So this is the design I am thinking of for my new rig. I am still working out the bugs, this was the first time I even tried it out on the bench. So bare with me.
I was thinking flap pup design, and I always thought it would be cool to make a pup that you could hide all of the coil in the box and just have the magnets on the top.
So was at home depot and picked up some metal strapping for air duckting, and wrapped some wire around it, hooked up a jack and some magnets and I get a real faint signal. Part of the reason I think is my coil is pretty weak. I just hand wrapped it a few times just to try it out.
The reason I was wanting to do this was, I could cut a small slit of the lid of my cigar box, run the bottom piece of the metal strapping inside the box, with coil wrapped around the strapping inside, or I think I may just wind some small sewing bobbin coils and attach them to the strapping, fold the strapping down on the box lid on the outside, add the magnets and hot glue or fasten the strapping to the top of the lid with screws
The strapping is under 2 bucks for a pretty good size roll, you could make several pickups out of just one roll.
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this strapping is kinda weird, because it has holes and then a set of slots, but I think we can come up with something. The the coil wires can be hooked up in the box, and too the jack, no fuss no muss.
I was thinking sewing bobbins, or maybe just a fat bolt wound with wire, or a large coil wrapped with wire, or something of a kind of coil in the box, any size you want. Attach the strapping to the coil and add magnets. I think I might pick up some sewing bobbins and some bolts tomorrow at wally world. Let me know what you guys think, or maybe calibrate on the design, or let me know if someone has all ready tried this. Thanks for looking. Hope this sparks some new ideas.
Replies
1) Wrap the wire completely around the magnets, not the strap.
2) The strapping is what? Steel, or aluminum?
3) Encase the magnet-wrapped wire in the presumably-steel strapping, then wire to a jack.
4) Wrap the presumably-steel strapping around the magnets. Then do your wire wraps around that. The way you have it now in the photo is the reason for the very weak signal you got.
4) Use a SINNGLE LOOP of 6 AWG wire around the round edges of the magnets, and wrap that with black electricians tape. Feed one leg of the 6 AWG wire through the center hole of a AS-104 mini-transformer, or alternatively, crack open a used wall wart, and use one of the two trannies inside for the same purpose. Wire to a jack. You have then created a version of the induction pup design, currently shown on the in-progress-of-reconstitution of the Induction Pup thread.
The magnets are attached to the strap that the wire is wrapped around, so the strap will act like a pole for the coil. It will work. Strength of output will depend on magnet strength and amount of coil winding. Will the disruption of magnetic field make it to the coil? Let's see.
"There Are NO rules" means try something and share the results and we all learn.
and that looks like an interesting variation of the principals that a flat pickup works on. As Darryl said, the farther the coils is from the magnets, the weaker the signal is likely to be. the field needs to go out around and back in through the core and coil. magnetic fields get weaker by the cube of the distance they have to travel.
that principle also relates to the distance of the string above the magnetic field. so if you mount the pickup 1/2"from the strings say under the sound board then the signal out will be 1/4 the strength of a signal if the pickup was mounted 1/4" under the strings...
you could still mount the magnets on top of the sound board and the coil directly under them in the inside of the box. the coil would need a small piece of the strapping as a core. if the magnets are strong then the output should be strong enough...the wood of the box wont have any effect on the magnetic field..
That will work Jerry, but not all that well, output will most likely be weak, getting your magnets closer to the coil will help, the flat pup concept of a 4-500 wind coil either side of the magnets, wound in opposite directions is hard to beat if you are going to go to the bother of winding a pup of that nature, for a simpler diy job, have a look at the induction type pick up, the thread is being rejuvinated at the moment, but it has all the basics there. Almost any mag pup van be mounted out of sight if you wish, some can be powerfill enough to work through the soundboard with nothing added, while others may need poles or a bar coming through the soundboard
keep in mind, the way this is set up right now is kinda upside down the, strapping would be bent the other way, I just had it like this because it was easier this way to test it with my diddley bow.