Steel Guitar Builder

Bent, for testing you could use an all-metal box - any size that your PUs will fit into along with some paper to keep them from touching the metal, with a narrow cut-out for the connection wires so you can close the lid tightly. Ground this box to same point as you ground the PU - the jack, and check for hum canceling.

One reason for having such a simple testing-box for PUs is that it'll tell you how much hum-reduction you can achieve by shielding. Of course you can't easily replicate such total shielding on an instrument, but it's a good goal.

The test-box will also, when you have acquired some experience, tell you if the PU is good or if there's something wrong with the PU windings by the way the PU "sounds" when turning up amp-volume with "no sound". (Need good ears for making it out.)

I got a speed control made. I decided to try the light dimmer first as it was more readily available and way cheaper. I got hold of one at Home Depot for about $6.
It is rated for 600W and plenty for a small motor like this one.

Had the bright idea to make it like the volume pedals so I copied the string/pulley idea from my old Ernie Ball pedal.
Nothing fancy, actually I'll be the first to admit she's ugly but she works. It has an off position on it. I tried it out and it runs nice and steady at a low RPM like 120 and increases gradually . I think it'll work nicely.

That is just too totally amazing. And only 6 bucks too. You da man!

Did I mention before? I got an old food mixer from the charity shop for $2? I was gonna use that but now I have a nice looking DC motor that I dug out of a dead printer. I chased it down on the net and found that it probably needs 24 volts for full speed. I also have the power supply for the same printer so I will give it a whirl after the current storm has passed. The neat thing about DC motors is that can be controlled with just a pot. So, I will be looking around in the next day or few for a reasonably sturdy wire wound pot to try it with. The speed at 27V is high (17,000 rpm) so gearing down with a nice big pulley will also be needed.

I am really pleased that the counter idea worked out too. I did get a calculator that I was able to get wires connected to. Thanks for the heads up on how to do that.

Gotta love that foot pedal.
Regards, Allan.....

Nice! Simple solutions like that often work best.

True, Georg. This one is more like simplistic...so dumb , it's smart. And very little of this 'invention' is due to me. It is a lot due to Allan, who mentioned router controls and dimmer switches, and also the rest of y'all's input and ideas, plus Youtube, the 'newly discovered' repository for useful info. The volume pedal copy comes from the pedal I had sitting over in the corner and I thought why not?
Yes, Allan, you mentioned the mixer and I think that's a great idea. Of course, so is your 24 V motor, as well as the cordless drill that Mac uses. I have some small
(1/12th HP) motors sitting around. Some are 110V. Combine these with my dimmer control and you're off to the races. Anybody who needs one of these motors, let me know. I'll let them go super cheap! Actually I'll take pics and post them on Tools classified.

Allan, you say power supply out of a printer..I have one sitting here out of my computer. Maybe it could be put to use as well. 10A 422W
By the way...counters...Be careful not to go over about 300RPM. I suspect that the calculator starts missing counts after that, just like Georg told us it would.

Pickup noise. I understand that noise and microphonics can be effected by how tightly you wind your pickups. A lose winding might get more noise from around the winding instead of from the magnets. A very tight winding can have a more focused and clear sound but may get less tone from the guitar. I can't find anyone saying how tight is tight other than, it's tighter than you would think while guiding by hand. You may break wires if it is really tight and the wire might stretch out and effect resistence if it is too tight. I take it that you should try to pull back as much as possible without breaking the wire.
Again, haven't tried it yet, just read it. I'm laquering my metal parts and gluing the bobbin now.

For a consistent tention. I have read that you can use two pieces of felt to run your wire through. Put a screw or threaded rod into a baseplate and add a large nut and washer on that. tighten down the nut so that it compresses the felt peices and puts tention on the wire. Make this part a foot or so from the spinning bobbin so that you have room to either hand route the wire onto the bobbin or use a mechanical device for that. I'm going to use the stop function of my drill press as the method of routing. There also may be something good about grounding the magnets but I'm not sure about that.

I was just rereading all these posts about pickup winding. I've been making humbuckers recently but am going to wind a single coil for the guitar I'm building right now. I'll continue to use a maple core form that the magnets go through drilled holes in. What I was wondering was how deep or wide is the bobbin (the distance between the top and bottom plate). I've been using 1/2" but was thinking perhaps wider (3/4"?) maybe. Bent....what size do you make the bobbin width ?
Also....on the subject of shielding, I use a lot of rectangular aluminum tubing in my guitars, of course cut this way and that. I'm going to on this pickup put the whole works inside a piece of this 1-1/4" tubing with the pole pieces coming out the top. If I close off the ends the whole thing will be enclosed inside an 1/8" wall "box". Can't imagine why this wouldn't be a good solution to this hum problem.....but we'll see!
Cheers,
Mac

Bent,
Not sure if anyone mentioned it but Another source for the copper shielding foil is someplace that deals in stained glass. They sell an adhesive backed foil. You can get it in single sheets. Also seen it on Ebay. I've used it to shield the cavities of a Les Paul style guitar and a lap steel ( pictures on the forum) and it works well.
Regards
Frank