Make A Guitar Pickup

Step 6 Soldering

Once you're done winding your coil, you need to solder the lead wires.

Before you can solder though, you need to scrape the reddish coating off of the wire that is wrapped around the two holes on the bottom piece of the bobbin. You can use very fine sandpaper, your fingernail, or the end of a little screwdriver (see pic) to do this.


Usually the beginning of the coil is soldered to black wire and the end is soldered to white wire. I couldn't find any white wire so I used red instead.

Comments

[Zacharydmccrea]

Can the top wood part be painted (if I use wood)? Will doing so affect the sound?

[jmart90]

go for it, it really shouldnt matter, as long as the magnets, or screws are close enough to the strings; th closer the magnetic material, the stronger the signal

[mthw_allen]

Does the copper wire have to be insulated, or can you have copper wire without the plastic wrapping?

[rockinrobin76]

hello. the wire should have an enamel coating on it. if you use ordinary hookup wire you won't get enough resistance to pull a decent sound. Bare wire will create a dead short and all your work would have been for nothing.

[guitarguru333]

how can i know if it has the coating, does the wire from an electric motor have it?

[DK69]

This wire often called magnet wire is used in motors , speakers, relays, solenoids, transformers, this wire is very fine with as someone said often reddish in color, you CAN NOT solder to the redish insulation(coating) use fine sandpaper and GENTLY pinch the end between the folded paper and pull through to remove the coating, someone asked what the conversion is in inches, I found #40 AWG wire is .0031" thick so # 42 is very close either way if you cant measure it its about as fine as a strand of hair, also do not solder many pieces together to make a long wire, it can scratch through another turns insulation shorting however many turns are in between the short, if you must you can solder and varnish it and let it dry before winding, or tape it, but its not a good idea

[FurtherThanTesla]

Yes, thin wire from a motor winding is perfect. if it has an enamel coating, it will usually have a redish tint. the enamel is just a thin layer of plastic film on the wire to insulate it, so if it has enamel, it should not conduct through the surface

[guitarguru333]

ya thank you,i figured out that my problem was that i was trying to connect the wires together, so i just bought 4000 ft of copper wire, w/e

[mthw_allen]

Wow thanks dude that helped out alot

[Leperello Mikesiah]

For the lead wires, it should be insulated.

[Kbub]

Sorry about the confusion but do you use enameled wire or magnetic wire? Or is there even a difference?

[Lotharuccio]

hey thanks a lot for this instructable its really helpfull!
I have one question tho, you put the - wire on the beginning part and the + on the end, is that standard? or does the place to put the wires depend on which pole of the magnet you put up and which one down? maybe its a stupid question, but this is what i am wondering.. if anybody could help me it would be apreciated, thanks

[koopatroopa]

how do you attach it to a male plug for your amp?

[utfal]

if I want to install these pickups in my home made electric guitar..how should i adjust their height?

[Cpt.Stripes]

Do you have to solder them? Could you use marrettes?

[chrispfried]

u never explained what kind of wires to solder it if u couls tell me that would be nice

[Leperello Mikesiah]

I think the lead wires were just regular single core wire, something like 28 gauge. hmm...I don't even remember really...sorry.

[livelong]

if you teach me how to solder...it wold be nice!

[Leperello Mikesiah]

There is a guide to soldering right here on instructables, which I think will help you out.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Soldering/

And winding is wrapping the wire around the bobbin. A winder is a machine that wraps the wire around the bobbin.

:)