Wow, this is an awesome video for the 98% of people who are DIYers who don't need a bunch of specialized tools laying around for the once in a blue moon that they wind a pickup. I plan on winding some staggered pickups, so I do need a counter, I will tape a magnet to my drill and set up a counter, but otherwise this is exactly what I need to get started. Thank you so much!
I recently rewound a"Hershey Bar" pick up for a 1963 Silvertone. Since nobody wants to wind this, I did it myself. There is no center hole to mount on a winding machine or drill. The point is, if you want to count your turns, get an old five desk calculator that works by hitting 1 then +++ and it adds a 1 with each +. Get magnetic door contacts and wire it to the solder points of the + button. Set it up so the magnet activates the switch with each pass. Works great for cheap counter.
chenks54 I have a Shopsmith, so I put a piece of wood on it as a lathe, flattened it and mounted the base plate and magnetic on it. Since the Shopsmith starts at 700 rpm, it would break the 42 gauge wire instantly, so I removed the belt on the motor, and spun it with my battery drill. Since I am inexperienced at this, it took a few tries, but I did finally get it done. I had to do 4000 winds and the ohms came out perfectly. My old guitar came back to life! If this doesn't make sense, let me know.
I just made a small 3 pole pickup from scratch for a cigar box guitar. It's really rewarding when you hear it for the first time. So cool! Yours sounds great! Nice job!
Fabian's Tiny Workshop yep...they are cool. Made a license plate guitar too with a rusty old 1966 Virginia license plate. Used parts from a cheap guitar. Had a good neck and bridge. Also a decent humbucker. The sound is really good with that metal plate. Almost like a resonator! Was a fun project too! Good luck with yours!
You can estimate the number of turns by counting the number of rotations in a second. Then with the help of an ohm meter, you can adjust the winding until you come up with the desired DC resistance.
Thanks. It started out as a cheap Strat copy (can't remember the brand). I did the finish like shown in this video (even though the guitar in this video does not look very goode): czcams.com/video/hbS71NoPJYQ/video.html As a clear coat I did a french polish and I changed pretty much all the hardware and I had to level the frets. So it was a complete make over.
This is cool. I’m planning on doing two I have that are dead. One is an original 1965 mustang pickup, onee is fine so I have a comparison to use. The other is a jaguar pickup.
Great video! Do you happen do know how much wire did you use for that? I'm trying to rewire my "little humbucker" (similar to Seymour Duncan's Everything Axe), but the only 0.06 wire I found was in a 100m coil, and I have no ideia if that will enough for one coil (they're smaller than a single pickup coil) Thanks for the help!
Hello Fabian, great video, thanks for sharing your knowledge. Its my first time trying to build a pickup and Im watching a lot of videos but there is something nobody shows. Where do you place the copper spool in order to spin properly?
Oh yes right. I always place the spool on the floor, right next to the chair or between my feet. The spool stands upright on one side so that the wire can be easily unwound upwards.
@@FabiansTinyWorkshop Holy sh*t! Are you telling me the copper bobbin doesn't need to spin to be unwinded, it can just sit there while you gently take the wire out of it? Hahahahhahaha Man, I managed to wind my first pickup but in order to do that I made a homemade spool holder with a brush and a jar... Hahahahhahahah the spool was spining, sittin on the brush, sideways, at the same time with the drill hahahhahaha I needed 6 attempts to master it to make a 6.5k single coil, it was amazing the 44awg didnt break with that much tension even at full speed, that little thing can resist some tension, more than you spect. It is a Teisco Gold Foil repro now and it sounds surprisingly good and faithfull to the original. That thing it really can boogie with some gain and a slide. For the next one, Ill try you piece of advise. Thanks so much Fabian for taking your time on answering to a beginer on this world of makin your own pickups.
