any issues. However, people still claim that it effects the pickups. Can I hire y’all to do some experiments, and a video?
Thank you so much for your time and kind words of encouragement. I'm so stoked that people appreciate my effort. It makes me all fuzzy inside... or its the solder fumes LOL
@@heavymetalATC Omg! Don't inhale the solder fumes! Seriously, it amuses me that the typical perception of the tonal characteristics of things like wood, or magnets are strongly linked to their physical properties that we sense eg. "Mahogany sounds warm," or "ceramic magnets sound brittle". As you imply it's the magnetic field strength at the string that counts in terma of sustain, and the way the field interacts with both string and coil that affects tone.
Sound real good about 6 years ago I wound some p 90s almost like those in my home made walnut and red elm top tele. They sounded better than the stock p90s Ihad in there before.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment David, I think its hard to beat the scatter wind of a hand traversed pickup it just does something to the wire that decouples it in the perfect amount for clarity without harshness.
Where am I going to come up with an ultrasonic Doppler flow detector. It’s not the kind of things just sitting around. Now I do have an RCA 12278b PA amp, or something like that. But they’re all over EBay. 12 w clean and 17 w max, which would be max distortion for the amp.
Thank you for taking the time to watch and leave such kind words. This is only the 3rd time Ive wound pickups either im a natural or I just keep getting lucky. I did study up on the subject for a LONG while before my first attempt.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write a comment Vincent. Im glad you enjoy the unorthodox style and strange antidotes... Anecdotes LOL I had to edit this I thought oh know hes not gonna get the joke, just think I am illiterate and thats only 4/3 true Hahaha
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind comment Shadowman. I am often surprised by the sound of these home-built pickup projects. I will come in with an idea of what I want to happen and its not always the case but sometimes it just hits the mark and more. These definitely do that thing that a strat neck pickup does but switch a wire and its squally LP territory. I still havent made up my mind as for the way I will wire them in the final build. Thanks again Shadowman. I am so glad you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for the kind words of encouragement and your time. I'm so glad you that you appreciate my effort and I hope you found it useful or entertaining. I don't plan on stopping any time soon.
This video gave me the idea to just buy one of these 3 poll cigar box style guitar style pickups and install them in a guitar like a “submarine” pick up. $20 is a much better deal than $150+ shipping and if it’s permanently installed in a pick-guard I won’t need to deal with the nonsense of them always failing off. Anyone who has seen the submarine pickup but is looking for the a cheaper option should give this a tryl
Thanks again Evan and yes that is a great Idea. It would work exactly the same and if you ran that through an octave down effect you would have a super full sound. Awesome idea and great point.
Thank you so much Petey. Its kinda a capacitor, kinda a non-ferrous back-plate, kinda another big ass coil wind. But I was very pleased with the result it sounds totally different than the other pickup. Think I will go with parallel and give each 3 pole its own volume knob and the unwound side out of phase. To use them like a physical blend EQ control in the the finished guitar.
You're not increasing the mass, you're just increasing the thickness, increasing the thickness of the same piece of copper (or anything) doesn't increase mass. Thickness and mass are two different measures of an object.
@@hurdygurdyguy1 yes absolutely, what I meant was as apposed to a single layer of copper the same size as the folded piece. I guess what I should have said is "This larger piece of copper with more mass will not fit on the bobbin unless I fold it". I should have been more thoughtful and concise in my narration I will try to do that in the future. Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a comment hurdygurdyguy as well as pointing out that discrepancy. Also that is a killer instrument I like the way they sound with the long droning and the whole hand crank wheel thing is just awesome.
What non magnetic poll pieces did you use ,and could you use non magnetic screws for a project like this ,why I ask is I'm trying to make some pick-ups for a 1960s framus star bass like Bill wyman and need the pick-ups to have that sort of sound, have to make them the polls are very close together and these pick-ups never come up for sale,Thanks for any response 😊
I'd like to have a split pickup arrangement, but for my G-D-d-f-g#-b tuning the split would be 4 treble and two bass. Presently, I achieve this by putting soft steel mutes on the four treble strings of a stock bridge humbucker, and using a tone circuit which primarily affects the neck pickup. This gives me a nice bright but powerful bass, but makes the bridge pickup useless for treble solos. I've been toying with the idea of making a two-string humbucker and a four-string stacked noise cancelling pickup, which I think should produce cleanly separated sound, but unfortunately I'm a clutz at truly to build things and a disaster at DIY.
I think that sounds like a fine idea and concept and it should sound very nice. You can go to the pickup winding forums on facebook and present you idea and ask for a builder that is interested. Many of those guys have alot of knowledge as well as laser cutters and bins full of parts and will be able to give you a professional looking product in a contained package and if you treat it like an auction and make them undercut one another, you should be able to get it done at a pretty reasonable price. I would suggest going with a cigar box pickup builder as they are a lot more familiar with making 2-3-4 string pickups in stacked and humbucker configurations. Also thank you for watching the video and taking the time to comment and share your ideas. I think you are on a good scent trail with this seems like it would sound fantastic.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. The + wire is coming out of the left pickup and going to the jack + tip. The - wire on the left pickup is going to the + wire on the right pickup. The - wire on the right pickup is going to the jack - ring. I'm sorry if that is hard to understand its kind of hard to explain but the two coils are wired the same as regular humbucker coils or the coils in a G&S z-coil pickup or a Fender P-bass pickup. I hope that helps in some way. I apologize for the late reply I was taking a break from youtube If you have any more questions feel free to comment. Thanks again.
They are all south up and all wound counter clockwise from the front the way I got the short ones to hum-buck was by switching the leads of the coil wire at the terminal on the back. You can make any 2 single coils humbuck though by hooking them up in series with one backwards so instead of + to - in the center go + to + and use the negative from one as the positive and the negative as the other as the negative. I hope that wasn't too confusing but by your question it seems that you understand winding phase, wiring phase, and magnetic phase. Thank you for taking the time to watch and leave a comment.
@@heavymetalATC I was just thinking on this, I've been winding some experiments of my own (Really thin 3mm neo polepeices (No slugs, just magnets) and similar stuff.) How does the Z-coil play with the p90 phase wise with this configuration? Isn't half the z coil in phase and the other half out of phase? Not disputing your results, just curious how this is actually working.
@@alaricpaley6865 Always love to hear about pickup experiments I have not tried the no slug configuration yet. I have thought about wrapping a coil directly around a neo bar magnet to make a goldfoil/lipstick type pickup. But..yes Alaric one of the coils has to be out of phase with the p90 whether or not the p90 is in or out of phase with the set. When the z-coils are in series its still relatively strong output regardless of phase but, I found the best way to do it was to put the 3 unwound strings out of phase so that they sound brighter while the 3 wound strings sound more bassy when blended with the p90 and it gives a wide range hi-fi sort of sound. I think that when I install them in the oak guitar I may just run them in parallel with a volume pot on each as a way to blend highs or lows from the neck to the p90 like an EQ control. Thanks for the well thought out comment and for showing genuine interest. Good luck with the experiments its great to hear about other mad scientists work.
