| The first GuitarAttack pickup is complete!
A single coil with Alnico V magnets came off the winderand ye s, it works. |
| The pickup is about ready to be wound. I used
three separate pieces to build the bobbin: one for the top, one for the bottom, and
one split in two for the base. The pieces came from a guy on eBay -- and yes, I have
a bunch of them (P-Bass bobbins, too). The magnets are Alnico V rods from Miami
Magnet. I used a dab of superglue on each magnet/bobbin
joint to hold the magnets in, and sprayed the exposed magnets with water-based lacquer
prior to winding.
Tip: Make sure each magnet is oriented in the
same direction before you start gluing! |
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| The bobbin attached to the Gatorade caps.
A humbucker height adjustment screw holds the assembly together. You can see the shiny lacquer on the bobbin. Supposedly Fender sprayed
lacquer on their magnets to insulate them from the wire.
This step is very important! |
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| I screwed the cap onto the winder (like on Page 2), and
after one horrible misstart, this pickup popped out! Be sure
to read the tips on magnet wire -- it can be unbelievably frustrating.
Tip: While you're learning make sure you stop
the winder regularly to make sure the pesky wire doesn't slip off the bobbin and wrap
itself around the mounting screw. It can be disastrous if you don't catch it. |
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| Tip: Make sure you buy solderable
wire. The wire I use is from MWS Wire Industries, and is solderable. It really
makes things easier because it allows you to solder your leads without stripping the
wire's insulation. By the way -- don't forget which end of the
wire you want to make the ground and the hot leads. For this pickup, the end of the
wire from the inside of the bobbin is the ground, and the outside end is the hot lead.
The wires used for the hookup are single strands of multipair
telephone cable. |
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| The final product! I hooked the pickup to my
little Peavey amp and an old guitar, and voila -- a cool sound! DC Resistance is about 7k ohms, and the output at the amp seemed very
balanced and "right sounding."
Hopefully the first of many!
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