I bought some of these pickups for a project guitar. These pickups are close to the same output as the original Danelectro pickups. They don't use the same magnets. Dano used Alnico VI and then settled on Alnico V while these pickups use a ceramic magnet. Not that ceramic magnets are bad(these are good pickups), the Alnico magnets give a sparkle-bright tone to these pickups with low wind output.
I got these pickups because they have a Strat type mount, however, they don't fit in the Strat pickguard without some carving modifications. Original Dano pickups had different mounting that mounted to the back of the guitar cavity. Those would work in a CBG very well because it wouldn't add weight to the top.
One issue with these pickups is they are all wound the same direction and have the same magnetic polarity. So if you have more than one in a guitar, you'll have that out of phase sound playing both pickups that some people like and some don't. You also won't have noise free humbucking in the middle position.
Original pickups had a bar magnet with wire wrapped around it and wrapped in paper, then stuffed into the tubes. So I was interested in how these were put together. First I looked at the wire and they have 3 wires. A bare ground wire and 2 coated wires for coil start/hot(red) and a coil end wire/ground(white). That makes switching the wind direction easy, you just switch the Hot/signal(red) wire to ground and the coil end/ground(white) wire to hot/signal. That'll end the out of phase sound, but you'll still have noise/non-humbucking issue. So first I checked the polarity with my compass.
Then I took it apart.
You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!
Replies
Hey Brian, I broke the wire on the end in a few places, so total loss. Wax prevented coil assembly from coming completely out of the tube. Heat gun would've helped. These pickups are definitely better, they're closer to original build spec and like the originals, the middle pickup of 3 or neck pickup of a set of 2 are not RWRP.
My method these days is pouring wood glue into pickup coils. I pour in thin layers until its a solid brick. May take two days for a solid dry. My other method is RTV silicone. Its known to pentrate through the smallest cracks as liquid form, then drys into rubber. Comes in two parts, one liquid silicone and an agitator agent. Takes 10 to 16 hours to dry depending on your location, the more heat in your area, the quicker it'll cure. Here in Puerto Rico, it takes 5 hours to dry, so I gotta work fast.
Tough break, if it was on the exterior of the coil, then wasn’t it fixable? Those Korean made lipsticks are way better than the present ones, Alnico not ceramic, they’re even nickel-plated like the originals?
Brian: Yep
The original Danelectro pickups back in the 60's(which may have been made by DeArmond) were just wire around an A5 magnet and wrapped tightly with wax paper and then shoved into the tubes.
This last pickup was wire around a A5 magnet that was wrapped with electrical tape and placed into the tube. Finally dipped into wax for potting. I'd say that's a good way to do it. Just remember if you want to get into one of these, use a heat gun on it first to melt some wax so you can mess with it or leave it be.
Paul, a little heat would’ve made it slide right out, those things are always jammed full of wax? I keep forgetting to ask if you’ve ever heard about the Artec made lipstick pickups, I remember they make them as humbuckers too? The have the same flat mounting plate like the rest of the replacement pickups too?
I got 2 of these pickups from someone that had a couple Daneletro Koreian made pickups. Neither pickup was RWRP, so I took one apart to see if I could switch it around. It didn't work out and I ended up making it a useless pickup. I accidentally broke the coil wire on one end of coil killing the pickup. The tube was full of wax making the task of switching it around too difficult.
Was it a $35 dollar mistake or a $35 dollar leaning experience? I say both. Hahaha
If it doesn't want to come out, leave it in. ;) one thing I learned is that the bottom mounting piece is interchangeable.
Yes, I agree Varnish is an outdated process for transformers, but no significant voltage going through a pickup, so dry out isn’t a factor. Wax also dries out & becomes brittle over time too. So really it’s more of a preference thing. One thing hobbyists get wrong with potting is climate control, you’ll come out with a half cured pickup if you don’t control the temperature/humidity throughout the process? Simply, if It sounds good & I like it, then how it’s made doesn’t matter as long as it makes me happy?
Dipping in varnish gives me a shudder. Not that there's anything wrong with it for this application.
One of the pieces of equipment I regularly work on has a large transformer and the previous vendor did a varnish dip. A poor varnish dip, to be clear. After a failure, we cut it open and found large pockets of no varnish. The new vendor is doing a vacuum impregnation with epoxy...much better for our case.
The varnish will have bubbles of dry areas, but taking one of those varnished pickups apart is way easier than one of those epoxied pickups.
I tried to take a epoxied pickup apart once and almost destroyed it before finally giving up. Once it's epoxied it's forever sealed. ;)
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next