LOve your vid ! Great job . Just did not get what you mean at 7:45, dont see the zigzag pattern opposit.. ? Should I listen more heavy metal to get it or I am a desesperated case !
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment nano. I can understand how it was confusing all I was pointing out was the way the plates and wires were shifted on the two pickups like a mirror image. This was done to make the ground wire come out of the opposite hole on the two coils so they could be tied together in series but be out of phase to buck hum. Its much like the G&L Z-Coil pickups if you were to draw a wiring diagram it would look like a Z. If thats also confusing and I could see why I have a video explaining Phase and Series vs Parallel. here: th-cam.com/video/Q-l4HhVdO4M/w-d-xo.html Thanks again nano I appreciate the engagement.
you get very risky putting neo-magnets into hot wax --- some of them has low temperature Cury point. N.B. Nobody really know --- WTF is "vintage tone" ;-)))) Keep up good work !!
True, Luckily I have not had any demagnetization problems yet. I guess the wax isn't "too" hot. Also, I just meant similar tone to that of the AlniCo magnet pickups from the 50s-70s. (buzz word for "guitar-dudes") Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave such a thoughtful and coherent comment.
Thanks for an interesting videoI've made several successful pickups from wall warts and also from fanmotors. I juststripped an old mecanno motor I had as a kid, see if it will "fire up". On occasion I've attempted to make my own pickup by winding, but never yet been successful One question, I've had difficulty stripping the clear insulation off very thin copper winding wire for soldering....a lighter melts the metal, I tried fine emory paper, scraping, it inevitably snaps. How do you do it or should I use non insulated copper wire?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a comment GoldSmith. I have never thought to use a coil in a transformer before that is a clever idea. Yes you have to use a coated wire like in the other coils a bare wire will just short to itself and cause a 1 wind closed circuit. I have seen many people use sandpaper to remove the insulation and I have used the lighter trick on headphone wires with the green and red varnish but with the thin magnet wire in the pickups.. I just solder the hell out of it like as hot as I can get it with a large soldering iron and it seems to melt the insulation and make good contact. Try a test with a few short pieces of wire and see if you can get a good contact from just leaving the iron in the solder pool at the joint for about 15-20 seconds and melt the coating off the wire. I've had good luck with this method so far... thanks again.
@@heavymetalATC Thanks mate, I'll give it another go. The wall wart method works great. Although they dont seemascommon as they once did. I just break the plastic casing open with a hack saw, then remove the thin metal plates using a screwdriver to seperate them, and a pair of slim pliars to pull them out. Then solder a jack to the 2 ends, insert the good old neodymium magnet's in the centre, then "pot it" with hot melt glue. I just made apiezo with atiny hollow chamber filledwith tiny glass beads, worked FANTASTIC to add a jaw bonescraper type sound to a drum beat th-cam.com/video/a_Gp50wfEbA/w-d-xo.html PS what happpened to your DIY synth, it sounded aewsome and looked like it could go anywhere?
@@GOLDSMITHEXILE That is a cool idea with the shaker. I'll have to watch that. I thought of this comment while making the video that will be up hopfully tomorrow and I showed a good close up of the coil wire being soldered to a lead wire. My synth that was in the big metal and plexi case let the magic smoke out. I didnt put a fuse in it even though the guy at the hardware store begged me to and showed me where they were but, the cv stinger swung down and hit an alligator clip and it pinged off like a cruel sniper shot and went right to a hot lead like a 1 in 20000 chance freak accordance. the lights went bright then dim and the smell came out. It took out everything in the box even the mixer and amp. I got replacement components of all the modules but I kept them in separate small cases to keep that from happening again.
Very good explained, i sure am going to try this. You say that the mass of the copper plates is important. Do you think the width of the copper plates play a role in this too? Thanks
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Jean. I really dont know how much of an effect the width of the plates would make I also dont know exactly how much the mass matters I just had an educated guess at the effect it would have and it seemed to work like I thought. Hey if you did try this let me know how it went and what results you got?
@@heavymetalATC I will. After to try and make my pickups sound like the old fry-pan horse-shoe pickups from rickenbacher i have now bought an old rickenbacher NS from 1948. She sounds beautiful, and, just as i expected. The DC output resistance is low( 1.9 K Ohm) so they used pretty thick wire at that time. The secret must be in the U-shaped magnets. At this point i am scared to put a pickup that i wound myself in to those U-shaped magnets to test if that is really the secret for that amazing sound. Although Beauchamp did not invent the vagina, he sure did invent a darn good sounding pickup......Thanks for posting these funny and informative video's. Jean.
@@germona Ive thought about trying to do a ricky style pickup on the channel with scraps and stuff maybe use metal plate to make the horseshoe and then keep it charged with a neodymium magnet on the back... then as an experiment maybe cut the tops off of the U shapes and see if the sound changes a lot.
@@heavymetalATC That would be great. Thanks. I am surely looking forward to that one. Some details that i can give you. The thickness of the U shaped magnets is 5 mm, the width of the magnets is 32 mm (1"1/4) is well as the width of the pickup. The magnets are not strong. North pole is up, south pole down. The south pole is attached to the 6 pole pieces. When mounting the magnets they tend to push each other away. So the strings vibrate between north and south, they are not pulled down as in a 'normal' pickup. Not that this pulling down really matters with sustain, as you already proved in another video. The Dc resistance is below 2 KoHm. I am super exited to see your version. Thanks again and good luck with the build. Jean from Belgium.
Certainly, I’m finding a lot of good people in this community. My site is up now, take a look, and let me give you a pick. See if you like it, test it if you like. I’m curious about minor interference that not noticeable, may be seen electronically?
that was soooo cool! you got yourself a NEW sub. I am just like you, I don't listen to them either. Fuck the blue pill. I'm gonna rip it apart and fix it. I build my own guitars too...cheap guitars rule. I fix the handy man's tools!
Thank you SO much Uncle Dad. I appreciate the time you took to watch and leave such kind words as well as for subscribing. I started this whole thing from being a kid that was into music and hobbies while being super poor and it just became ingrained in me. I wont take a car to a mechanic and I wont call a carpenter or electrician. I gotta do it myself and the few times I've strayed from that I've been burned. At this point I'm pretty much just seeing how far I can take it. I plan on building bridges and things for the guitars I make in the future. Thanks again good to see someone of like mind out here who gets it.
You know you stirred within me a drive to want to make coils. DAMN IT. What is holding me back? Not enough beers because winding by hand is just butt fuckery in a bad way.
