Hi everyone , i had been playing round with the idea of building a pickup for a good while now and finally last week i decided to have a go at making one , i must admit this is a first for me , as ive built my own guitar and made many electronic devices but ive never built a pickup so it was new ground for me :D
So at first i thought about what kind of pickup i wanted to build , for me im usually a solid humbucker pup user , so i thought i would try out building a single coil pup , ive always wanted a pickup that was focused more on the classic kinda strat sounds , so this is what i managed to rustle up :woot:
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/7846/ms1sbpu6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Ive still got to pot it properly and also get a suitable cover for it but im really happy with the way its turned out , plus it sounds excellent aswell :D
I did a quick demo with it in action , theres a touch of hiss obviously cos its not potted yet , the interesting thing is i was aiming for a mid 80s onwards Ritchie Blackmore tone, but i actually got his earlier sound from the 70s from this pickup , so i will be building another pickup as yet , one which is more focused and balanced , still this has a excellent strat kinda sound , i might use it for a neck pup :D
Anyway heres alittle test sound sample i did , over abit of Rainbow's Stargazer (although i just did abit of improv) :)

Brilliant! Sounds great Mart, very impressive! So how long did you sit there winding it?

I'm really impressed! Thats great! What are the variable factors in building your own pick up?

The number of winds?
The Thickness of wire?
The type of magnetics?
The "reel" (I dunno the name for the black plastic part)?

I made my own guitars before but always bought pickups off the shelf from Seymour Duncan. Yours sounds great! Really raw and edgy with still the strat "snappyness".

Brilliant! Sounds great Mart, very impressive! So how long did you sit there winding it?

Lol a good while Steve haha :lol: .. well it started of really slow cos i was worried about snapping the wire , which i might add is thinner then human hair (the stuff i was using) , but i managed to rustle up alittle device to help ease the burden with the winding , basically alittle hand winding device which helped agood bit, still you have to be so careful about snapping that wire , i had it break on me from catching abit of tape lol , thats how fragile the stuff is .
Im really happy tho with how its turned out , i will be moving onto prototype no II soon , but i am thinking about starting out making pickups for a living in honesty , but one step at a time, first i want to perfect the making progress and then go from there , thanks for checking it out Steve , your comments are apreciated :)

Great stuff mate, always been into the idea of making your own pickups (and everything really as you know), and it sounds a lovely pickup, definately look forward to hearing more from it and your development on other pickups too, once you get really good at it, i'll be puting in some orders :D :lol:
Great stuf bro :thumb:

Sounds great!Very 70's as you said.:)

I'm really impressed! Thats great! What are the variable factors in building your own pick up?

The number of winds?
The Thickness of wire?
The type of magnetics?
The "reel" (I dunno the name for the black plastic part)?

I made my own guitars before but always bought pickups off the shelf from Seymour Duncan. Yours sounds great! Really raw and edgy with still the strat "snappyness".

Thanks Hans , im glad you liked the sound of it mate :D
Theres alot of variables to consider , the winds, the thickness of the wire, the magnets , the Dc Res , also the potting of them which i will be finding out about soon enough lol .
Ive read up alot about it , but those you mention there are the main factors mate and the amount of variety in those three things is collosal .
Well im the same , ive used nothing but Dimarzios , however im beginning to see a difffrent light lol , i think dimarzio won't be getting much service from me anymore, i enjoyed building this and whats more its sounding great aswell :D
I will see how the next one goes though but im really looking forward to testing the limits to these :D

Great stuff mate, always been into the idea of making your own pickups (and everything really as you know), and it sounds a lovely pickup, definately look forward to hearing more from it and your development on other pickups too, once you get really good at it, i'll be puting in some orders :D :lol:
Great stuf bro :thumb:

Sounds great!Very 70's as you said.:)


Thanks fellas , glad you think it sounds great :D

thought it sounds great mart :bowdown:

id like to hear it in the neck with the same patch though..whats the plan now mate?..build yer own strat? :)

that black pup would look smash in a vintage/olympic white one!!

regards,
jim.

thought it sounds great mart :bowdown:

id like to hear it in the neck with the same patch though..whats the plan now mate?..build yer own strat? :)

that black pup would look smash in a vintage/olympic white one!!

regards,
jim.

Lol thanks Jim , nah i think building these is a far less headache then a guitar, once was enough for me :lol:
Well when i build MS-2SB lol then i shall move the MS-1SB upto the neck and do a test for you mate , give you a idea of what it sounds like , must admit im abit curious myself :D
The next one will be more focused on balance though, i gotta have that balance to hear for my liking :D

"but i am thinking about starting out making pickups for a living in honesty , but one step at a time, first i want to perfect the making progress and then go from there "

Can I be your first customer, I want a set of "Rainbow" Bridge and Neck Pup's :boobies:

This sounds lovely Mart...great tone from that, as I mentioend to ya by PM must have taken a ton of patience... :bowdown:

Lol a good while Steve haha :lol: .. well it started of really slow cos i was worried about snapping the wire , which i might add is thinner then human hair (the stuff i was using) , but i managed to rustle up alittle device to help ease the burden with the winding , basically alittle hand winding device which helped agood bit, still you have to be so careful about snapping that wire , i had it break on me from catching abit of tape lol , thats how fragile the stuff is .
Im really happy tho with how its turned out , i will be moving onto prototype no II soon , but i am thinking about starting out making pickups for a living in honesty , but one step at a time, first i want to perfect the making progress and then go from there , thanks for checking it out Steve , your comments are apreciated :)

Wow Mart! If I made my own pickup...it would be a Ford Ranger F150? :tard:
So tell us...what magnets, coil windings and can you estimaqte how many...bobbins? This is extemely cool and it does sound great!!

