I find that winding by hand allows me to control the shape of the coil, avoids snags on the edge of the bobbins and gives the coil a desired tension. I enjoy layering the magnet wire onto the bobbin to make winding an art like a fly fisherman casting his line. I like winding with a light directly over the pickup being wound. I keep focused on the coil and find it best to turn off all lights around me. It helps to keep the outside shadows off the coil so you can see the shape better when winding. I concentrate on the winding coil and listen to the sound as it turns. I listen to the tone of the spinning coil for the proper winding speed for proper tension on the wire. I let the wire flow between my thumb and index finger of my right or left hand depending what type of bobbin I’m winding.

My winder has several pre-set speeds and my left foot controls how fast the mandrel spins. I can change the pulley and belt sizes for a variety of speeds to wind certain coils and bobbins. It’s portable and I like taking it to many vintage shows. I use slower speeds for winding paper or fabricated bobbins and medium speeds for Vulcanized Fibre bobbins and higher speeds for molded bobbins. If you wind paper bobbins to fast, the tension from the magnet wire wrapping tightly around the bobbin can cause the coil form to flair, distort and even separate.

When I wind custom pickups or repair broken ones, I measure the DC resistance, DC resistance @ 1Khz, Inductance, Q, and Gauss of every custom pickup made. I keep written documentation on every pickup made for future reference in case the player needs an exact duplicate. It’s always good practice to keep records of your clients instruments and wiring schematics especially if your client is on the road and some other repairman works on it and needs the information faxed to them.