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When pickup manufactures measure pickups for their catalogs they usually put down the average D.C. Resistance. Pickups are usually wound to a desired number of turns with a particular gauge of magnet wire. When using magnet wire from different suppliers, the magnet wire can have many tolerances such as this example: Diameter of the bare…

In some cases this is true for 8 to 12 string pedal and lap Steels. The 6 string lap steels can use a traditional guitar style pickup with standard winding specifications. On instruments with extra poles the pickup is usually longer as it takes a longer length of magnet wire to wrap around the wider…

I would use a small amount of Silicone thinly wiped around the stud and inserted back into the bobbin. Never use a permanent glue as you may want to have the pickups repaired and the glues could alter the shape of the bobbin. A thin layer of wax could coat the stud and insert it…

Talking to the patent office in Washington DC, they state that once a patent has been applied for, you may use the “Patent Applied For” decal or sticker during the term till the patent is granted. Once you have manufactured your product during the time allotted in the term of the patent, you can not…

A humbucker will be fuller and have more output in the neck position compared to the single coil in the bridge position. The single coil is usually thinner sounding and have less output than the humbucker. The humbucker has two coils usually side by side and picks up a larger string area. The single coil…

On the bottom of my pickups, I use a code or abbreviation on pickup models for identification as many models can physically look alike and when removed from the box or when it’s in an instrument will help identify it. Many of the pickups have several numbers or letters. For example: DD-J is a Duncan…

A hand wound pickup means the magnet wire is guided on by hand which I call scatter winding and the magnet wire is layered back and forth as the bobbin turns. The machine wound or automatic traverse guides the wire back and forth at a pre-determined pitch. The pitch determines the turns per layer on…

Magnet wire is insulated copper wire and the ohms per thousand feet is normally measured at 20? C or 68? Fahrenheit. 42 gauge magnet wire has 1,659 ohms per 1,000 feet of magnet wire at 20? or 68? F. Note: 1,659 ohms is the same as 1.659 K ohms 1,000 feet of 42 AWG magnet…

Standard humbuckers have two coils that normally pick up two areas of the string. When you split a pickup you cut out one coil and eliminate the current generated from that area of the string. The split pickup now uses one coil and 1/2 of the total turns when combined with the other coil in…

An electric guitar or bass pickup is an electromechanical device for tracking the vibration of a moving string made of ferrous material. The string attracts the magnetic field from within the pickup and when plucked the movement of the magnetic field through the coil(s) causes an electrical current to be generated. The signal is connected…