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My next round of making CBG pickups

Here's my brainstorming on a pickup for it:

A few months ago I bought a box of veneer scraps. Here's some black walnut that I'll laminate to make the flatwork with.

I make a drill jig for my pole pieces:

And drilled the holes in the flatwork to get started.

I used the jig to drill holes in a piece of oak that will be the bobbin center and rounded the ends.

I'm using some neodynium magnets that I found on ebay, for pole pieces.

Then add a bottom and get something like this.

Enough brainstorming. Onto the real thing

I laminated another blank and made a set of flatwork and built a bobbin.

And wind it up

Crazy

Not super powerful. Can't wait to finish the CBG it's going in. Anxious to hear how it sounds

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Permalink Reply by Daddy D on September 26, 2013 at 6:44pm

Nice looking pup. I keep hearing not to use too powerful of a magnet, that it will kill sustain. Would be interested in what you find out.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Drommond on September 27, 2013 at 2:55am

When I read your second sentence I nearly wet myself laughing. Are you really worried about sustain on a guitar you built using a box and a stick? From my experience, if you need more sustain, crank the amp up!

As far as the magnets go, they are very strong and if they are set too close, they upset the vibration of the string and cause weird harmonics. It's call Stratitus over in Fenderland. I've been playing with the distances and found that I can hide this one under the lid and not cut a hole in the top for it. The magnetic field is pretty strong and if it's not loud enough, I can still cut the lid to fit and hang the pickup from the lid with springs or surgical tubing, like on a Strat pickguard. Hoping to keep it stealthy, now that I've started in that direction.

It means I need to add a doubler to the neck, since I'll be routing it out and into the majority of the neck wood. I'll need somewhere to mount the pickup, so, I've used a filler strip of pine, to keep the weight down. I went the full length of the box for appearances. It covers the hole and hides the notch in the neck. Next time a thicker filler or thinner pickup.

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on September 26, 2013 at 7:29pm

lookin gud ;-)

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Permalink Reply by 3 String Blues on September 27, 2013 at 12:17am

looks way rad!

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on September 27, 2013 at 1:13am

Nice. Thanks for documenting the process so well, this is the stuff we love to see here on CBN!!!

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Permalink Reply by Uncle John on September 27, 2013 at 1:18am

Cool supplies, builds in progress and photos. You are on to something good. I sure like my guitar with the Sleeptalker pickup. :)

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Permalink Reply by Bob Harrison on September 27, 2013 at 1:45am

I like it!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on September 27, 2013 at 7:37am

Good looking pickup and winder too!

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Permalink Reply by Tom Drommond on September 27, 2013 at 8:45am

Built the winder earlier this year.

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Permalink Reply by Daddy D on September 30, 2013 at 6:26pm

"Are you really worried about sustain on a guitar you built using a box and a stick?"

Good point. Sometimes I read a little too much. I have a pickup idea using those magnets. I still want to know what you find out. I am hoping a guy could get away with just using one of those magnets and some steel rod per pole.