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Potting humbucker MAGNETS...

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9/19/2005 7:11 PM

Potting humbucker MAGNETS...

    Having read about this on a different forum I decided to give it a try with the SD Seth Lover bridge pickup I got for my Epi Alley Kat. (The Seth Lovers and SD Antiquity humbuckers are NOT potted, and tend to be microphonic especially in semi-hollow bodied guitars. But I don't like any SD pickups as much as these so I don't want to ruin them.)

    Potting the coils will change the sound of these pickups but there is a third choice: wax pot just the magnet! For the Seth Lovers you have to first remove the metal cover but once you've done that you need to loosen the 4 brass screws on the bottom plate of the humbucker. The magnet should come right out; be sure to mark it so that you know which side was up. Dip the magnet in the melted wax a good 30 seconds and then reinsert it in the pickup.

    If any of the brass screws are loose when you tighten them down, try adding a drop of something like white glue in the hole to keep them in place. Otherwise I have a hunch that they could start vibrating at the most inconvenient time.

    One last tip that I picked up on a different forum: add a piece of masking tape over the stud coil so that the pole pieces don't vibrate against the metal cover. Solder the cover back on and you should be ready to rock.

Steve Ahola

9/21/2005 10:41 AM
Spence	Steve, my tip for avoiding microphonic components is to use a rubber based glue like Copydex. This is easily removeable at a later date leaving no evidence. It also seems to act as a damper so, if you use it under humbucker or lipstick Tele covers, Tele bridge baseplates and the like, you can keep some element of microphomy without the squeeling. Try it. Works well for humbucker magnets.

9/23/2005 7:58 AM

Spence:

    Per Google, it looks like Copydex might be a UK product... I've never seen it here in the US so I was wondering if someone could fill me in as to a similar product.

    One advantage with paraffin is that it would be easy to take the pickup apart later. With a rubber based glue I can't imagine just sliding out the magnet after loosening four screws; I have a hunch I'd probably have to remove them.

    FWIW Epiphone did use a rubber-based glue to hold the magnets on one of their P-90's.

Steve Ahola

9/23/2005 12:09 PM

Steve,
I sometimes forget which side of the pond I'm on. The thing about Copydex is that it is so easy to remove it's a dream product to use. For example, if you get it on your fingers, you just rub your fingers together and roll it off. It's the sort of thing that Graphic artists would use. Try a craft shop or something. The kind of glue you were thinking of on those el-cheapo ceramic magnet pickups, sets way too hard and can't really be the same though it looks similar.

9/23/2005 5:13 PM

Spence:

    Oh, that would be what we call "rubber cement" in the colonies. For paste-ups if you coat only one surface you can take it apart later (put it on both pieces of paper and you might tear it taking it apart).

    In his school we'd make scars on the back of our hands using rubber cement in art class- it looked fairly authentic.

    One Halloween when I was working at Pacific Stereo I used rubber cement to glue a third eye on my forehead, cut out from a magazine. It looked cool but when I went to remove it that night it hurt like a son'of'a'bitch and I had a scar on my forehead for six weeks, looking just like Charlie Manson and his followers.

Ouch!

Steve Ahola

P.S. Yes that should work well on pickups- the Epi P-90's used something more like a green contact cement.

9/24/2005 4:51 AM
Spence	Quite right Steve. I am forgetting my native terminology, etc. Too long spent in Blighty. Yes, it's rubber cement and I swear by it. It's really good for Tele baseplates too as you can insulate the plate from the slugs in the process. I have not tried to glue anything to my anatomy yet, but hey, Halloween's just 'round the corner!

9/24/2005 2:47 PM
Steve Dallman	Steve A...6 weeks as a Manson follower is sufficient time to accomplish a plenty for the movement and take your place in the annals of crime. Don't overlook the chicks...they are a perk for being in Charlie's elite. ...I remember this one weekend when Charlie and a few of us grabbed this old truck and... ...oops...maybe I shouldn't be talking about this. ...never mind!

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