Wow i'd be happy also !! .. but i want to reuse old vintage wire from an old Gibson that don't work..i hate to cut it out ..its the purple looking wire :( ..but i might still do this..and if the wire breaks ..solder it back on and wind away.. i guess Your pickup sounds Great !! ... have you ever tried to reuse the wire from another !?.. and what to do if the wire breaks !?..resolder it back on ..or cut it all off n start anew ~?..but yeah man ..this I love :)... gonna have to give it a go..but reusing wire from old pick ups is what i wanna do..
I never reused old wire because usually it's the wire that caused the problem in the first place and because it must be very time consuming. You can use a lighter to melt the copper wire back together but take care so you don't create a short circuit. Anyhow let me know it it worked.
Is it possible to wind the individual metal columns and then assemble all 6 into any shape I want, such as an arch? Sorry for not knowing the proper names for the metal columns.
It's a burned guitar body that is french polished with garnet shellac. This is how I made it: czcams.com/video/hbS71NoPJYQ/video.html The finish in this video however does not look so good as the finish on the strat.
I have a couple of dead pickups, They wanted more to fix them than I could buy new, is the wire expensive, too bad you could not uncoil it and reuse the old wire
thanks for sharing, it seems a easy solution. i assume that the difficult part is to keep moving the wire left n right in a way to have a consistant winding right? thanks
Yes it would help to replicate the original winding. But that's no guarantee that it will sound the same. You can never know the tension of the wire and the scatter pattern of the original coil.
Are you playing sleepwalk a bit at the end? :) (im so gonna do this, i was waiting for a sewing machine on ebay but this is way better, ive got a counter too!)
Grüss Gott mein deutsche Nachbar! Very nice video. I have a very VERY stupid question. What is a "gauge"? I would assume it is a wire diameter but 0.42 mm is WAY too thick.
@@FabiansTinyWorkshop Thanks for reply. I was unfortunately right. It isn't anywhere in my local stores. Would you recommend buying it on ebay? How many meters did you approx. use?
Ebay? Sure, why not ;-) 250g should be ok for maybe 6-8 Singlecoil Pickups. Here are my sources. Unfortunately I don't know if they will ship outside Germany: www.sauter-shop.de/kupferlackdraht/kupferlackdraht-0063-mm.html www.rockinger.com/index.php/de/Premium-Pickup-Wickeldraht/c-WG175/a-07091-07092-07093
Wow, this is an awesome video for the 98% of people who are DIYers who don't need a bunch of specialized tools laying around for the once in a blue moon that they wind a pickup. I plan on winding some staggered pickups, so I do need a counter, I will tape a magnet to my drill and set up a counter, but otherwise this is exactly what I need to get started. Thank you so much!
And in this way, a new vintage pickup was born.
It is exactly what I thought. Regards!
You just saved me a few hundred bucks. You're the best teacher.
I recently rewound a"Hershey Bar" pick up for a 1963 Silvertone. Since nobody wants to wind this, I did it myself. There is no center hole to mount on a winding machine or drill. The point is, if you want to count your turns, get an old five desk calculator that works by hitting 1 then +++ and it adds a 1 with each +. Get magnetic door contacts and wire it to the solder points of the + button. Set it up so the magnet activates the switch with each pass. Works great for cheap counter.
You say there's no center hole on the bobbin, did you end up doing what I would have done, which would be to use double-sided sticky tape?
chenks54 I have a Shopsmith, so I put a piece of wood on it as a lathe, flattened it and mounted the base plate and magnetic on it. Since the Shopsmith starts at 700 rpm, it would break the 42 gauge wire instantly, so I removed the belt on the motor, and spun it with my battery drill. Since I am inexperienced at this, it took a few tries, but I did finally get it done. I had to do 4000 winds and the ohms came out perfectly. My old guitar came back to life! If this doesn't make sense, let me know.
chenks54 I forgot to tell you that the pickup has two holes. I used the screws that wew on the guitar to fasten it to the wood disc. Sorry.
@@KevinCoop1 Shopsmiths RULE!!! Got one myself I inherited from an uncle!!!
hurdygurdyguy1 Agreed! I bought an upgrade kit that I have to put in. It will then run from 50 rpm to I believe 8,000 rpm. Forward and reverse.
