Homemade pickups...

[el_negro]

I read an interview on Eddie Van Halen in Guitar World magazine that he use to go to guitar shops and buy older, beat up guitars for real cheap and then take them apart to create his own "Frankenstein" guitar. He also talked about tearing apart pickups and moding them to his own liking.

 

Reading that got me thinking about making my own pickups. I watched a youtube video on how to build them from the ground up but it was very sketchy and left out thing that seem to be important.

 

Just wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks on pickup designs?

[deepblue]

I dont think its as easy as most people think. The wire they use is very thin. Id be worried about breakage.

[el_negro]

depending on the tone that you want, im pretty sure you can use different size gauge of wire. At least thats what i've read. I was just wondering if anyone here has tried it?

[jimmiJAMM]

My good ol' '67 TTops are already tightly wound... like me.

 

Eddie was truly innovative, frugal and resourceful in his early efforts to custom build his gear. He had a certain sound that wasn't available at the time so he went to work and the rest is history.

[yoda]

Check this out

 

And this

 

And this

[Murph]

Eddie was truly innovative' date=' frugal and resourceful in his early efforts to custom build his gear. He had a certain sound that wasn't available at the time so he went to work and the rest is history.[/quote']

 

His memory tends to fit the situation as well........

 

[KL]

Check this out

 

And this

 

And this

 

Great links. Thanks for posting.

[deepblue]

Yoda youre good!

[Riffster]

His memory tends to fit the situation as well........

 

 

Indeed.

 

There is an article on the current Vintage Guitar Magazine where somebody mods an expensive pickup, basically a change of magnets and polepieces.

 

I love modding guitars but pickups are best bought IMO, there are so many options. Frankly I don't think I could do better even than a GFS pickup.

[jamman]

Check this out

 

And this

 

And this

 

 

Nice threads, thanks for posting them. 1 day i'm gonna try it .

 

 

 

My Gear :-)

 

‘10 LP R0 50th Anniversary Version 3 1/500 (Cherry Burst)

‘09 LP R9 50th Anniversary (Heritage Dark Burst) 1/500, Bought 4-2010 new

‘10 PRS 25th Anniversary Santana Model ,10Top / Santana Yellow

‘09 LP R9 50th. Anniversary 1 of 59 (Rust Burst)

‘09 LP R0 Standard Ebony VOS

‘09 “Wildwood” CS - 356 Quilted maple & Korina

‘05 Les Paul Standard Faded T.B.

‘08 50th comm.edition, G.O.M. Flying V

‘08 July G.O.M. Longhorn Double Cut BV (Trans Blue)

‘08 Firebird VII (metallic red)

‘08 Fender Stratocaster ‘70’s reissue (black / rosewood neck)(Fat‘50’s pups)

‘08 Fender Stratocaster ‘70’s reissue (natural / maple neck)

1999 MIM Fender Stratocaster ’70’s reissue (white / maple neck)(‘69 pups)

1987 Japan Squier by Fender, Stratocaster (white / maple neck)

1986 Ovation Model # 1767-Legend

‘08 Marshall JVM 210H - 1960 AX Cabinet

‘10 Fender Blues Deluxe reissue

And some pedals

[retrosurfer1959]

Actually I've rewound a half dozen or so broken pickups although I have never made the internal components. It's not as hard as it looks - I used a piece of wood mounted to my potting wheel to spin the pickups at a slow enough speed to control but fast enough that I didn't die of old age or go insane, the end of the board has a small wooden dowell sticking up that trips the lever on a small manual counter I picked up at an electronics store so each rotation is counted. The key is the tension of the wire as you feed it on to the bobbin too tight it breaks too loose it gets messy and turns microphonic.