That is great to hear General AWESOME! I do agree winding by hand is a MOFO. However you can use many things to wind a coil anything that turns basically: a Drill, a fishing reel, an egg beater, a slow fan, as you see I use my grandmas old sewing machine. Seymour Duncan wound his first pickups on an old 78 rpm record player. I worked out the math one time and if I remember correctly it seems that it would only take about an hour and 1/2 to wind a pickup that way. He gave a set of those to Jimi Hendrix and he loved and used them so Id say it worked out well. Its great to hear that you have been inspired. Thats why I do this. I am so happy about that. Be warned though it is a sickness once you get the first working pickup and you hear how good it sounds and see how cheap it was to make. You will be hooked and falling down the rabbit hole. Every magnet and scrap piece of wood or metal will start to look like pickup parts and cigar box guitars and on and on.
@@heavymetalATC Too late everything is already looking like that and I can 3d printer design them too since 2013 so I'm screwed. A couple of questions but I see some seriously cheap Chinese made pickups that are ready to go on Amazon, eBay, etc... where can I find the 42awg (enamel and poly sounds the best to my ears that forma Fender stuff sound a bit muffled to me), the magnets, and the bobbins cheap? I have another question for ya but will wait for the answer to the above.
@@generalawareness101 ok General I use Amazon to get my poly wire and neo magnets. But, it may be a good Idea to join a pickup winding group on facebook like Pickup winding for dummies. Those guys know their stuff and are not stuck up or high felutin like the guys on some forums. They should be able to point you in a good direction and tell you where to get the best cheap stuff. Also a 5lb roll of poly wire seems expensive as hell but.. It will make quite a few pickups I'm still on my first roll.
@@heavymetalATC I can't as I was suspended from FB for my safety June 1, 2019. After showing them all kinds of ids, three pieces of mail with my name and address on them, and a full-frontal picture with no one else in it, they never reinstated me, nor would they tell me who they were protecting my safety from. Heck, they never would even communicate with me period.
@@generalawareness101 Well, maybe you can surf around the net and find some dedicated forums like the telecaster discussion page Im sure they have a section about pickups those guys helped me out tremendously when I was building that yellow tweed amp.
AH don't give a keer ifen yer showin stuff a man might could wanna do? Still yit I luv yer style. Ya'll put me to mind of Virginya mountin boys I knowed wut could jest bout knit a woodstove frum outen still wool, purty near, you know hit? A la Wayne Henderson, fer instance.
Thankyee soow ver muyich Rabo ifen you like tha dawg ima runnin im suh glayud you aint the rabbit. I pershate tha kindly werds yous a spittin at a feller. HAHAHA Really though man I had never heard of Wayne Henderson, I saw this comment night before last and went down the Wayne Henderson rabbit hole. Thank you so much really for sharing that information. I dig the hell out of stuff like that.
I keep pushing it like a salesman. I had no idea it wasn't "supposed" to be used when I started. It would be hard to make due without it. It's safe to say though that you are the flux KING! Your soldering looks like machine work.
If you use Fluxite, it is non- corrosive plumbers' flux, so it's okay - DON'T use powerflux or La-Co flux as they will corrode the wires very quickly Fluxite comes in a flat tin like a pocket size or it is also in large upright tins around 1/2 a litre but the small pocket sized tin should be enough for pickups.
I thought somebody might like that. Its the best place in the world, guys all come from it and spend the rest of our lives trying to get back in. LOL Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment oh and flux really is great stuff.
Only the best tone wax made from the hives of rare psycho-active honey producing bees in a secret gold mine in the mountains of Istanbul for my 99.999 pure silver soldered and coiled iridium-cobalt magnet pickups wound on flatwork made from the pickguard of Jimi Hendrix's first ozark guitar that was stolen from a show in 1966. < thats what people sound like to me? Soy works fine, so would epoxy or elmers glue. Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment and have a laugh with me.
![เปิดบ้าน พี่ตูน Bodyslam หลังใหม่คนแรก ที่ภูเก็ต l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/flFwcmyDQSk/mqdefault.jpg)
I very much like what I hear! They stand up pretty well on their own, a clear and round sound! "Rocket surgery"😂
Totally on board with your aim too!
Brilliant DIY construction of your 3-pole pickup modules, especially the inclusion of the copper bars. Inductance and magnetics are 2 of the most difficult elements of pickup design. You seem to understand them better than most DIYers. Well done Sir !!!
Pat Kindell Thank you so much Pat. I'm glad you liked the video. I really just try to take things I've learned from previous endeavors and apply them to any new project disregarding popular myth or convention. Thanks for taking the time to watch this long video and leave such kind words.
- - -Pat Kindell
Nothing difficult at all. All it takes to be inductive is a lot of wire, for magnetism - slap any magnet. I usually take the strongest I can find.
This dude try to bust all stupid mythology around pups.
More metal can you staccato the sustain on that for ska
I just discovered your channel. Stewmac might not like this video but I think it is clever and inspiring. I have built guitars and tube amps for over 40 years and I have to say, I like how you think outside of the”box”. There is SO MUCH profit motivated and repeated misinformation online I seldom pick up new ideas. I have hundreds of beautiful bits of tropical hardwood too small to use in a build ....until now. I will be checking out more of your videos. BTW your presentation is clear and well organized. Thank you amigo!
Thanks Musicamex. I am so happy when someone understands what I am trying to do on this channel. Not everyone does but the people that do have made the best viewers and subscribers someone could hope for. People are usually so kind and helpful on this channel as well as letting me know how the info has helped them. That just makes my day I feel very lucky. I am so glad you have found a use for your exotic wood collection. I'm sure they will make some beautiful pickups. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this kind inspiration comment bro. This is the kind of thing that keeps me going and the reason I do this stuff. I appreciate the time you took to do so and you are most welcome.
I wish z-coils were more popular, I love them!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Chris I agree I think it is a wonderful design, Leo Fender was a heck of an engineer.
That was brilliant ' You ARE the pickup mythbuster!!! Neodymium rules.
Man, I wish I had found your channel ages ago!
Ive been binge watching your pickup making videos and I recon I'm ready to give it a try!
Awesome bro, I hope you gave it a try and Id love to hear how it went, its a steep learning curve at first but if you can get 1 made and working your off to the races.
To minimize risk of cracking might try flatwork not to align with wood grain, instead aim for the strongest angle. Appreciate your approach
very cool sounding pickups, the clarity is superior to many high end boutique pickups. youre a knowledgable man and thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to type out such a kind comment Terry. I appreciate the support and encouragement. I also have to admit I was well pleased and a little surprised at just how well the ideas I had came together to nail the sound I was looking for.
Way back in the Day, there was a Japanese guitar that had six individual single pole pickups, mounted in a staggered line across the strings. TAKE IT TO THE EXTREME!
Subscribed. Anyone who makes their own stuff, dispells myths, and says screw rules in fine in my book.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such an enthusiastic comment. I'm glad you get what it is that I am trying to do and I appreciate the subscription as well.
So cool man! Definitely inspired me to start thinking about some pick up experiments. Thanks!
Awesome! that's what its all about, stick anything you can grab together and see what it does. You could very well invent the next big idea. Maybe a pickup wound with aluminum coil wire ceramic magnets and 12 cone shaped pole pieces is the ticket maybe it will be junk? but somebody has to try it.
