cheap and easy guitar pickups

Step 9 End

i hope you all have fun trying out different coils and please be careful to use junk only and dont spoil your moms washing machine lookin for coils an stuff
any questions just ask away
lenny

Comments

[jphoton]

do not mess with coils from tv picture tubes!! tv's can store THOUSANDS of volts even after being unplugged for YEARS!! there's far better safer sources!! ;)

[Kiteman]

The coils don't store the charge, capacitors do, but it's still good advice to wear gloves and then use an old screwdriver to short things out before you play.

[lennyb]

crt tubes themselves can also hold a charge for a long time.i got a good zap from one 30 years ago my arm was numb for hours.
lucky it didnt kill me
always wear insulating gloves when handling them.
once the tube has been safely discharged you can handle it then

[DrThousand]

I like coils from old TV sets, The older the better. If you find an old tube set in the alley, grab it before I do. There are a lot of coils in the old sets, but my favorites are on the neck of the picture tube. The adjustment (convergence) coils are the ones I'm after. They come in 3 sets of 2, 3 sets 'cos they use 3 colors. This gives you one pickup per string, which is exactly what you want for MIDI guitar. If you want hexaphonic fuzz (1 fuzz per string so the strings don't interfere with each other), this is the way. Note that the coils are mounted on ferrite cores, which are very hard, or should I say brittle. Ferrite is a kind of ceramic which will yield to a determined person with a cut off wheel in their Dremel. Just put the whole thing on a piece of magnet. I like the ceramic ones on the back of dead speakers or inside microwaves. More ceramic shaping, but at least you'll learn a new skill.

[Gergory]

A quick note:

DO NOT OPEN A TV WITHOUT KNOWING EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

The cathode ray tube can carry enough voltage to kill you even years after the TV has been unplugged. I strongly advise heavy research before you pop open an old TV or, best of all, avoidance of it altogether. (This doesn't apply to newer, LCD, plasma, etc. sets but I would still take caution.)

[lennyb]

indeed the CRT can hold a charge of thousands of volts for years.
i learned this myself the hard way many years ago.
take all precautions while hunting for useful coils {insulated gloves come to mind} do not touch the neck and side contacts {cathode and anode} at the same time, thats how i got zapped.

[charles.david.sutherland]

the best way to disharge a CRT is to take a lead with an alligator clip and a 1 ohm resistor arrangement and short it out on a ground strap from the cup attached to the picture tube. You should hear a loud pop and perhaps see some arcing when this occurs. You could repeat the procedure to be absolutely sure no charge remains. the problem of CRT's are that it has capacitors with high values, once these loose their charge, it should be plain sailing. Also of hazard is mercury in the tube that could leak if the tube is old or compromise is some way.

[chrisreeve]

Surely if you are taking the tv apart anyway, you could just throw a bucket of water over it. I'd think that should short out and ground any voltage left?

[charles.david.sutherland]

water, not advisable, you could still shock yourself.

[Lazy Ape]

do you have any instructables?

[crankflip]

Well, I found one out in the woods! how cool is that! :P

[DjProToJeeX]

i beat you to it last week for that teebee

[Jack HUmmer]

nice crack man... i cant wait ti try these for myself... keep rocking....long live!!!! =D

[mateolegba]

Great!!! Looking for a coil!!! Buenisimo, felicitaciones!!!! Gracias!

[TheDomnul]

I've tried your projects and they worked just fine for me. And they have given me an appetite to take the next step and build my own 'not from scrap' pick up. Where would I find the information to do this, e.g type of magnet, number of windings and the gauge of the wire, etc? BTW, I understand that Ice-cream van chimes work something like this only much cheaper. Any info on this? And thank you. For the amusement and learning so far provided and, hopefully, some answers to the above questions too.

[lennyb]

so glad you enjoyed this. nice to know someone reads theese things.
i`ve never seen the chimes on an icecream truck so i`ll have to take your word on that.
lets see ........ info on pickup winding ,info on pickup winding
ahhhh here we are. try the sites listed below.
http://galileo.spaceports.com/~fishbake/buck/humbuck.htm
http://galileo.spaceports.com/~fishbake/fpickup/pickup.htm
http://www.dancetech.com/aa_dt_new/articles/item.cfm?THREADID=153&LANG=0
http://www.mimf.com/link.htm
the last one is the mimf forun link list theres a huge amount of info on all instrument making subjects .
enjoy

[knac]

AH! I got so excited after reading this that I searched my whole house for old electronics and fans, anything that I thought would have a tiny motor inside it. After succesfully finding something, I spent the next 3 hours creating my own pick up. I actually installed it into my old guitar and to my surprise, it worked! So tomorow morning im going down to radioshack and I'm going to look for anything that I think i could use..for anything!

[lennyb]

im glad this inspired you. maybe i oughtta call radio shack and demand a cut? maybee not. keep us posted on what you try and how it works. thanks

[wtfguitarist]

you can use neodyuim magnets (i believe thats what there called)and coil it yourself