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Probably the biggest precaution is potting pickups with plastic bobbins for too long in too hot of a wax solution. Pickups need to be agitated quickly as they are submerged in a wax solution and should be done by a qualified repairman. Using hot wax can be very dangerous and should not be done especially…

Potting either by a special wax or epoxy solutions are commonly used in guitar and bass pickups to help reduce unwanted microphonic feedback and reduce tampering of the electrical components within the pickup assembly. I like to wax pot pickups with a process I developed called “DunSqueal”. It is a system that quickly removes all…

There are many things that give a pickup a particular sound. The most general are: The shape of the coil or bobbin, the number of turns of a particular gauge magnet wire, the magnet wire insulation and thickness, the tension of each turn around the coil, the layering of the magnet wire by either hand…

Pickups potted in silicone can usually be potted. Sometimes it is hard to remove the silicone but once removed you can normally rewind a pickup. That’s why I like wax better for potting pickups because you can work on the product or make updated changes. Silicone can be messy if it’s not totally cured and…

Putting wax just on the outside of a pickup may due some help but the whole pickup needs to have the wax permeate within all the fine cavities and air should be displaced by agitation when hot wax potting. When the pickup is dipped in wax, at first the wax will solidify till the pickups…

Most industrial waxes should be used and often, specific epoxy potting solutions are used for permanent bonding of pickup components such as circuit boards, to hide design layout and to keep the pickup from being modified. There are also specific potting varnishes of different grades and some need to be oven heated to cure the…

Wax is basically a soft material that is used to secure all components in a pickup to help reduce unwanted feedback or microphonic squeal due to proximity of the instrument to loud speakers and volume an instrument is subjected to.

It is important that you have a qualified repairman do this and I don’t recommend you doing this at home. It is very dangerous and the hot wax fumes are very combustible. We can do this for you at our Custom Shop – please see here for details: Rewinds & Repairs

At times when a pickup is epoxied it is difficult for the hot wax to penetrate the voids in a pickup. At times the wax will help solidify any movement in components that could vibrate and help eliminate the majority of the feedback. Playing at high volumes and especially using overdrives will cause all kinds…

The important thing with potting pickups, if done right, it will help keep the pickup from feeding back like a microphone at higher volumes. The downfall of potting pickups is if it’s not done properly, your pickup can be ruined. Wax that is too hot can distort the bobbins which in turn can make the…