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An electromechanical device for sensing the string vibration as it is plucked causing electrical current to be generated which is then amplified and reproduced over a speaker. The output of an electric pickup, depending on its design, may be proportional to the velocity or amplitude of the moving string.

The company NVF manufacture Vulcanized Fibre under the trade name Forbon and is used commercially not only for building pickup coil forms but also for making Fuse Panels, Fuse tubes, Diode packaging, Golf Club head inserts, Electrical Insulation’s and Shields and can be corrugated and formed into many shapes. Vulcanized Fibre is made into sheet…

Phenolic is a thermoset plastic and is made by applying heat and pressure to layers of paper or fabric impregnated with a special synthetic resin. Phenolic is an exceptionally versatile material since it is lightweight, dense, strong and moisture resistant. One of the most common uses are black pick guards as used on vintage and…

Ferrous metals contain iron and can conduct magnetism. Non ferrous metals contain no iron and are non-magnetic. An Alloy is a mixture of two or more metals. Base metals ore pure metals like tin, copper, zinc, etc. and precious metals are gold, silver, platinum etc. To better understand the properties of metal, the industry has…

The flatwork used in these pickups are the same as used in the Stratocaster. If you’ve ever taken the covers of the pickups, you will see that all the rod magnet pole pieces are flush with the top of the bobbin. The magnets used in the pickups had a length of .625″ and the diameter…

The pole pieces were staggered to increase or decrease the magnetic field to each string to compensate for the amount of output each particular string would produce. In the earlier days you couldn’t find sets of strings that had a plain 3rd (G string). The 3rd string were wound over the inner core (made of…

Starting with a typical Vintage Stratocaster the coil is wound Top Left/ Top Going. If you look at a top view of a stock Fender Stratocaster pickup, eyelet’s at 6:00 O’Clock and the cover removed you will see the beginning coil wire starting on the lower left eyelet and the coil winds clock wise around…

Jeff Beck was the first player in the 60’s I saw that removed the cover from his Late 50’s Les Paul. He told me he removed them because of uncontrollable feedback using high powered amplification and speaker systems. I started removing covers from my Humbuckers thinking I would sound like Jeff and looking to see…

There are many models of pickups made – the basic ones are listed in the chart below. Here is an easy way you can measure the distance between poles and string spacing. Use a good pair of calipers (dial calipers work best for me) and measure (center to center) the 1st pole to the 6th…

At the time of writing, Scotch Brand Electrical Tapes by 3M have discontinued manufacturing the #4 Flatback insulation tape. Gibson has been using the #4 Flatback Scotch insulation tape on just about every pickup model made from early pickup production to present. This has been my favorite tape because of it’s mechanical properties and use…