My second guitar build, part 3, the Pickups: How to make a humbucker guitar pickup at home!

    My second guitar build diary, part 3: the Pickups
    (How to make a humbucker pickup)

The finished pickups.

Please note that I´m not a professional in this area. I´ll be happy to try to help you with your questions, as I´m interested in this topic, but no promises! In this post I tell you how I made my (functional) pickups.


    One of the biggest things that affect how the (electric) guitar sounds, is pickups. For this specific guitar (my second one so far) I´m going for like a vintage tone with a whole lot of unique colors in it.

The bridge pickup.

 I noticed that there´s not too many proper tutorials on making guitar pickups at home on the Internet. ...So I thought that I could make one! I´ve made two vintage-wound humbuckers so far and they are functioning perfectly fine! :) (To be honest I didn´t expect them to work at all!) I will post a sound sample as soon as the guitar is complete. Pickups can be tested by connecting the wires temporarily to an output jack and plugging the jack to an amp with normal guitar cable. Then just lay it on top of the string, quite close but not touching, then play each string to test wether there´s a signal or not. You could as well just tap the pole pieces with a screwdriver etc. =if the amp gives a "tap" every time you touch a pole piece, no matter which one, it means your pickup is working. That way you get no clue at all of the actual sound of the pickup, so I prefer the over strings option.


   How guitar pickups work?: Simply put, guitar pickups are coils with several thousands of copper wire turns around them and a relatively strong magnet bar/slugs in the middle. (-> Meaning that they are electromagnets that are used to pick up the signal from string vibrations.) There are roughly two different kinds of pickups: single coils and humbuckers, which have two coils connected. They work a bit differently.
 -A single coil has (usually) six magnetic slugs in the center; one for each string to strengthen the signal. They are located so that the magnetic fields are vertical. meaning, the poles (north and south) can be referred as top and bottom. The pickups polarity is then named as what it is on the "top". (For example if the north poles are facing upwards, to the strings, you think it as "north pickup") The polarity doesn´t affect a single pickup, though. It has impact when you start putting several (more than one) pickup on the guitar and it gives you different possibilities to mix them with each other.
When not plugged in, they are just "normal magnets", but when you plug the guitar to an amp, electricity starts running through the turns in the pickups, causing a magnetic field around the wire. (Which always happens with any electrical wire, connected to a power source.) And because there are the magnet slugs in the middle, the electricity moving in the coil turns it to a electromagnet.
With single coils, you have two wires coming out from the coil: hot and ground. (The end and beginning can be both uses as hot or ground-> affects sound) 
-A humbucker has two coils instead of one. It was designed to get rid of the humming noise of single coils. (Picking it from other electric devises) They usually have 6 metal slugs in other coil (normally north) and 6 adjustable metal screws in other one (normally south) to adjust signal strength. The slugs and screws aren´t originally magnets, but they get magnetic field from a bar magnet placed under the coils. It touches the bottom ends of the screws and slugs. In a humbucker other coil is the south pole and the other coil is the north pole, because in humbuckers, the bar magnet´s field is horizontal. Again, normal magnets but as soon as the electricity runs through, it is a electromagnet. The two coils can be wired together in series (more common) or parallel. It changes the phase of the pickup and changes sound greatly: series=in phase, warm sound, Parallel=out of phase, sort of a "screaming" sound.
From a humbucker, you have 2-5 wires coming out:from End of the north coil+end of the south up to end of the north coil+beginning of the north coil+end of the south coil+beginning of the south coil+extra ground wire from the pickups back plate. When you have access to all the 5 wires, you can wire them to a switch to half the pickup (make it act and sound like single coil) or a switch to change phase.

-Picking up the sound:The electric guitar´s strings are ALWAYS some metal, like steel, nickel, gold etc. WHY? The answer is in the pickups and physics! As said, the pickups are electromagnets to pick up the signal caused by string vibration. When the metallic string vibrates, it makes the pickups magnetic field vibrate in the same pitch, because it is metallic. That means it works only with strings made of magnetic materials. So as the string vibrates, it makes the magnetic field vibrate and the pickup turns the vibration to an electrical signal, carries it to an amp through all the switches and pots and the amp´s speaker turns the signal back to a sound. The more you have turns, the bigger is the resistance= makes a powerful pickup, strong sound with low pitches standing out. Less turns= weaker pickup (vintage), bright tone with high pitches standing out. Also the width of the copper wire affects: thinner wire (ex.0,055 mm)=larger resistance, thicker wire (common, ex.0,06 mm)=smaller resistance. Also one reason for using thicker wire is that it doesn´t break as easily, even though, it´s still a pain to work with. It snaps more easily than hair (about the same width) and you need, say, 8000 turns (for single coil, humbucker 8000 both coils together for same resistance) without breaking the wire even once. (yes, it can´t be fixed. Start that coil over..) And the shape of the coil also changes sound: tall coil=bright tone, short, fat coil=more of a fat sound too.. so they quite much sound like how they look.. ;)

-Usually the neck pickup has approx. 15-25% less turns than the bridge pickup. This is because the vibration is larger (producing higher signal) above the neck pickup.

Here´re some rough examples of the resistance affecting tone with 0,06 mm wire. (both coils together, if humbucker):
3-6 k Ohms= Bright, clear tone. "vintage"
6-9 k Ohms=Medium tone, quite balanced.
9-14 k Ohms=Loud, heavy tone. Also called "over wound"
To get a guideline, 5000 turns per coil, wired in series (adds up to total 10 000 winds) has a resistance on 8 k. NOTE that this is just a rough guideline, and changing any feature might change the resistance.