I’ve been slowly gearing up to start making my own custom pickups, but I’m very much hoping to experiment with the form factor.
Your video has given me a lot of insight!
You can put marbles in the wax pot to prevent the pickups from touching the hot floor.
Thank you that is a great tip. I had not seen that before. I will try it in the future.
...Wonderful "Vibe",my Brother & much-love from Southern Illinois!!!...Peace...
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write such a kind and friendly comment. I love it whenever someone gets the point of the channel and can dig the unorthodox attitude and style. Thanks bro that's Awesome. Im sure you could already tell but greetings and salutations from the muscle shoals, tri-cities area. I was raised around all things music and talk like Goober and Gomer Pyle. LOL Shazayum Ayndy. I appreciate the kind sentiment and interest Randy truly.
Thank you so much for your labor🙏
Awesome, I'm diggin yer channel, i find it educational and entertaining 🤘y'all have a badass day🤘🍻🤘
Your a gear head electrical engineer 👍
Dude your fantastic with these diy pickups and better than any Luthier I'm familiar with 👍
I've had pickups that were high powered and lacked warmth and clarity. Your pickups sound sweet, warm, and clear. Great to hear your DIY project!
Thank you for watching and leaving such a nice comment Fred. I started this whole pickup making thing with a ruler a coil from a hair shaver, some nails and 2 fridge magnets and when that worked and actually sounded good I knew I had to make a set for my next project. I have been pleasantly surprised with the results each time. I'm so glad you can appreciate my unorthodox style and attitude, Thanks again.
You had me as a subscriber when you said "bitch slap that like button " lol
Thanks for the sub Randy. I'm glad you can deal with my unorthodox style. I am also happy to hear that you are going to do some pickup experiments as you stated in your previous comment. I hope you hit the magic combo and make the mack daddy pickup from hell.
You are jem. More power to the makers with attitude
I think I prefer the sound of those out of phase for sure!
Thanks again, I appreciate you taking a look at it.
No worries Steve. Thank you for considering my input to be of value.
Neodymium sounds hella good.
I never had the bug to start building guitars from scratch until last year even though I've done my fair share of kit guitars, a couple Warmoths, and flea market rescues. If it weren't for what you do here I never would have seriously considered also spinning my own pups. Now it's a mild obsession, and I've got the confidence thanks to you... You fucking legend. I already subscribed and bitchslapped all the things.
Wow! Curtis Thank you SO much. I don't know what to say? I do know that I am so glad I was able to help you out. This is why I do this stuff. You made my week Mr.Litchfield. Thank you again this means so much to me. I appreciate the time you have taken to watch the videos and give feedback as well as the time it took to write this great inspiring comment. I know that if you keep this can do attitude and think outside the box you will be able to create something way better than you could ever buy because no one knows what you want as much as you. You can also be so much more proud of it when you know what it took to make and you know you did it yourself.
@@heavymetalATC I've been "assembling" guitars since about 2007, I'm working on getting things set up in my garage to do a neck build from scratch, and I'm nervous about it because It needs to fit an existing body. After that I hope to start building as much as I can. I bought Will Gelvin's guitar course thing, and it's rough as far as production goes but it has a ton of info, and I didn't even look at his pickup winding video until after I watched your P90 one. More to come! I'll be watching too.
@@curtislitchfield1378 Awesome, As long as you get the scale right you should be good, but my suggestion on getting a good fit is to make it somewhat over size and sand it back until it slips in. I also don't believe like many people do that a neck has to be mega tight, especially if you are going to then put finish on it. what will happen is it will crack the body and hang up and then shift (creak) all at once during temp and humidity changes causing tuning instability. I'm also sure that someone else like a "pro" will have a very different building style than myself. I'm coming more from the shade tree mechanic or home-spun machinist type of view point and not so much in the traditional old-school approach. I'm sure those guys would consider me a HACK but I like it that way.
Well the body has a standard American fender strat neck pocket. and there's a guy on the interwebs who sells a template for a Jazzmaster Baritone that will work as a conversion neck. I'll be doing a 28" scale. Should work out. I'll be making it out of Wenge so I'm not planning on putting a finish on it, should simplify things.
@@curtislitchfield1378 Well heck you got it figured out then all should go well. Great job on getting it all figured out and planned ahead of time.
They sound great
It sounds not bad at all. Great result with low budget.
Thanks bro. I appreciate the continued interest and kind words.
I know this is old, but it popped up in my recommended side bar... I love your mythbusting... I've been using plumber's flux forever when soldering guitar electronics, or any electronics for that matter.. Works fine.
Well done sir. Definately it did skynyrd
Got my money's worth out of this video! Thanks for sharing your informed madness. :)
I'm all about using birch popsicle sticks, corrugated cardboard, bamboo skewers, and gorilla glue to address every human need.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write a comment D.
I'm so glad you get the point of what I'm trying to do here. With enough thought and ingenuity you can make just about anything into what you need.
You got my subscription, thanks for your vid!
Thank you very much for your sub, time, and kind words Hakala.
Awesome, thanks for your insights!
Thank you for watching and taking time to leave a kind comment gstube.
Sounds var goot, man. Thanks for the video.
I appreciate you kind words I'm glad you liked it.
I copied your wooden P-90 but used red maple from a pallet and I was impatient waiting for my package from Remington Ind. so I used a few coils from some salvaged motors, three different ones in all with the ends soldered as each one ran out and coated with Mod Podge. It was a bit touch and go there and I had serious doubts as to whether I was still gonna have continuity but hot damn I stuck er on my acoustic guitar using the extra wide top and bottom of theflat work to grab the soundhole, shit it sounds way better than a piezo for sure and thats with no tone or volume control yet! Im frickin addicted to makin pickups now! Immma try this split coil setup too! Thanks alot Clem!
super cool video! Homespun rocket science for making pickups! Thanks Clementine♪
Thank you, I'm so glad you liked it.
Hi man! Just wanted to say that I love your videos. Every video shows some smart idea or something I didn't know before. And that's still the fact that I'm more or less the same type of dude as you, building my own stuff and so on.
Thank you so much VOVA. Its definitely a type... I just happened to grow up around music and was poor and wanted stuff so I started dreaming that I could build it and I built a parts caster as a kid and messed with equipment mostly breaking it but a few years back I moved into this house and their was an old 70s bigscreen in the garage and I said yeah, im going to figure this stuff out I stayed up for 3 days reading and googling and trying to remember where the blue wire goes and where the orange wire goes and built a synthesizer oscillator on a 2x4 with parts out of that tv and nails as terminals. That kinda set me off. Thanks again for watching.
Oh hey, that Doppler detector was made walking distance from me! Great sounding pickup man, nicely done!
Ah, I have never been to that part of the country before but I sure did put a mega-ton of hours into Oregon Trail on MS-Dos when I was younger. LOL "a member of your party has dysentery"..."Sue has a broken arm"..."Go back to the trading post Y or N?" Hahahaha
@@heavymetalATC hahaha! You broke a wheel on your wagon
Thanks for this very helpful. Going to make a pick up for my CBG.