I'm impressed! Very simple yet effective! Thank you for showing how to do this in an emergency without a lot of fuss.
Thank you Fabian, it's not the first time you've helped me out fella. Just straight forward no frills information. Good stuff indeed!
Thank you! Appreciate it! 🙂
Thanks! I love that you played Johnny and Santos the first thing you did!
Awesome job, really useful video, thanks for sharing!
Thank you! I truly appreciate that! :)
Your guitar was great man.
5:13 I like that compressed tone you start getting right here.
I just made a small 3 pole pickup from scratch for a cigar box guitar. It's really rewarding when you hear it for the first time. So cool! Yours sounds great! Nice job!
Thank you! A cigar box guitar is definitely on my to-do list ;-)
Fabian's Tiny Workshop yep...they are cool. Made a license plate guitar too with a rusty old 1966 Virginia license plate. Used parts from a cheap guitar. Had a good neck and bridge. Also a decent humbucker. The sound is really good with that metal plate. Almost like a resonator! Was a fun project too! Good luck with yours!
Brilliantly simple - inspirational, thank you Fabian!
Refreshing to see this and not being told to buy stuff! Thank you!
Just super and clever, and the Puck up sounds good too, very smart, tx for sharing
What a great video. You've got me wanting to try this.
Thank you Fabian for this video. I am going to try this so that am also officially happy.
Great informative video but also, you are so in tune! I really appreciate that lol.
I dont know why, but it sounds like a tele bridge pickup to me. I like it.
Yes! I think so too
The pickup you wound sounds wayy better!! If i were you, I'd rewrap the others! Great job
I'm definitely going to try making my own pickups now, maybe a 3 string pickup.
You can estimate the number of turns by counting the number of rotations in a second. Then with the help of an ohm meter, you can adjust the winding until you come up with the desired DC resistance.
Ahhhh...the sweet sound of a wonderful guitar.....with a new update!!
where are you in texas? do you have a shop?
Goodjob with simple tools....The sound seems to be allright. Let it rock on 😅😊
I like how the new pickup is nice and warm
I am happy to hear that you liked it :-)
I did not expect you to play Sleepwalk! Great job!
thanks :)
I used a fishing line spoiler as this distributed the line evenly
You are my personal hero today.
That took alot of mystery out of it now I'm ready wind my own rather spend $200 set! Thxs
You remind me of Ehrich Klapton. Nice Video and nice job on the pickup. Thank You.
Thank you! I really appreciate that!
Nice job! And so simply. Thanks from Aveiro
That was flipping killer dude 😂💀👌✌️👍!!
awesome Fabian! thank you
I’ve read and heard that early Fender pickups were wound without counting. The girls in the factory just wound till the bobbin looked right.
Smart...for a sweaty hand a bit of talc powder will help keep the friction lower...you deserve a beer!.
Nice vid. Still relevant 5 years later.
I found an even simpler way to do this, if you use a fishing reel you can do this just as fast without electricity
Great job, Fabian!
Awesome. I'm trying this since the stratosphere sold me a hand wound custom shop pickup that has a broken lead on it.
I love the can do attitude. Who needs a counter?😀
Hints of Santo and Johnny,,nice!!
Exactly ;-) Thanks for checking it out!
Fascinating! That was really interesting to watch, thanks for sharing the process dude!
Glad you like it :)
I could listen to you play for hours lol
Thank you :)
Ok, i like your pickup making videos brother
Great job, thanks for sharing
Brian Setzer's take on Sleepwalk. Beautiful playing, man.
Thank you :)
@@FabiansTinyWorkshop No problem. Forgot to ask- what's the make and model of that guitar? The finish is gorgeous.
Thanks. It started out as a cheap Strat copy (can't remember the brand). I did the finish like shown in this video (even though the guitar in this video does not look very goode): czcams.com/video/hbS71NoPJYQ/video.html
As a clear coat I did a french polish and I changed pretty much all the hardware and I had to level the frets. So it was a complete make over.
