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Let's talk about pickup/string height

Posted by Richey Kay on January 4, 2014 at 2:05am in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

Hi everyone,

Over the last week I've ventured into the fun and confusing world of winding magnetic pickups:

These are 2 which I am intending to fit into a couple of my 3 string builds. They are not quite ready as the still need to be potted, which is on the to-do list for tonight.

I have used alnico 5 rod magnets, and have done 8000 turns of 42awg copper wire.

Does anyone who uses a similar set-up have any thoughts on how far they should be from the strings? I mainly play fingerstyle so I make my builds with the strings roughly 11mm (3/8") off the soundboard - these pickups would sit 3.2mm proud of the top so the distance would be just under 8mm between the strings and pickup.

I noticed on my Strat that this distance is a little smaller, and I think they use the same magnets...

Anyway, just wondering, and I'm sure all will become clear once I fit one of these in - at worst I might need to devise some kind of spacing on the mounting screws to lift by a few mm.

Cheers!

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Replies

  • Barsymes Cratchnee January 9, 2014 at 12:24am

    Wow, these look great.  What winding process did you use, hand wind?  Also, what are planning to pot these with, candle wax?  Did you find a step-by-step for this online?  Sorry for all the questions, but was thinking about trying this at some point and these look great.

    • jabes > Barsymes Cratchnee March 3, 2014 at 12:32pm

      i think a blend of candlewax and beeswax is favoured,read it somewhere...

      • Richey Kay > jabes March 3, 2014 at 12:40pm
        Yeah I heard that too... just use candle wax for mine. Ditto the one you have Jabes! let me know if its going you problems :-)
    • Richey Kay > Barsymes Cratchnee January 9, 2014 at 4:28am

      Thanks buddy - I've just written a blog post about my (mis)adventures in beginning winding pickups:

      http://www.cigarboxnation.com/profiles/blogs/my-first-2-weeks-of-pi...

  • Dan Sleep January 4, 2014 at 9:23am

    If the pickup is too far away from the string, it won't pick up the vibrations. If it is too close, the magnets may pull too hard on the string and it may kill the sustain. It sort of depends on the magnets you used too.

    If you need to make spacers, you can take a small piece of silicone tubing like they use as fuel line for model airplanes, and cut a little wafer of it. Put that wafer underneath the top bobbin so you can squish it down. It will act sort of like a spring. It won't give you a lot of adjustment, but you may only need just a little.

    • Richey Kay > Dan Sleep January 4, 2014 at 12:10pm
      Thanks for the feedback Dan. As mentioned I'm using alnico 5 rod magnets which I believe are on the stronger side. I think the beat course if action for now is to hook them up and see what I think! I had a chat with Ted earlier on and he seemed myob think they should work pretty well at this distance. Cheers!
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