Glad it was helpful!
I just found your channel. I love this series! I love the use of the ultrasonic tester with the biomed sticker as I'm an old retired BMET. Keep putting out these amazing videos!
Thank you for taking the time to leave such kind words. I am glad you can appreciate my unorthodox style. I apologize for my absence and for taking so long to respond I took quite a long break from youtube but im back now with better gear, fresh attitude, more projects are piled up and ready to work and answer comments and questions. I didnt even know what that device was before I looked it up. It was found in the bushes of a McDonald's by the maintenance guy. He know I mess with electronics so he gave it to me also not knowing what it really was. It had stickers on it from a hospital way across town that had closed down years ago so... Who knows how it got there but its now repurposed to continue a life of rock and roll. LOL Thanks again for the viewership and encouragement.
Just discovered your channel and watched all your videos. You have encouraged me to find an old used guitar and try to build and modify my own pickups. Your information is all very useful. Keep doing what you doing.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment Alex. It can become an addiction of sorts LOL. Once you get sound from that first pickup the ideas start flowing and it opens a rabbit hole miles deep. Its a fun hobby and can be pretty economical if done on the cheap.
@@heavymetalATC unfortunately I live in South Africa so the availability of materials arnt as accessible. Just finding magnets at a decent price are a struggle, nevermind copper wire. We don't have any local suppliers and bringing in a spool big enough for 1 pickup would cost more than a decent pickup itself. I am however going to try and resume the copper from old pickups in cheaper guitars and see if I can do anything with it.
@@AlexMullerSA If you can find one that is unpotted that would be a great idea as you could roll it onto a spool easily for later use. Another place to find magnet wire that is unpotted is in transformers I built my first pickup on this channel from the transformer coil inside of a hair shaver. It is still fun though to take premade cheap pickups and mod them with different magnets like fridge magnets or any other type of magnets you can get from old dis-guarded items old hardrives have some super strong magnets in them also you can experiment with making different size and shapes of backplates or covers out of scrap metal... steel will give it more power and high end and copper will give it more low end power.
@@heavymetalATC thank you so much for that reply. I had no idea about the hard drives, I have a bunch lying around that don't work anymore, I'll get to opening them up. I'll also have a look out for items that might have some wire. I'm going to have fun with this.
@@AlexMullerSA Thats the spirit Alex!!! Awesome attitude!
What an amazing DIY and demonstration. Although I'm a bass player primarily, I'm still looking for "that unique sound" and I think these could be easily applied to basses as well! Those "Ice pick high" pickups blow out of the water majority of the overpriced boutique "vintage" garbage they push out these days. Well done sir! Subbed and can't wait for more!
Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement Bash. I'm so glad that you get what I'm putting out here. You seem to understand my point of view very well. I truly appreciate the subscription and I have recently come back from a break on youtube with better gear for video sound and editing and the ability to finally monetize so I plan on making higher quality content in the future on a much contestant basis. Thanks again Bash I hope you can narrow down just what you need to get the sound you are after.
@@heavymetalATC In that case welcome back and you're welcome! I'm glutton for this kind of stuff. Give me weird pickups, unique wirings and generally different approaches to making music and I'm there to lap it all up! :D
Cheers!
@@deeliriyum Awesome Bash I appreciate the support.
Your doppler detector amp sounds killer!
Thanks mojo, there is a video of the full conversion on my channel.
you are my new hero !
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to write such a kind comment John. Hahaha Dont say that man, I cant handle that kind of responsibility. LOL thanks again brother I am very appreciative of the sentiment.
If you are making a Faraday Cage why not get copper tape then tape it to the inside area of the pickup? You could then wind normally soldering ground by the drilled hole as you did just wrapping it as a normal single coil would be through the hole 5 times or so the solder. The positive wire goes through a hole on the edge farther out avoiding the copper connection on the tape. After you solder down the positive wire, you could also put in a small dot of liquid electric tape on the inside of the bobbin or better yet just coat the bobbin before winding then coils after winding with it then add the copper tape - you thus would avoid possible wire short if when you soldered while supplying an insulator between the cage and the coils. Then you put on a copper top piece of tape over the coil windings. This would act as a true Faraday Cage the windings would have an extra insulator with the liquid electric tape and the copper would be the cage. Also when you wind them no more need for securing the lead off wires. You could solder lead off wires directly to the bottom of the bobbins. This some will say make your windings suffer as the tape/insulator takes up room. Offset this factor if needed (remember you are under winding the high 3) by making the bobbins a bit taller. You could even use a thicker wire if bobbins are tall enough. Making a bobbin taller one could also recess the magnets inside the bobbin. I have measured my LP and am in the process of making bobbins a little under 2 times as think. My math so far says it will still work if I bottom them all the way down. I will need longer screws and to make the threaded part built up from the inside of the plate with a few nuts and JBWeld. These are small mods the tricky part is getting the height just right. It will be a few weeks though as once I get the thing to fit I am going to get it scanned for 3D printing and also make a spacer if I choose to do by hand again. Of course there are other plans I have and am testing but your Faraday Cage is a great idea which I was approaching the way I described. When I saw your video I was thinking good idea but why did he do it that way? I also like the thought of making all wood bobbins. It would be cheap and not too hard to do with a table saw, small drill and a Dremel. I plan on trying that after watching your video using a mahogany board from the local hardware store. Maybe I will even do the back plate out of wood and glue in nuts for threading. That way the thing will vibrate more since it will be riding the router hole bottomed out all the way. Probably won't make a difference but I don't think anyone has tried it before.
think icepopsickle sticks would work well for those front and backplates
think you can get those sticks in a jumbo size if you look a bit harder , there actually made from pretty good wood no knots or anything in them
The bassy explanation makes perfect since. Telecasters have a metal baseplate that changes frequencies, and they make baseplates to fit on strat pickups, which adds a little more presence to it.
Thank you Davey, It made sense to me and I think it worked pretty good. Most pickups use a copper coated steel base plate and that stretches out the magnetic field but it seemed to me that a copper plate while it wouldn't effect magnetic field would act kinda like a shock absorber for the electrons and kinda slow down the flow much like a capacitor in a tone circuit does. I tend to think of electricity like water.
@@heavymetalATC you're welcome brother. Keep up the good work. You experiment so much more with guitar electronics than Gibson has since the norlin era. I'm amazed at exactly how much more we have to learn, even with advancements in today's evolution in technology, and so far you are really the only one being productive. Thanks man, it always warms my heart when fellows like yourself reach out to their fans, especially if that fan is me! Take it easy man, and good luck to numerous more projects!
Good to know. I acquired a set of 3 Strat pickups years ago and they have a metal baseplate like a Tele pup. Never knew if they were any good but going to try them in a project now. Not sure what they are from. Probably some old import Japan Strat copy. I can tell they are old as the patina on the white covers is a dark yellow now.
