Got tired of looking for low profile jazz pickup to use on my CBGs.  Decided to wind my own.  I have seen the FlatPups ad think they are super cool.  I wanted to give it a shot, myself and see what I came up with.

It worked out pretty well.

Here's a link to some videos of the project and results.

Thanks for all the inspiration

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • You got a fabulous tone out of it - well done!
  • You have just become my hero. Great work.
    • You are too kind.  I'm no hero.  I'm just a reflection of the stuff I've learned here and on a few other forums over the last year. Until last Father's Day, I just played my old acoustic '82 Alvarez I bought new and just piddled around with the same 4 or 5 partial songs I'd always played..parts of..sort of..kinda.  I received a Squier Strat for Father's Day from my 11-year old son.  I started looking for lessons and tabs on youtube.  Started learning some theory and actually playing music, instead of playing along with music.  I found cigar box guitars while searching.

      Shane Speal and Seasick Steve are the two artist that got me hooked on this and learning about it.It been non-stop guitar, cigar box guitar, building guitars and discussing guitars ever since.  I'm plum eat up with it.  Having more fun with music than I have in 30 years of playing.

      • My story is not that much different. The guitar is a 1975 el Degas. But, I had always wanted to make guitars. A friend of mine bought me Cumpiano's book on guitar making, but the tool set was much larger than the budget. I first ran into CBG's on Blues Boy Jag's site. I have vintage Macintosh computers and went there looking for info on that. By that time I had scrounged together about half of the tool set for full sized guitars and said to myself, "I can do that". So last March I did. 16 CBG's later I don't regret it.

        What hooked me was the localness of it and the folks versus the people, do it youself from local materials mind set. The ultimate goal would be a honkin instrument with absolutely all materials sourced locally and everything hand built. The pickup winder with hand made bobbins is a step towards that. The only thing I don't know about from those videos is setting up,the counter. But I do know what I am looking for at the yard sales. :)
        • For the counter I found one on ebay from China. It was $15.00 with free shipping.  It's a magnetic switch with a digital counter.  It's very accurate to 1200 rpm, which is plenty fast to wind a pickup.  You can get 4-5000 winds in 10 minutes and that's stopping to check the coil shape and distribution.  The magnet is attached to the wheel on the left side of my winder. 

          counter.jpg?width=400

          004-2.jpg?width=400

          032.jpg?width=400

          The arbor was the key component.  I found it on ebay and that set the wheels turning. I bought it for $45 with shipping.   I have not seen another one like it, but if I do, I'm buying it.  Back in the 50s, Sears made a Craftsman 7" Arbor.  That would be a great find, too.

          arbor1.jpg?width=400

           The sewing machine ended up being more waste than necessary. I gave more to ship it than I did for the machine. It was $15.00, but $30.00 shipping, due to weight. Very heavy cast iron body.

          sewing1.jpg?width=400

          All I needed was the motor and foot pedal.  I could have bought them cheaper from a sewing machine repair shop.  I should have hit a few Salvation Army and Goodwill stores, too.  

          Hope that's useful

          • That is very useful.
  • sweet!

  • She's a beauty. 

  • Good job!

This reply was deleted.