Mini Humbucker

The GuitarAttack winder has finally contributed to a genuine repair! A Gibson mini-humbucker has been brought back from the dead. Check out the photos below.
The patient -- a Gibson Mini-Humbucker, probably from a Les Paul Deluxe. My luthier friend/mentor, Jim Grainger gave me the pickup to fix. I asked, "What's wrong with it." The response was, "It's broke." A usual response with pickups -- normally they either work or they don't. I checked the pickup out, and it was showing no readings at all. I disassembled the pickup and found that one of the two coils had a broken wire. I suspect someone broke it while trying to remove the cover. Tip: Don't take the covers off of Gibson mini-humbuckers. They aren't like a PAF -- the cover is integral to their construction, and they are ugly. Tip: Make a detailed schematic, and take some photos of the pickup to ensure you put it back together properly.
After removing all of the old wire from the faulty bobbin (the one with the six polepieces) with a utility knife, I attached it to the winder and started winding. I knew that the other coil read 3k ohms resistance, so I wanted to get the rewound coil as close as possible to that value. Remember -- this is a humbucker. After I got the bobbin about "full" of wire, I checked the resistance with the multimeter. I actually overwound the pickup and had to remove some wire. This was not bad because I was able to get the wound coil to nearly the exact same resistance as the "non broken" coil. Tip: This shot shows the disassembled pickup and some of the other tools I used. The little plastic box is great to keep all of the parts in one place. You can see my diagrams on the right. In the middle is my multimeter. Remember -- take the time to keep it organized. Tip: My multimeter allows me to make not only resistance measurements, but also inductance and capacitance measurements. While it is not a multi-thousand dollar precision instrument, it allows me to establish a baseline with the pickups I make and "run across." Don't settle for that little $9 dial multimeter -- you need something with a digital display.
I resoldered the leads to the pickup and tested it out on a little amp I keep handy. Once I was satisfied that it was working I reinstalled the cover. The final product! I hooked the pickup to my little Peavey amp and an old guitar, and it worked great! DC Resistance is 6.4k ohms, inductance is 3.02, and the resonant frequency calculated at about 10K, a little higher than your standard PAF.

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