You're not crazy at all, clementine. you're adding capacitance, really. I mean if you open up a box cap you'll see you got little plates inside with like the little wires coming off,and you'll have also a winding inside which determines the capacitance. Also that foil will add a little resistance too, further Making it like a cap.
It should change the inductance of the coil as well, betting ya get a broader range of res frequency and a smoother high end, but gotta watch the rest of the dang video to see. Cool stuff, man
Great experiment builder!!!
Thank you so much. That is exactly what it is as well. I love to do experiments and see if the things I hear and read about guitars online is wrong... and most of the time it is.
Great stuff. I made magnetic guitar pick for sale. I’ve used them for over a year, and I haven’t had any issues. However, people still claim that it effects the pickups. Can I hire y’all to do some experiments, and a video?
This is really good work.
Thank you so much for your time and kind words of encouragement. I'm so stoked that people appreciate my effort. It makes me all fuzzy inside... or its the solder fumes LOL
@@heavymetalATC Omg! Don't inhale the solder fumes!
Seriously, it amuses me that the typical perception of the tonal characteristics of things like wood, or magnets are strongly linked to their physical properties that we sense eg. "Mahogany sounds warm," or "ceramic magnets sound brittle".
As you imply it's the magnetic field strength at the string that counts in terma of sustain, and the way the field interacts with both string and coil that affects tone.
Andy Mellor 100% accurate.
Sound real good about 6 years ago I wound some p 90s almost like those in my home made walnut and red elm top tele. They sounded better than the stock p90s Ihad in there before.
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment David, I think its hard to beat the scatter wind of a hand traversed pickup it just does something to the wire that decouples it in the perfect amount for clarity without harshness.
Brilliant!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such kind words Harry.
Where am I going to come up with an ultrasonic Doppler flow detector. It’s not the kind of things just sitting around. Now I do have an RCA 12278b PA amp, or something like that. But they’re all over EBay. 12 w clean and 17 w max, which would be max distortion for the amp.
Sounds Awesome!!!
Thank you for taking the time to watch and leave such kind words. This is only the 3rd time Ive wound pickups either im a natural or I just keep getting lucky. I did study up on the subject for a LONG while before my first attempt.
I watch your channel for entertainment🤣
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write a comment Vincent. Im glad you enjoy the unorthodox style and strange antidotes... Anecdotes LOL I had to edit this I thought oh know hes not gonna get the joke, just think I am illiterate and thats only 4/3 true Hahaha
thanks
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave kind words Dennis.
I learned 3 things today! Gonna be a good day Tater!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a comment Rod. I'm so glad you found this information entertaining and useful.
I love the tone of your pickups..👍👍👍
#433 Subsciber
Thank you so much.
Sounds amazingly great!
Really cool, man.
Supporting Small TH-camrs Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a nice comment. Im glad you liked it.
Legendary
I really enjoyed this, it seems as though you have a nice 60s strat and Gibson LP
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to leave such a kind comment Shadowman. I am often surprised by the sound of these home-built pickup projects. I will come in with an idea of what I want to happen and its not always the case but sometimes it just hits the mark and more. These definitely do that thing that a strat neck pickup does but switch a wire and its squally LP territory. I still havent made up my mind as for the way I will wire them in the final build. Thanks again Shadowman. I am so glad you enjoyed the video.
Awesome video - keep up the fantastic work!!
Thanks for the kind words of encouragement and your time. I'm so glad you that you appreciate my effort and I hope you found it useful or entertaining. I don't plan on stopping any time soon.
This video gave me the idea to just buy one of these 3 poll cigar box style guitar style pickups and install them in a guitar like a “submarine” pick up. $20 is a much better deal than $150+ shipping and if it’s permanently installed in a pick-guard I won’t need to deal with the nonsense of them always failing off.
Anyone who has seen the submarine pickup but is looking for the a cheaper option should give this a tryl
Thanks again Evan and yes that is a great Idea. It would work exactly the same and if you ran that through an octave down effect you would have a super full sound. Awesome idea and great point.
Great work thanks heaps for the information can't wait to build my own pickups.
Thanks again J. Let me know what your results are and if you have any problems or further questions feel free to drop a comment.
@@heavymetalATC p.s I have a g&l Comanche great guitar👍
so fucking cool how you made these pick ups . i love how you upped the mass on that copper .
Thank you so much Petey. Its kinda a capacitor, kinda a non-ferrous back-plate, kinda another big ass coil wind. But I was very pleased with the result it sounds totally different than the other pickup. Think I will go with parallel and give each 3 pole its own volume knob and the unwound side out of phase. To use them like a physical blend EQ control in the the finished guitar.
You're not increasing the mass, you're just increasing the thickness, increasing the thickness of the same piece of copper (or anything) doesn't increase mass. Thickness and mass are two different measures of an object.
@@hurdygurdyguy1 yes absolutely, what I meant was as apposed to a single layer of copper the same size as the folded piece. I guess what I should have said is "This larger piece of copper with more mass will not fit on the bobbin unless I fold it". I should have been more thoughtful and concise in my narration I will try to do that in the future. Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a comment hurdygurdyguy as well as pointing out that discrepancy. Also that is a killer instrument I like the way they sound with the long droning and the whole hand crank wheel thing is just awesome.
@@heavymetalATC hehehe! I kinda figured the terms were getting a bit mixed up... btw, I like your pickup building videos, very cool!
very cool
Thank you for watching and the kind words. I'm so glad that you liked it.
Dude , You are awesome.
Dude... you are awesome. Thank you for your time and kind words.
What non magnetic poll pieces did you use ,and could you use non magnetic screws for a project like this ,why I ask is I'm trying to make some pick-ups for a 1960s framus star bass like Bill wyman and need the pick-ups to have that sort of sound, have to make them the polls are very close together and these pick-ups never come up for sale,Thanks for any response 😊
"Maxwell's Rusty Hammer" hahaha
Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment. I love that little hammer it will knock the heck outta stuff without destroying it.
Out of phase should cancel the common strings vibrations... right?
I'd like to have a split pickup arrangement, but for my G-D-d-f-g#-b tuning the split would be 4 treble and two bass. Presently, I achieve this by putting soft steel mutes on the four treble strings of a stock bridge humbucker, and using a tone circuit which primarily affects the neck pickup. This gives me a nice bright but powerful bass, but makes the bridge pickup useless for treble solos. I've been toying with the idea of making a two-string humbucker and a four-string stacked noise cancelling pickup, which I think should produce cleanly separated sound, but unfortunately I'm a clutz at truly to build things and a disaster at DIY.
I think that sounds like a fine idea and concept and it should sound very nice. You can go to the pickup winding forums on facebook and present you idea and ask for a builder that is interested. Many of those guys have alot of knowledge as well as laser cutters and bins full of parts and will be able to give you a professional looking product in a contained package and if you treat it like an auction and make them undercut one another, you should be able to get it done at a pretty reasonable price. I would suggest going with a cigar box pickup builder as they are a lot more familiar with making 2-3-4 string pickups in stacked and humbucker configurations. Also thank you for watching the video and taking the time to comment and share your ideas. I think you are on a good scent trail with this seems like it would sound fantastic.