I love Alnico 5 Magnets. They are wonderful and clean up nicely. I don't like ceramics at all, but to be honest....it's like a wonder chap names Chris Watson who said "tone is in the fingers." Yes, and the pickups too I might add! :) :thumb: Cheers buddy! :rock:

I posted this link elsewhere, but thought I would put it in here just in case it is any help...

http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/electrical/index.php

"but i am thinking about starting out making pickups for a living in honesty , but one step at a time, first i want to perfect the making progress and then go from there "

Can I be your first customer, I want a set of "Rainbow" Bridge and Neck Pup's :boobies:

This sounds lovely Mart...great tone from that, as I mentioend to ya by PM must have taken a ton of patience... :bowdown:

Wow Mart! If I made my own pickup...it would be a Ford Ranger F150? :tard:
So tell us...what magnets, coil windings and can you estimaqte how many...bobbins? This is extemely cool and it does sound great!!

I love Alnico 5 Magnets. They are wonderful and clean up nicely. I don't like ceramics at all, but to be honest....it's like a wonder chap names Chris Watson who said "tone is in the fingers." Yes, and the pickups too I might add! :) :thumb: Cheers buddy! :rock:

I posted this link elsewhere, but thought I would put it in here just in case it is any help...

http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/electrical/index.php

Cheers Mark , well you never know mate i might specialize in making Ritchie Blackmore like pickups , as there seems to be a growing interest from new guitarists and veterans regarding Blackmores tone all over the world , i think its a good market to go into , ofcourse i would build other pickups aswell tho :D
Thanks Serg , its very rewarding to build something from scratch and have it sounding half decent , but im quite taken back from all the positive comments from everyone about how great it sounds , makes it even more worthwhile :)
Building wise , well i used Alnico 5 magnets for this which are non staggered , flat , the wire, i got a chart of the net with the weight to ohms ratio , basically i calculated what DC Res the pickup would have by the weight of it, i weighed it without the wire and then again several times while winding, i had a pretty good idea how much it needed to weigh for my desired DC Res , the next one i build shortly tho will have a much higher Dc Res .
Well i will try some ceramic magnets aswell down the line , i never rule anything out til its been in action lol :D
Thanks for the link aswell Steve although i have read that one already , im not so keen on the waxing theory , so im having alittle think on a alternative method but i do have a idea what i could try , so i will have to test that out :D

if your gonna specialise in blackmore pups mart, you might want to have a go at his effects too.

http://www.treblebooster.net/


have now released the BSM RPA [ritchies pre amp] emulating his tape deck...
for the piss taking price of £220!

any merchandise with the blackmore tag could be an earner :woot:

maybe not the furry boots alas lol

regards,
jim.

That's a very cool project! They sound great too. Congrats on your first pickup. May there be many more to come! :thumb:

if your gonna specialise in blackmore pups mart, you might want to have a go at his effects too.

http://www.treblebooster.net/


have now released the BSM RPA [ritchies pre amp] emulating his tape deck...
for the piss taking price of £220!

any merchandise with the blackmore tag could be an earner :woot:

maybe not the furry boots alas lol

regards,
jim.

That's a very cool project! They sound great too. Congrats on your first pickup. May there be many more to come! :thumb:



Lol yeah the furry boots wouldn't do much , but still looks very interesting Jim does the BSM RPA , although i bet there isn't any diagrams or schematics of it floating around , same as the MTC/RBTC , or most Blackmore associated products lol .
Still the MTC/RBTC theres something to consider , both Dawk and RJFenders are printing money with those and its only a simplistic little device that would cost next to sod all to build, well you would find the little plastic box would cost more then the components lol :lol:
I still think personally theres three stages to Blackmores tones Jim, you have the 70s tone which is a hard driven amp with a trebly single coil pup, pretty simple , his 80s tone differs and is alot more balanced but you can still hear atouch of that glass like ping , which is when his tones start to get hard to recreate, thats why everyone uses a 70s Blackmore tone mostly i find, the 90s tone onwards is very very balanced and concentrated imo , both with that and the ENGL amp , it creates a rich smooth but focused tone , obviously he has some gadgets to help him along with alot of these sounds but i still don't think you need them all , i think you can have a pickup that recreates one of these three stages imo , with alittle help from your fingers lol :lol:
Thanks Naif , yeah its gone very well , Prototype No II is gonna be built very shortly , i will post it up once its in action :)