Awesome, thanks for this video.
Excellent how-to video my friend! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!!! :)
Thank you! I truly appreciate that! :)
Simply brilliant.
Awesome job man! Absolutely great work!!
Very good video tutorial. Easy to follow...
Sounds great, Fabian! I'm gonna have to try to make one for a three string cigar box guitar ASAP!
Thank you :) Do it! 'ts not magic ;-)
mmmm....good idea! I´m going to rescue the polar pices from that old trashed guitar that was keeping for projects, thanks
Good job, and sounds very good.
A good weekend 👍thanks to shar this video
Wow..They sound mint..Got that Beatles sound.
I really enjoyed your video!
Glad you liked it :)
Wow! this was cool to watch. You make it seem so simple. To bad you can't count the wraps though.
Very inspiring thank you fabian!!!
Appreciate you checking it out :)
Cool! Master! 👍
Amazing very nicely done
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching :)
Nice vintage sound
This is cool. I’m planning on doing two I have that are dead. One is an original 1965 mustang pickup, onee is fine so I have a comparison to use. The other is a jaguar pickup.
Great job, it sounds good.
Thank you :)
Nice job Fabian :) Thank you :) ॐ
Glad you liked it :)
Great video!
Do you happen do know how much wire did you use for that? I'm trying to rewire my "little humbucker" (similar to Seymour Duncan's Everything Axe), but the only 0.06 wire I found was in a 100m coil, and I have no ideia if that will enough for one coil (they're smaller than a single pickup coil)
Thanks for the help!
Sorry, but I don't know. :-(
Great video, thanks for sharing
This is a very good video thanks
Great work!
Great video. Thank you!
Very nice
Ahaa, you've got a drill clamping device! 😂👌👌😀
Really cool. A little bit of "Sleepwalk."
Thank you :)
I thought that's what song that was. Right off of the LaBamba soundtrack.
That was awesome!
Nice work man
LIKED IT SO MUCH IM OFFICALLY HAPPY TOO THX LOVE ME SOME HOMEMADE SHIT
That's amazing
Holy shit awesome vid bro
Thank you! Glad you like it!
I've always wanted to hotrod my own pickups.
It's not so difficult ;-)
sangat mantab idenya. terima kasih untuk tutorialnya. sukses!
Did you remove the coat from the wire before put into eyelets? I try to solder it in vain, as if the layer on the wire does not melt.
No I did not. The heat of the solder takes care of that.
Hello Fabian, great video, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Its my first time trying to build a pickup and Im watching a lot of videos but there is something nobody shows. Where do you place the copper spool in order to spin properly?
Oh yes right. I always place the spool on the floor, right next to the chair or between my feet. The spool stands upright on one side so that the wire can be easily unwound upwards.
@@FabiansTinyWorkshop Holy sh*t! Are you telling me the copper bobbin doesn't need to spin to be unwinded, it can just sit there while you gently take the wire out of it? Hahahahhahaha
Man, I managed to wind my first pickup but in order to do that I made a homemade spool holder with a brush and a jar... Hahahahhahahah the spool was spining, sittin on the brush, sideways, at the same time with the drill hahahhahaha I needed 6 attempts to master it to make a 6.5k single coil, it was amazing the 44awg didnt break with that much tension even at full speed, that little thing can resist some tension, more than you spect.
It is a Teisco Gold Foil repro now and it sounds surprisingly good and faithfull to the original. That thing it really can boogie with some gain and a slide.
For the next one, Ill try you piece of advise. Thanks so much Fabian for taking your time on answering to a beginer on this world of makin your own pickups.
You are a genious!