Please focus copper wire and jack pin wire cennected points.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment. The + wire is coming out of the left pickup and going to the jack + tip. The - wire on the left pickup is going to the + wire on the right pickup. The - wire on the right pickup is going to the jack - ring. I'm sorry if that is hard to understand its kind of hard to explain but the two coils are wired the same as regular humbucker coils or the coils in a G&S z-coil pickup or a Fender P-bass pickup. I hope that helps in some way. I apologize for the late reply I was taking a break from youtube If you have any more questions feel free to comment. Thanks again.
Very smart Very
Im just glad it all worked out the way I thought it would.
amazing!
Thanks again bro.
Man your pickups sound good!!!!! Could you share what the polarity is of the z coils and the P90. Also are they reverse wound?
They are all south up and all wound counter clockwise from the front the way I got the short ones to hum-buck was by switching the leads of the coil wire at the terminal on the back. You can make any 2 single coils humbuck though by hooking them up in series with one backwards so instead of + to - in the center go + to + and use the negative from one as the positive and the negative as the other as the negative. I hope that wasn't too confusing but by your question it seems that you understand winding phase, wiring phase, and magnetic phase. Thank you for taking the time to watch and leave a comment.
@@heavymetalATC I was just thinking on this, I've been winding some experiments of my own (Really thin 3mm neo polepeices (No slugs, just magnets) and similar stuff.) How does the Z-coil play with the p90 phase wise with this configuration? Isn't half the z coil in phase and the other half out of phase? Not disputing your results, just curious how this is actually working.
@@alaricpaley6865 Always love to hear about pickup experiments I have not tried the no slug configuration yet. I have thought about wrapping a coil directly around a neo bar magnet to make a goldfoil/lipstick type pickup. But..yes Alaric one of the coils has to be out of phase with the p90 whether or not the p90 is in or out of phase with the set. When the z-coils are in series its still relatively strong output regardless of phase but, I found the best way to do it was to put the 3 unwound strings out of phase so that they sound brighter while the 3 wound strings sound more bassy when blended with the p90 and it gives a wide range hi-fi sort of sound. I think that when I install them in the oak guitar I may just run them in parallel with a volume pot on each as a way to blend highs or lows from the neck to the p90 like an EQ control. Thanks for the well thought out comment and for showing genuine interest. Good luck with the experiments its great to hear about other mad scientists work.
Here's a comment to help drive that ALGO rhythm.
Thank you so much Jay. I appreciate the support.
Kick Ass Man
I appreciate the support brother.
LOve your vid ! Great job . Just did not get what you mean at 7:45, dont see the zigzag pattern opposit.. ? Should I listen more heavy metal to get it or I am a desesperated case !
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment nano. I can understand how it was confusing all I was pointing out was the way the plates and wires were shifted on the two pickups like a mirror image. This was done to make the ground wire come out of the opposite hole on the two coils so they could be tied together in series but be out of phase to buck hum. Its much like the G&L Z-Coil pickups if you were to draw a wiring diagram it would look like a Z. If thats also confusing and I could see why I have a video explaining Phase and Series vs Parallel.
here: th-cam.com/video/Q-l4HhVdO4M/w-d-xo.html
Thanks again nano I appreciate the engagement.
you get very risky putting neo-magnets into hot wax --- some of them has low temperature Cury point.
N.B. Nobody really know --- WTF is "vintage tone" ;-))))
Keep up good work !!
True, Luckily I have not had any demagnetization problems yet. I guess the wax isn't "too" hot. Also, I just meant similar tone to that of the AlniCo magnet pickups from the 50s-70s. (buzz word for "guitar-dudes") Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave such a thoughtful and coherent comment.
Thanks for an interesting videoI've made several successful pickups from wall warts and also from fanmotors. I juststripped an old mecanno motor I had as a kid, see if it will "fire up". On occasion I've attempted to make my own pickup by winding, but never yet been successful
One question, I've had difficulty stripping the clear insulation off very thin copper winding wire for soldering....a lighter melts the metal, I tried fine emory paper, scraping, it inevitably snaps. How do you do it or should I use non insulated copper wire?
Thank you for watching and taking the time to write a comment GoldSmith. I have never thought to use a coil in a transformer before that is a clever idea. Yes you have to use a coated wire like in the other coils a bare wire will just short to itself and cause a 1 wind closed circuit. I have seen many people use sandpaper to remove the insulation and I have used the lighter trick on headphone wires with the green and red varnish but with the thin magnet wire in the pickups.. I just solder the hell out of it like as hot as I can get it with a large soldering iron and it seems to melt the insulation and make good contact. Try a test with a few short pieces of wire and see if you can get a good contact from just leaving the iron in the solder pool at the joint for about 15-20 seconds and melt the coating off the wire. I've had good luck with this method so far... thanks again.
@@heavymetalATC Thanks mate, I'll give it another go.
The wall wart method works great. Although they dont seemascommon as they once did. I just break the plastic casing open with a hack saw, then remove the thin metal plates using a screwdriver to seperate them, and a pair of slim pliars to pull them out. Then solder a jack to the 2 ends, insert the good old neodymium magnet's in the centre, then "pot it" with hot melt glue.
I just made apiezo with atiny hollow chamber filledwith tiny glass beads, worked FANTASTIC to add a jaw bonescraper type sound to a drum beat
th-cam.com/video/a_Gp50wfEbA/w-d-xo.html
PS what happpened to your DIY synth, it sounded aewsome and looked like it could go anywhere?
@@GOLDSMITHEXILE That is a cool idea with the shaker. I'll have to watch that. I thought of this comment while making the video that will be up hopfully tomorrow and I showed a good close up of the coil wire being soldered to a lead wire. My synth that was in the big metal and plexi case let the magic smoke out. I didnt put a fuse in it even though the guy at the hardware store begged me to and showed me where they were but, the cv stinger swung down and hit an alligator clip and it pinged off like a cruel sniper shot and went right to a hot lead like a 1 in 20000 chance freak accordance. the lights went bright then dim and the smell came out. It took out everything in the box even the mixer and amp. I got replacement components of all the modules but I kept them in separate small cases to keep that from happening again.
@@heavymetalATC Oh crikey, we live and learn I guess! I'llwatch out for your next video.
Very good explained, i sure am going to try this. You say that the mass of the copper plates is important. Do you think the width of the copper plates play a role in this too? Thanks
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment Jean. I really dont know how much of an effect the width of the plates would make I also dont know exactly how much the mass matters I just had an educated guess at the effect it would have and it seemed to work like I thought. Hey if you did try this let me know how it went and what results you got?
