Pickup rewinding

Rewinding

All pickups are rewound with heavy build #42 AWG copper wire. Two types of insulation are available, plain enamel (left pickup) and formvar (right pickup). Manufacturers in the 50's and 60's used both types and sonically there is no difference between the two. Heavy build insulation is used to reduce capacitance leakage.
Each bobbin is disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled. Number of wraps are determined by manufacturer specifications or can be increased to produce a higher output. It is advised that overwinding not go beyond 15%. The coil is then soaked in beeswax to prevent microphonics.

Options

formvar, plain enamel, or polyurethane insulated wire
Formvar insulated magnet wire is golden in color and plain enamel has a brown/purplish color. Both were used in pickup manufacture during the '50's and '60's. Presently most pickups are manufactured using plain enamel or polyurethane (reddish color). There is no difference sonically among the three, this option is offered solely for the customers preference.

black or grey vulcanised fibre bobbins
Vulcanised fibre is a high density cardboard which is heated and impregnated with resin. This was the material commonly used for bobbins before the introduction of plastics. The color is important in matching pickups made in certain years. It will not distort during the potting process as plastic will do.

staggered or flush poles
Staggered poles were used in early guitar pickups to adjust for the wide variations in string guages. With the present use of lighter-guaged string sets, staggered poles are not as essential and flush poles will maintain a good string-to-string balance.

waxed cotton or teflon insulated lead wires
Waxed cotton was used in earlier pickups and is still the preference of some guitarists. Teflon has the advantage of high temperature resistance to prevent burning or melting when soldering the leads. PVC insulated wire, which melts during soldering, is not used with our pickups.

pole orientation (north or south on top)

winding rotation (clockwise/counterclockwise)

The Humbucking Effect

Pole orientation combined with winding rotation will produce a humbucking effect when opposite conditions are used in two separate coils. Thus, if one pickup (or coil) is 'north on top' with clockwise winding rotation and the other is 'south on top' with counterclockwise rotation, ( also referred to as RWRP), the two used together will be humbucking, cancelling the hum caused by extraneous EMR (electromagnetic radiation) given off by amplifiers, fluorescent lights, etc. This is the basic principle behind the humbucking pickup invented by Seth Lover in 1956 while working for Gibson Guitars.

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