Post Type Archives: SWD

There are many places you can look for old pickups. I’d start with the local music store and ask them if you can look through some junk parts and tell them that your experimenting on some new pickup idea. Many times they have old pickups thrown in a box especially old humbuckers where one of…

The small ID label usually found on the bottom of the pickups is a quick reference to the model and final assembler. Each model has several procedures with a few or many production workers making each pickup. The ID label usually has the initial of the final assembler with prior quality control inspections.

I have talked with most pickup companies and they all do some kind of pickup alterations for your needs. They all try to help their clients and do the best they can with the components available. I have given clients the name of other pickup builders as they may be more suited to make a…

For this question I would suggest going to a friend or music store and asking the repairman or salesman to look at different pickup models. Look closely at the construction and all the components that make up a pickup. Make notes and find broken ones to pull apart. You’ll learn that a Stratocaster pickup has…

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…