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Vintage Pickup Winding

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4/13/1999 8:52 AM

Vintage Pickup Winding

The typical Fender vintage style single coil pickup has the magnet wire wound directly over the magnet bars. This close proximity of magnet to coil allows the best interaction between the two, and performs differently than if there were a plastic spool type bobbin with a nominal thickness separating the coil from the magnets.

This coil directly on magnet construction, while providing a better sound, becomes a problem over time as movement between the magnets and the wire cause insulation abrasion and coil shorting, even wire breakage.

Why doesn't somebody get smart and place a single layer of wax or varnish impregnated thin paper tape, or poly film, over the magnet core before winding on the wire? The added separation distance, compared to a not so desirable thicker plastic bobbin (Amer Std or Tex-Mex pickups, for instance), would be almost nil. But the thin separating layer would provide a nice buffer against vibration-induced abrasion damage.

The reason I'm asking this question is that there are enough incidences of pickup damage associated with the pure Leo method, that some improvement could be made when manufacturing or rewinding pickups. I recently read one of Seymour Duncan's pickup question columns in VG mag. One gent wanted to know how to keep the magnets from dropping in his vintage strat pickups. Seymour went through the usual explanation of how the pu's are constructed, etc. But being someone so knowledgeable, a serious pickup rewinder and innovator, I was surprised that he never mentioned that an improvement could be made. No one mentions it. Also, I've ruined a perfectly good texas special pu by trying to change the magnet stagger.

So when I eventually start winding/ rewinding my own, I'm going to put a thin insulating interface layer between the bare magnets & the wire. What do you guys with pickup winding experience think?

4/14/1999 2:31 AM
Steve A.	Doc: Great idea! How about plain old teflon tape used by plumbers? 3 or 4 wraps of that would offer some insulation and help with microphonics, too! Steve Ahola P.S. I was just reading how Lindy Fralin recommends that his coils not be shielded with copper foil tape because you lose some of the high end due to a capacitance effect. (He suggests that you shield the cavities instead.)

4/14/1999 10:50 AM
Mark Hammer	As they say in England, brilliant! being the guy who suggested use of teflon tape in the first place, and given the number of coils I wind, I'm dumbfounded that I never thought of this before. Thanks Doc and Steve. I am now reformed in my winding habits. Just goes to show you how strong an effect precedent can have.

4/14/1999 10:46 PM

Re: One less use for teflon tape...

Mark:

I'd been using teflon tape to "shim up" loose fitting knobs for many years but recently got to thinking that the teflon may end up in the bushing (not necessarily bad if you think that your knobs turn too easily). As they say laziness is the mother of invention so rather than go out to my truck to grab a roll of teflon tape I just used the plastic bag that small parts come in and jammed that in under the knob in question (actually a loose fitting strat selector switch knob). And I've used that plastic bag trick again to secure the loose knobs on my Peavey Classic 30 amp. So I'm retracting my earlier suggestion of using teflon tape for securing knobs, which will leave more of it for "potting" pickups!

Steve Ahola

P.S. With all of the ridiculous things patented by Randall Smith, et al, maybe you ought to apply for a patent for "Use of Teflon© tape in musical instrument electro-magnetic transducer applications"... [g]

4/20/1999 8:16 AM

Re: Vintage Pickup Winding

I guess teflon tape would be ok, but be careful of the winding tension because that soft T-tape will flow, the wires will make indentations. It would definitely damp microphonic vibrations.

The close proximity of the wire to the magnet accounts for the quick, snappy response we all expect from vintage fender single coils. When the separation distance becomes greater, as in the case of a plastic bobbin, that same character is sort of missing. I would try to use a minimum thickness insulating layer between magnets & coil to maintain the sacred electromagnetic interaction. If you use T-tape, don't go overboard on multiple layers. Maybe a max of 2 layers, where one end just reaches the other, one layer above. How thick is the usual plumbers teflon tape?

What I originally had in mind was some fairly thin treated (sealed) paper, like that used in transformers. (I don't know the thickness of that stuff, either.)

Yeah, adding a copper shield tape right around the outer layer of windings can have a shunt to ground capacitance which takes the high edge off. I own a few old schecter pickups with that feature, but never installed them in anything to hear the effect. I would think that if you weren't interested in the extreme high end response, that this close tape method would reduce the antenna pickup much better than cavity shielding.

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