cheap and easy guitar pickups

Step 2 First a Real pickup

here are 3 pictures of a very broken ( and very crappy before it was broken) fake humbucker pick up. it came out of a 1 dollar yard sale guitar nuff said.
if you look closely you can see the basic parts a copper coil of #43 magnet wire wrapped around a plastic bobbin with a steel bar that slides up inside it and a bar magnet that attaches to that.
when a steel guitar string is vibrated near the poles { screws that screw into the steel bar} it generates a very small electric current in the copper coil {similar principle to how a generator/ motor works... hmmm i wonder if you can use a motor...heh heh ill have to try that one later} this small current is what is fed into your amplifier and pumped out the other end greatly amplified.

Comments

[486dx4]

GAH!!! what kind of guitar might this have been? it looks very much like the insides of the fake humbuckers on a heretofore unidentified japanese 335 copy that i bought recently (and yes they are the worst pickups ive ever herd) i think mines an encore.

[lennyb]

it had no brand markings of any sort and it sounded awful. the only good thing on it was the neck which i recycled into the brown les paul style git on my other project page.

[486dx4]

i love parts guitars =)

[TheMadScientist]

thats WAY thicker than 43 awg wire. I have some 36 lying right here, and its about the thickness of my hair...

[freewheeler]

iv'e been meaning to ask you this for quite a while.by fake humbucker,do you mean it was a single coil disguised as a humbucker?

[lennyb]

yes it was a single and not a very good one either

[freewheeler]

tried it using an armature from the motor in one of those battery powered blenders.quite good.

[lennyb]

ha ha excellent thats a good use for old junk. i cant wait to see some rock star on stage twangin away on a 2x4 with old rc car motors and stuff under the strings. who needs all that expensive guitar junk anyway.