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How to make a single coil guitar pickup!
This will show you how to make your own guitar pickup. It won't look or sound exactly like a regular pickup, but its a fun and interesting project.
What You'll Need:
Stuff:
-Paper
- 42 or 43 gauge copper wire (very thin)
- Six steel machine screws and nuts
- Neodymium (super strong) magnets or one long bar magnet
- Thin plastic (like that on a cd case) or Thin pieces of wood
- Wax
- Wire
- Solder
- Superglue
Tools/equipment:
-Dremel and dremel accessories
-Screwdriver
-Sewing machine (optional)
You can go out and buy all these things, but you can probably find most of them within old crap you already possess. For example, I found the copper wire in a pair of broken dog clippers. And if you don't have some of the equipment you can always improvise.
Here are some links I found useful while learning how to make my pickups:
Stew Mac--Pickup Building (especially "Single Coil Pickup Kits")
A guy who made a humbucker.
GuitarAttack Look at Winding pickups "Guerilla Style" to see more about the sewing machine pickup winder idea.
This will show you how to make your own guitar pickup. It won't look or sound exactly like a regular pickup, but its a fun and interesting project.
What You'll Need:
Stuff:
-Paper
- 42 or 43 gauge copper wire (very thin)
- Six steel machine screws and nuts
- Neodymium (super strong) magnets or one long bar magnet
- Thin plastic (like that on a cd case) or Thin pieces of wood
- Wax
- Wire
- Solder
- Superglue
Tools/equipment:
-Dremel and dremel accessories
-Screwdriver
-Sewing machine (optional)
You can go out and buy all these things, but you can probably find most of them within old crap you already possess. For example, I found the copper wire in a pair of broken dog clippers. And if you don't have some of the equipment you can always improvise.
Here are some links I found useful while learning how to make my pickups:
Stew Mac--Pickup Building (especially "Single Coil Pickup Kits")
A guy who made a humbucker.
GuitarAttack Look at Winding pickups "Guerilla Style" to see more about the sewing machine pickup winder idea.
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Signing UpStep 1Make your pattern
There are just a few parts to a pickup, and the bobbin(the thing that holds the coil) is the first thing you need put together.
To do this, you'll need to do is make up some kind of pattern for your bobbin. You need one piece for the top and one for the bottom. Look at the pictures and factory made single coils to get the general idea. You can make it in the traditional shape, with rounded ends, or you can be lazy like me and use a more squarish design. Either way will work.
Then you'll need to transfer this pattern onto the material you're using for your bobbin. You can use plastic (from a cd case, for example) or thin pieces of wood. Wood works well because it's easy to work with and has a unique look, but I decided to use plastic for this pickup.
Last of all, cut out your bobbin pieces.
To do this, you'll need to do is make up some kind of pattern for your bobbin. You need one piece for the top and one for the bottom. Look at the pictures and factory made single coils to get the general idea. You can make it in the traditional shape, with rounded ends, or you can be lazy like me and use a more squarish design. Either way will work.
Then you'll need to transfer this pattern onto the material you're using for your bobbin. You can use plastic (from a cd case, for example) or thin pieces of wood. Wood works well because it's easy to work with and has a unique look, but I decided to use plastic for this pickup.
Last of all, cut out your bobbin pieces.
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how about doing a little research before posting something that is of no use to the topic. ---- this comment is certified as being constructively-positive! (;D)
2) You have to get some potentiometers to modulate the frequency and IDK how exactly to do that.
and i would like to know haw it worked out to place a magnetic pickup on a violin, because i play the cello and i've heard that pick ups don't work well in this kind of instruments, but i have never seen one.
I built a pickup according to this and it sounds great.
But after the first day there was a terrible hum, i redid all the soldering rechecked all the visible points for any breaks in winding.
What could be causing this sudden buzz??
But I disagree when you say that this pickup is not realistic.
Here are some sound samples from a pickup I made exactly according to this procedure
http://soundcloud.com/neo01124/sets/pickup-test
Here is a raw recording
http://soundcloud.com/neo01124/pickup_raw
I have placed the pickup on a $50 acoustic guitar. It sounds OK for the relatively little amount of effort that went into it.