Wow i'd be happy also !! .. but i want to reuse old vintage wire from an old Gibson that don't work..i hate to cut it out ..its the purple looking wire :( ..but i might still do this..and if the wire breaks ..solder it back on and wind away.. i guess
Your pickup sounds Great !! ... have you ever tried to reuse the wire from another !?.. and what to do if the wire breaks !?..resolder it back on ..or cut it all off n start anew ~?..but yeah man ..this I love :)... gonna have to give it a go..but reusing wire from old pick ups is what i wanna do..
I never reused old wire because usually it's the wire that caused the problem in the first place and because it must be very time consuming. You can use a lighter to melt the copper wire back together but take care so you don't create a short circuit. Anyhow let me know it it worked.
Is it possible to wind the individual metal columns and then assemble all 6 into any shape I want, such as an arch? Sorry for not knowing the proper names for the metal columns.
Everything is possible but is it practical and will it sound any good?
The finish on that guitar is beautiful, what sort is it ? and is it a custom shop ?
Thanks for sharing
It's a burned guitar body that is french polished with garnet shellac.
This is how I made it:
czcams.com/video/hbS71NoPJYQ/video.html
The finish in this video however does not look so good as the finish on the strat.
Nice job
I have a couple of dead pickups, They wanted more to fix them than I could buy new, is the wire expensive, too bad you could not uncoil it and reuse the old wire
The wire isn't expensive, but the labor is ;-)
Where do you place the wire reel while it gets unwound? Looks like it's behind you somewhere.
I place the roll on the floor side up.
thanks for sharing, it seems a easy solution. i assume that the difficult part is to keep moving the wire left n right in a way to have a consistant winding right? thanks
Thank you. Oh it's not so difficult. If it is a little inconsistent it doesn't matter to much. Just call it a "Scatter wound pickup" ;-)
kool
RJ
See if u weight the original pick up then get the new one the same would that not do the job ?
Yes it would help to replicate the original winding. But that's no guarantee that it will sound the same. You can never know the tension of the wire and the scatter pattern of the original coil.
Sounds exactly like a good Strat should
Very helpful. Danke.
I'm happy too thank you so much
Are you playing sleepwalk a bit at the end? :) (im so gonna do this, i was waiting for a sewing machine on ebay but this is way better, ive got a counter too!)
Grüss Gott mein deutsche Nachbar! Very nice video. I have a very VERY stupid question. What is a "gauge"? I would assume it is a wire diameter but 0.42 mm is WAY too thick.
Yes it's the diameter
42 AWG (American Wire Gauge) = 0,063mm
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Wire_Gauge#Tabelle_f%C3%BCr_AWG-Dr%C3%A4hte_(eindr%C3%A4htige_Leiter)
@@FabiansTinyWorkshop Thanks for reply. I was unfortunately right. It isn't anywhere in my local stores. Would you recommend buying it on ebay? How many meters did you approx. use?
Ebay? Sure, why not ;-)
250g should be ok for maybe 6-8 Singlecoil Pickups.
Here are my sources. Unfortunately I don't know if they will ship outside Germany:
www.sauter-shop.de/kupferlackdraht/kupferlackdraht-0063-mm.html
www.rockinger.com/index.php/de/Premium-Pickup-Wickeldraht/c-WG175/a-07091-07092-07093
@@FabiansTinyWorkshop Thank you very much, Fabian! You've been very helpful!
Danke sehr Fabian. Gruss aus Portugal
U did not show yourself checking for continuity in the windinds. Sometimes the wire just snaps apart. Good video from Sacramento
Se oye con un poco de distorsion
This was excellent. I may try this soon. What kind of wax would you recommend? I’ve never made my own pickup before but this looked enticing
Thank you. Any kind of candle wax will do.
Fabian's Tiny Workshop wow, great. Thank you for your reply
Sounds kinda piercing in a way i dont usually prefer, is there a way to affect the frequency its most responsive to?
Simply put, the more turns the higher the resistance and the the lower the resonant frequency. A thinner wire (43 AWG) will allow for even more turns.
Thanks. How long do you wind the pickups for?
How long it takes depends on the speed. It needs between 7600 -8400 turns for a Strat pickup.