pickups and pickup covers

Clone a Rickenbacker 4001 Neck Pickup

Original Rickenbacker Pickup next to Brad Burt's Clone

This is a project by Brad Burt describing how he cloned a Rickenbacker bass neck pickup. The project was initially going to be a simple rewind of a Rickenbacker pickup bought on e-bay, but Brad decided to make a new one and at the same time change the design slightly to improve it.

Make a Humbucker

This video from Searcy String Works shows you how to make a humbucking pickup.

How to replace your guitar pickups

Squier telecaster bridge raised showing the underneath of the pickup

Guitarists sometimes replace their stock pickups in the hope of improving their guitar's tone. This step by step guide shows you how to swap your existing guitar-pickups for new ones. 

Lollar foils the Pickup Pirates

Basic Pickup Winding and Complete Guide to Making Your Own Pickup Winder, front cover image

Jason Lollar is the  author of the DIY pickup maker's bible "Basic Pickup Winding and Complete Guide to Making Your Own Pickup Winder". This book helped kickstart the custom pickup industry. It has been out of print for a number of years, assuming a mythical status. Secondhand copies have been selling for close to $300.

Ubertar Hexaphonic Pickups

Ubertar passive hexaphonic pickup
Paul Rubenstein has suceeded in making a passive hexaphonic pickup that fits into a single coil space. Paul is a guitar player and teacher as well as an inventor (of the alumitar for example). These pickups have a separate coil for each string, allowing you to process each one indidivually.

Make a LEGO pickup winder

lego-pickup-winder.jpg

These are two examples of pickup winders made out of LEGO. They use the motorised Mindstorms , NXT type components to spin the pickup bobbin. I haven't seen any LEGO winders with an automatic travese mechanism yet, but it won't be long before someone builds one.

The first is a pickup unwinder, for despooling a broken pickup, by Scorpion097 .

Experimental Musical Instruments

Information: 

Experimental Musical Instruments is an online resource for people who want to make unusual musical instruments. They have how-tos on instrument making, as well as books and CDs featuring the work of experimental instrument makers. Also they have back issues of the Experimental Musical Instruments quarterly journal.

Make a pickup using GeoMag parts

geomagbits.JPG

GeoMag is a magnetic toy construction system. It connects together using short magnetic rods and little steel balls. Niels Kaagaard noticed the resemblance of the GeoMag rods to the pole pieces in a single coil pickup and proceeded to make a pickup out of them.  When you remove the plastic coating from the GeoMag rod you can see it is a steel bar with neodymium magnets at either end.

Fender Stratocaster Pickups (1954 to 1981)

The Fender Stratocaster has three single-coil pickups (bridge, middle and neck), selectable by a five position lever switch. The lever switch originally had three positions, but guitarists used to balance the switch between positions to get an out of phase sound, and these extra positions became standard in 1977.

Wire tensioner

Winding mechanism

Make a CNC pickup winder

Copper-Wire-Coil.jpg

This is an ongoing project to design and build a computer controlled guitar pickup winder. Why? Because I like making machines!

GENERIC

Information: 

The Generic brand name is used to categorise unbranded guitar and amplifier parts.

Make a hand powered pickup winder

Kagaard-winder.jpg

This is a clever DIY pickup winder design by Niels Kaagaard. It uses a fishing reel to spin the bobbin. It is hand powered, so carbon emissions are limited to your exhaled breath as you wind it furiously.

Make a pickup with neodymium magnets

neodymiumpickup.jpg

Traditional guitar pickups used alnico magnets or ceramic magnets. Neodymium magnets, a form of rare-earth magnet, have not often been used in guitar pickups. These extra strong magnets are becoming more and more available, and this instructable shows how to use them in a single coil pickup.