Category Archives:

The bobbins that are injection molded can be made from many types of plastics and even Bakelite which starts out in powder form and has been used on older Rickenbacker bobbins. I like nylons as it is easy to work with and the material will hold it’s tolerances better than polystyrene plastics and have longer…

A bobbin can either be molded or fabricated out of flatwork and is used to wind the coil for a desired number of turns. A bobbin can be molded or fabricated from a number of materials such as nylon, PVC, ABS plastics or various types of phenolic, vulcanized fibre or even wood and paper products.

Flatwork is normally a material that’s punched or routed out of a desired material to be used to make a coil form or bobbin. On a Fender Stratocaster or Telecaster pickup the flatwork is held together by rod magnets. The flatwork also keeps the magnet wire or coil to a desired shape.

A bobbin can be made in various shapes depending on the desired number of strings to be used. Bobbins can be tall and have narrow coils like Fender Stratocasters or have short and wide coils like a Fender Jazzmaster. Fender Strat bobbins have a .434″ traverse and a Jazzmaster is close to .125″ traverse. Gibson…

The covers are used to protect the coil and bobbin from damage due to picking, string snag and other elements that could break the coil. Under the covers are the bobbin assembly which consists of: 6 Alnico magnets sand cast and ground to desired diameter and cut to length. Top flatwork- made of Vulcanized Fibre…

All the early Fender single coil pickups were hand wound and used a rubber-band from the motor to the counter that also turned the bobbin. The counter was used as a guide for the desired number of turns. As the rubber-band got old or worn the counter numbers could vary. The rubber-bands could slip and…

All the vintage pickups I’ve seen, wound and repaired, all have the same winding direction. If the top of the pickup is facing right, the pickup would be wound “Top Right-Top Coming.” If you look at the top of an old Strat bobbin, the magnet wire starts at the bottom left eyelet and wraps clock-wise…

The Jaguar claw helped keep the magnet field in closer proximity to the coil which helped make the coil sound louder and brighter. It also helped reduce unwanted electrical interference from entering the coil.

The first models of Fender Precision Bass pickups used a single coil pickup very similar looking from the top as a Telecaster bridge pickup but with only 4 rod pole pieces. It seemed that during the mid 50s several major guitar companies were coming out with humbucking pickups such as Seth E. Lover with the…

The cover is basically a component that protects the coil and especially helps keep the string from getting snagged under the lip of the pickup. The Duosonic and Mustang have basic single coil pickups using .625″ length rod magnets. The pole pieces are flush with the top of the pickup so there is no need…