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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Melody Maker pickup questions

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4/12/1999 7:15 PM
MKB	Melody Maker pickup questions Hello folks. My father in law has a 1960 Gibson Melody Maker with a dead pickup, the windings are completely shredded. I'd like to rewind it, so does anyone know the following: Wire size # of turns DC resistance BTW, it is the Strat type single coil PU. Thanks for the help in advance!

4/12/1999 9:16 PM
Mark Hammer	It may not be stock, but I promise you that if you put on 8,000 to 8,200 windings of #42 wire, you should be very happy. Think of it as the Tex-Mex Melody Maker. I had one of those pickups, and the bobbin was very brittle. Have you had any problems with that?

4/12/1999 9:29 PM

Incidentally, the question will pop up, "How DO you rewind these things?"

Fair question since, unlike Fender single coil type pickups, there is no centre hole in the bobbin (MM pickups use the same bar pickup as on a PAF, except its on its side, rather than flat, meaning there is one thick rail polepiece, and a big rectangular hole in the middle of the bobbin).

What I would use is a bolt, the same width/thickness as the bar magnet, with a nice smooth finished washer on either side (tp and bottom) of the bobbin, and secured with a nut, screwed in tight enough to hold it steady, but not tight enought to make the bobbin buckle. If you are concerned that the bobbin may be sufficiently deformed by the absence of the bar magnet to wind with improper tension, you can always cut a piece of balsa wood to occupy the empty space.

I find it always useful to go over the entire bobbin with fine emery paper prior to winding. Often, there are little burrs or imperfections in the surface of the bobbin, and if so much as one winding catches on it, you end up with an ugly coil, and occasionally microphonics. Better not to give stray windings a place to start. In the same spirit, make sure any spacing material in the bobbin gap is well out of the way of the wire when winding.

Clamp the free end of the bolt in the chuck of a hand-drill (crank type), clamp the hand-drill securely to a table or desk top (preferably with the crank handle facing away from the desk so you can rotate it freely), and crank away, making note of how many turns of the bobbin are produced with one turn of the crank. Do the math, keep scrupulous track of the turns, and in less than an hour, you should have it restored to its former glory.

4/14/1999 1:57 PM

Hello, Mark. Thanks for the info, and especially thanks again for the tip on using
the hand drill for pickup winding. About a week ago I overwound some coils from a 1970 Gibson Super Humbucker to about 8k total, added a magnet from an old DiMarzio PAF, wired it four conductor, placed a cover on it and installed it in my PRS. This is exactly what I wanted, a warm humbucker with highs, a cover and coil tappable. All out of junk box parts! The hand drill worked really well, I plan to add a Radio Shack counter module to count exact turns.

I haven't pulled the coil out of the cover on the Melody Maker pickup yet. It may be quite
hard to do as somehow the coil windings have jammed the bobbin in the cover. I may try this weekend if I get the time. Thanks again for the winding info.

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