@@heavymetalATC I will. After to try and make my pickups sound like the old fry-pan horse-shoe pickups from rickenbacher i have now bought an old rickenbacher NS from 1948. She sounds beautiful, and, just as i expected. The DC output resistance is low( 1.9 K Ohm) so they used pretty thick wire at that time. The secret must be in the U-shaped magnets. At this point i am scared to put a pickup that i wound myself in to those U-shaped magnets to test if that is really the secret for that amazing sound. Although Beauchamp did not invent the vagina, he sure did invent a darn good sounding pickup......Thanks for posting these funny and informative video's. Jean.
@@germona Ive thought about trying to do a ricky style pickup on the channel with scraps and stuff maybe use metal plate to make the horseshoe and then keep it charged with a neodymium magnet on the back... then as an experiment maybe cut the tops off of the U shapes and see if the sound changes a lot.
@@germona you know since you made me think of this again I am going to put it in my notes and if/when I do the video I will give you a shoutout.
@@heavymetalATC That would be great. Thanks. I am surely looking forward to that one. Some details that i can give you. The thickness of the U shaped magnets is 5 mm, the width of the magnets is 32 mm (1"1/4) is well as the width of the pickup. The magnets are not strong. North pole is up, south pole down. The south pole is attached to the 6 pole pieces. When mounting the magnets they tend to push each other away. So the strings vibrate between north and south, they are not pulled down as in a 'normal' pickup. Not that this pulling down really matters with sustain, as you already proved in another video. The Dc resistance is below 2 KoHm. I am super exited to see your version. Thanks again and good luck with the build. Jean from Belgium.
SUBBED!
Thank you so much tiki I appreciate it.
Certainly, I’m finding a lot of good people in this community. My site is up now, take a look, and let me give you a pick. See if you like it, test it if you like. I’m curious about minor interference that not noticeable, may be seen electronically?
there is a better flux for electronics...... but yes plumbers flux will work
Cored solder is also okay for electronics
that was soooo cool! you got yourself a NEW sub. I am just like you, I don't listen to them either. Fuck the blue pill. I'm gonna rip it apart and fix it. I build my own guitars too...cheap guitars rule. I fix the handy man's tools!
Thank you SO much Uncle Dad. I appreciate the time you took to watch and leave such kind words as well as for subscribing. I started this whole thing from being a kid that was into music and hobbies while being super poor and it just became ingrained in me. I wont take a car to a mechanic and I wont call a carpenter or electrician. I gotta do it myself and the few times I've strayed from that I've been burned. At this point I'm pretty much just seeing how far I can take it. I plan on building bridges and things for the guitars I make in the future. Thanks again good to see someone of like mind out here who gets it.
recycle everything...that's by motto. Parts is parts
The people who "follow the rules" never make anything but assumptions and snide comments.
You know you stirred within me a drive to want to make coils. DAMN IT. What is holding me back? Not enough beers because winding by hand is just butt fuckery in a bad way.
That is great to hear General AWESOME! I do agree winding by hand is a MOFO. However you can use many things to wind a coil anything that turns basically: a Drill, a fishing reel, an egg beater, a slow fan, as you see I use my grandmas old sewing machine. Seymour Duncan wound his first pickups on an old 78 rpm record player. I worked out the math one time and if I remember correctly it seems that it would only take about an hour and 1/2 to wind a pickup that way. He gave a set of those to Jimi Hendrix and he loved and used them so Id say it worked out well. Its great to hear that you have been inspired. Thats why I do this. I am so happy about that. Be warned though it is a sickness once you get the first working pickup and you hear how good it sounds and see how cheap it was to make. You will be hooked and falling down the rabbit hole. Every magnet and scrap piece of wood or metal will start to look like pickup parts and cigar box guitars and on and on.
@@heavymetalATC Too late everything is already looking like that and I can 3d printer design them too since 2013 so I'm screwed. A couple of questions but I see some seriously cheap Chinese made pickups that are ready to go on Amazon, eBay, etc... where can I find the 42awg (enamel and poly sounds the best to my ears that forma Fender stuff sound a bit muffled to me), the magnets, and the bobbins cheap?
I have another question for ya but will wait for the answer to the above.
@@generalawareness101 ok General I use Amazon to get my poly wire and neo magnets. But, it may be a good Idea to join a pickup winding group on facebook like Pickup winding for dummies. Those guys know their stuff and are not stuck up or high felutin like the guys on some forums. They should be able to point you in a good direction and tell you where to get the best cheap stuff. Also a 5lb roll of poly wire seems expensive as hell but.. It will make quite a few pickups I'm still on my first roll.
@@heavymetalATC I can't as I was suspended from FB for my safety June 1, 2019. After showing them all kinds of ids, three pieces of mail with my name and address on them, and a full-frontal picture with no one else in it, they never reinstated me, nor would they tell me who they were protecting my safety from. Heck, they never would even communicate with me period.
@@generalawareness101 Well, maybe you can surf around the net and find some dedicated forums like the telecaster discussion page Im sure they have a section about pickups those guys helped me out tremendously when I was building that yellow tweed amp.
AH don't give a keer ifen yer showin stuff a man might could wanna do? Still yit I luv yer style. Ya'll put me to mind of Virginya mountin boys I knowed wut could jest bout knit a woodstove frum outen still wool, purty near, you know hit? A la Wayne Henderson, fer instance.
Thankyee soow ver muyich Rabo ifen you like tha dawg ima runnin im suh glayud you aint the rabbit. I pershate tha kindly werds yous a spittin at a feller. HAHAHA Really though man I had never heard of Wayne Henderson, I saw this comment night before last and went down the Wayne Henderson rabbit hole. Thank you so much really for sharing that information. I dig the hell out of stuff like that.
Test mule😀😎
It hasnt even begun to be hacked apon.
omg - PLUMBERS FLUX !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I keep pushing it like a salesman. I had no idea it wasn't "supposed" to be used when I started. It would be hard to make due without it. It's safe to say though that you are the flux KING! Your soldering looks like machine work.
If you use Fluxite, it is non- corrosive plumbers' flux, so it's okay - DON'T use powerflux or La-Co flux as they will corrode the wires very quickly Fluxite comes in a flat tin like a pocket size or it is also in large upright tins around 1/2 a litre but the small pocket sized tin should be enough for pickups.
8:07
🤣🤣🤣
I thought somebody might like that. Its the best place in the world, guys all come from it and spend the rest of our lives trying to get back in. LOL Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment oh and flux really is great stuff.
8:20 "This is the greatest invention since the vagina" OMG HAAHAHAHAHAH
I was waiting for someone to catch that. lol Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a comment.
Soy boy pickups🤣
Only the best tone wax made from the hives of rare psycho-active honey producing bees in a secret gold mine in the mountains of Istanbul for my 99.999 pure silver soldered and coiled iridium-cobalt magnet pickups wound on flatwork made from the pickguard of Jimi Hendrix's first ozark guitar that was stolen from a show in 1966. < thats what people sound like to me? Soy works fine, so would epoxy or elmers glue. Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment and have a laugh with me.