Thread: building pickups

Originally Posted by old_picker

a decent pair of pickups is the biggest single cost of a build for me

+1

I must say that I am REALLY impressed with the golden age pups from Stewmac. The standard ones I put in Lil's build are clean and pure, really nice "vintage" pups for $40 + change each. Next build I think I'll have a go at the overwound ones. Hell for $40+ I wouldn't bother building them. You can't save money making these types, thats for sure.
Luthiers, I think, like to be able to say "I made the whole thing, cut down the tree, shot the cow, killed the cat, so why not build pups too?" Get myself a small mill and make my own bridges too, wind my own strings, blah blah blah

I agree with the cost thing , Ray.

And also echo Mongrels call about wanting to do the whole shebang too.
But remember the Aussie dollar is very close to 1:1 against the yankee greenback and that
makes buying from the U.S. way cheaper than before.
BTW I've been looking at getting quite a few Seymour Duncans, EMG, Lace from the U.S. due to the fact they're so much cheaper than previously.
Warranty notwithstanding. There are great prices at the moment.
Ethereal's got some Golden age pups in one of his latest, and I hopefully get to hear them tomorrow.( crossing fingers !!!!!!)

Originally Posted by oz tradie

I agree with the cost thing , Ray.

And also echo Mongrels call about wanting to do the whole shebang too.
But remember the Aussie dollar is very close to 1:1 against the yankee greenback and that
makes buying from the U.S. way cheaper than before.
BTW I've been looking at getting quite a few Seymour Duncans, EMG, Lace from the U.S. due to the fact they're so much cheaper than previously.
Warranty notwithstanding. There are great prices at the moment.
Ethereal's got some Golden age pups in one of his latest, and I hopefully get to hear them tomorrow.( crossing fingers !!!!!!)

Hurry up and buy them, 'cause they are about to shut down imports of those brands very soon. You'll already have some trouble getting EMGs.

Originally Posted by rhoads56

Hurry up and buy them, 'cause they are about to shut down imports of those brands very soon. You'll already have some trouble getting EMGs.

Is it EMG or Aussie importation probs?

Originally Posted by mongrel

Is it EMG or Aussie importation probs?

Non US distributors, hurting from loss of sales because of cheaper imports, have been renegotiating deals to include exclusivity clauses. Any retailer in the US found selling internationally, will lose the right to sell that line of products.
Its not just with EMG, its with a lot of brands.

the yankees are going to indulge in a little anti competitive skulduggery at the behest of the bigger aussie buyers?

i thought the fta was spose to stop this sort of thing - maybe i am wrong on that

the best wholesale price you get from dominant on SD pickups is more expensive than importing directly from retailers in the states including cartage - the last set of buckers i priced came out $40 landed cheaper than the local distributor - you are punting on having no warranty issues

compared to retail in aust its way way cheaper - price a pair of SD's from say soundworks

freight costs in the end will kill a lot of this small rime international trade anyhow and the higher A$ will mean jack ????

I made some comments on this topic in my 3 builds thread and the pickup winding thread started by Luke, mainly around making custom bass models. But this is generally my take on it...

If you're after stock production line pickups, standard Fender and Gibson style models, then I wouldn't bother making them unless brands such as GFS or other similar brands do not deliver the sound you're after at a reasonable price. Seymour Duncan pickups do sound pretty good, but makers that do make the big name brand style pickups offer something more than the big companies which is more attune to your requirements and in some cases more vintage attempts down to the minutest possible details for this period in time. A pickup maker can, if they have the right materials, skill and knowledge make a pickup equivalent and better than the big names quite easily. However, "better" is a subjective term. This is what is possible if making your own or going with a reputable smaller maker who knows what they're doing.

If you buy a humbucker or single coil kit, buy some wire and other parts you need from the usual places, spend time assembling or making bobbins, winding, wiring, testing and so on the expense will still exceed the cheaper brands that offer "vintage" style replicas. Why? Labor will be the highest expense followed by parts. When people buy big name brands they think the product is great. We'll, IMO, that's highly debatable and proven to be an incorrect assumption.

For me, making pickups has absolutely nothing in the world to do with the idea of making everything myself. I do make everything down to truss rods including the pickups, except for the hardware - but this is due to necessity on my part. I'd rather not make these things at all if they were available cheap and to my specs. As I mentioned previously, the cost of certain models of bass pickups is prohibitive for me. I'd rather make a bass pickup than fork out $US550, because I can damn well make them cheaper than that.

Although I also make and rewind standard Fender style bass and guitar pickups, soon to begin Gibson style humbuckers and other big name models, that's just an extension now since I'm setup for this.

So, it all depends on your requirements and what you really want to get of it. For example, if you want to refine your build processes, make them more efficient to save time and expense, then making big name brand pickups which are everywhere (wide ranging in cost as well as quality) may not make business sense.

-is it worth the trouble?

Depends

-can you get results as good as say seymour duncans?

Yep. especially if you want to wind vintage style pickups, the specs are all over the net its just a matter of using the same "recipe"

-where do you get materials?

Stewmac is a good place to start. I buy my wire through Ebay reseller "baewire" You can get decent amount of 42 and 43 gauge formvar wire from him. Thats the same type of wire used in vintage Fenders. Its a lot cheaper than Stewmac for that. If you want to buy bulk magnets go direct to the manufacturer but expect to pay a few hundred bucs for enough magnets to last you for the next 10 years. You'll pay 1/10 of the price of stewmac's price per piece.

what does it cost in parts?

For me less than $5 per coil. For guitars its different depending on if you b uild single coils or humbuckers and where you get the parts.

how much time does it take?

Until you're setup properly expect to spend the whole day doing one or two coils.

are the results predictable?

Yes, if you use recipes but there's always *some* variations.

-a decent pair of pickups is the biggest single cost of a build for me

me too thats why I built them since the first bass.

other that the cost side of things, i like being able to control that aspect of the instrument. if its not right i fix it, as opposed to ordering another one (or more likely put it off and do something else and put it on my to do list).

what about a winder??

I'm also in the same boat is Old-Picker, pickups are the biggest single cost for me when building.

Any good pickup making books you guys can recommend?

i was lucky as i have a metal lathe that isnt used too often, which works well for a winder (maybe a bit overspeced, and its unable to adjust speed as you go, but it works well). you could easily use a small drill press turned on its side, a hand drill (power or hand powered) or any number of things. some people have even used record players.

as for a book, i started with the martin koch's guitar building book which has a section adressing pickup making to get me started, and then read things on www.music-electronics-forum.com to learn more. its very easy to get a working pickup, and easy to get a good sounding one using designs similar to other designs. the only difficult thing is nailing a certain tone specifically.

the cost is cheap if you make your own bobbins, and its competitive if you buy bobbins. i like making my own singlecoil style bobbins, as i can use a nice timber for the top piece of the bobbin (wenge for the last one, not sure what i'll sue for the next ones) or just use pickguard material and put it under a wooden cover.

Originally Posted by rhoads56

Non US distributors, hurting from loss of sales because of cheaper imports, have been renegotiating deals to include exclusivity clauses. Any retailer in the US found selling internationally, will lose the right to sell that line of products.
Its not just with EMG, its with a lot of brands.

I'm only interested in the boutique pickup makers these days.....from what I've tried , they sound much better than the bigger brands...
and they'll never be able to stop you dealing with these guys direct.