To calculate how many turns you need, you can divide 8 kOhms by 10 000 wounds and then divide the resistance you want by the first result (=0,0008). That will give you a guidance of the number of turns in both coils together. Remember that this method is not accurate! Especially when pickups are wound by hand the wire travels round the coil in different angles and may get loose in some points which adds wire length and resistance.

For ex. Let´s say, you want resistance on 4,5 k Ohms.--->>  8/10 000= 0,0008 (k Ohms per ONE turn) 4.5/0,0008 = 5 625 turns. So you´d put 2 812,5 turns per each coil.

Making a humbucker: For a humbucker, you will need:
-copper wire (I recommend 0,06 mm to start with)
-The pole piece slugs/screws (total 12 per humbucker for 6-string guitar)
-The bobbins (you can make them yourself, but they are cheap to buy.)
-Strong bar magnet, ceramic in my case (with a polarity used with guitar pickups.)
-Bottom plate (can be easily done at home, but also available in same places as the other you´ll need).
-Steel bar to guide the screws. (Buy it from the pickup material store, and according to wether it´s going to be a bridge or neck pickup.)
-Wooden/plastic shaft to help the coils stay in place.
-Wax (candle wax, paraffin, bees wax.....) for potting the coils to reduce microphonics. (It needs to melt under 75 Celsius!)
-Shielded wire for connecting the pickup to other components.
-Tape
*Pickup covers
*Pickup frames + mounting screws and springs
(*optional)

One coil wound, 3 more to go!

   -Start by choosing what kind of sound you are after. I wanted a brighter sound so I wound 3500 turns per coil for the bridge pickup. Maybe the hardest par of the process is finding pickup materials depending on your location. Make sure every part you buy is compatible with each other or you´ll run across trouble.. When you have all you need you start by winding the coils (both in same direction). Remember to leave the starting lead to access for later connecting. The first ~25 turns are the hardest ones. THE WIRE IS VERY; VERY FRAGILE! I wound mine by holding the bobbin with my left hand and turning pickup wire with my right hand. (Counting the turns in my head..Marking up on paper every 200 turns.). Position the wire straightly under the coil to let the wire run freely. Check you don´t have any sharp edges nearby! If the wire breaks, take it off and start over, unless you are happy with the amount of turns at the moment the wire broke. 

  -When both coils are wound, handle with care and saturate them in hot wax. I used candle wax mixed with bees wax. (Too much [over 30% or so] bees wax will make melting the wax harder, though, and your plastic coils might melt, too.)  Keep the coils in the hot wax until you can see air bubbles rising on the surface. (About after 20-25 mins)  That means the wax has gotten all the way into the coils. Take them out and let cool down. If you aren´t going to use pickup covers, I recommend wiping off the exes wax from the plastic ets. bobbins.

   -I made my back plate out of aluminium sheet. Drilled holes and cut out to right shape, then bent what was needed. Basically, the back plate just has 6 holes for the pole piece screws, 2-3 holes for attaching the plate itself to the coils and "legs" on both ends with holes for mounting the pickup to your guitar.

  -Put in the metal slugs and screws. Solder the needed wires, in my case, shielded wire to ends of both coils and the inner wires connected. (Humbucker´s most common wiring, Series). If not using pickup covers, I´d recommend to put electrician´s tape around the coils to protect the thin wire. Turn it over and install the other components of the humbucker. Begin with the steel bar on the screws, then the bar magnet, south pole facing the screws. Next the non-magnetic shaft (not needed with pickup cover). I used 3 mm plywood for the shaft and glued it on with superglue. (With pickup covers, next seal the holes of the cover and fill it with epoxy or hot wax to hold everything in place and to protect the pickup.)  Lastly, you want to put the bottom plate on. Normally commercial bobbins and back plates have small holes for attaching  the plate with screws. To a metal cover you could solder the back plate on place. Congratulations! You now have a self-made guitar pickup!

Soldering..

-Soldering pickup wire:The wire has a plating on it to make it act like normal, thicker shielded cables, and not as one huge clump of copper in a plastic bobbin. For this reason the plating must be removed from a small area before soldering, to make sure the electricity can go through. Hold the wire on a clean, smooth surface and scrap it with a knife a few times, until the plating is removed. You can see it! (Hardly, but still.) Again be very careful with the super thin wire!
  It´s also harder to solder wire this thin than "normal" wire. It would be best to use a soldering iron with a sharper head. The thing that makes it hard, is that it runs away from the soldering iron very easily, "flies" if you happen to breathe at it or move something near it too quickly, and it is also hard to see, especially on light surfaces.



  -I recommend testing the pickup first, before you mount it in your guitar. It would be even more frustrating to realize the pickup doesn´t work, if it´s already put in a guitar.

!Remember to be very careful with the wire! Also after they are saturated in was, even though it protects it quite well!



-How to tell the magnet´s polarity: You can tell the magnets polarity with a compass (use a cheap one, as even a weak compass can detect strong magnet polarity, and first of all, the strong magnet may brake your compass!!). Place the compass by the side of the magnet. If the north arrow is facing the magnet, it means that that side is the south pole of the magnet. And naturally, the other way round. :)

Here´s an image on how the polarities should be on
the guitar: neck pickup´s south facing the  fretboard and
bridge pickup´s  south facing the bridge.

Thank you very much for reading! I made two humbuckers that I´ll put to my second guitar.The are tested to be working! I just placed the order for all the needed parts, except for the body blank, and so far the cost is 148,55 €, excluding shipping cost. So I´ll continue this build relatively soon! When not buying the pickups, the cost seems so small...(I mean that´s a lot of money but for a guitar that´s really nothing!) I´ll still need to buy the body blank and the oil (or lacquer) for finishing. If you decide to make a pickup, please share sound samples and photos! Feel free to comment or email me! ( craftsmanmusical6@gmail.com ) Stay tuned and see you soon!

*all images by HelmiLehtinen2016