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For restoration and repair I use 22 gauge hookup wire which is actually 7 strand x 28 gauge conductor hookup wire like an original old pickup. I use the original hookup wire when restoring and look for the old cloth braid wire from electrical suppliers.

On the second version of the humbucker bobbin, I always thought there was some special thought behind the embossed “T”. The second version has two sharp inside walls and rounded outside walls and the bobbin could be easily be wound top left or top right on a coil machine. When I asked Seth Lover who…

When you rewind an early Gibson humbucking bobbin, you will see various numbers inside each one. Both adjustable and non-adjustable bobbins have a mold number to identify parts if they become irregular and it’s easy to determine what mold cavity needs repair. On Gibson “T” top bobbins the numbers can be seen on the top…

The sound difference depends on many factors when the coils are wound. There can be different tolerances in the plastics such as creme or black and the space needed for winding the coil. I find that the tolerances in the bare magnet wire diameter, insulation thickness, number of turns, winding tension, hookup wire, magnet tolerance…

The “Patent Applied For” sound can be very subjective and to me, some PAF’s sound O.K. and some sound great. It has much to do with the instrument the pickups are in and the adjustment. The tone of the pickup has much to do with the coil, magnet, position, adjustment, string gauge, DC resistance, number…

This is the nickname given to the original Gibson Humbucking pickup designed by Seth E. Lover. The patent was filed on June 22, 1955 and granted on July 28, 1959. The actual pickup patent number for the pickup is 2,896,491. On the patent application it’s called a “MAGNETIC PICKUP FOR STRINGED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT”. Some of…

Steel bars used in pickups can act as a pole piece for a particular model pickup. The steel bars can be flat or radiused to the fingerboard or bridge radius. Some blades can be laminated with a number of thinner blades to help reduce eddy currents within the coil. The laminated blades and steel bars…

Normally the larger diameter of the bottom E (6th) will be louder and much depends on the diameter of the spring steel inner-core and alloy the outer wrapping is comprised of. Usually the larger the diameter of the inner-core the louder the particular string would be. The mass and alloy of the string will also…

Basically all pickups with equal pole pieces as the number of strings have a design flaw. If you notice Fender style pickups using 6 Alnico rod magnet pole pieces, the A-5th, D-4th, G-3rd, B-2nd poles each have a magnet on both sides of it. For example the A-5th pole has the E-6th pole and the…

I would never use steel wool around pickups. Small bits of the steel wool can cling to all areas of the pickups including the strings, pole pieces, inside the bobbin and anywhere you have magnetic field to attract the small filings. If any repairman work on any type of guitar with pickups, please remove the…