Pickup

[Bent]

Working on a new pickup these days. This one will be for an 8 string lap steel.
It is wound to just under 10K OHM
Here are a couple of pics during the production...
Will post a pic of the finished pup.

8strPUP-001.jpg (14.11 KiB) Viewed 3083 times

8strPUP-002.jpg (25.46 KiB) Viewed 3083 times

[Eldon]

Looks like your getting to be a bit of a pickup master eh Bent - looks good.

[Bent]

Thanks Eldon, but not really. I am still practicing. Hopefully I will nail it one of these days.

[Pat Comeau]

It really looks good Bent ...looks alot like a stock strat pickup.

Thanks Eldon, but not really. I am still practicing. Hopefully I will nail it one of these days.

You better nail it soon cause i'm gonna need new pickups for all the steels i'm building

so practice,practice and practice...


Pat C.

[Bent]

Thanks guys. It was a fun project. I just hope that the hum is at an acceptable level.
Here are 3 pics of the finished pup

The first one shows the winding done:
10700 revs = 10.4K

finpup-001.jpg (48.79 KiB) Viewed 3040 times

This next one shows how I attempted to apply shielding. Will this work?One strip of copper foil, soldered together to make a continuous loop. and then a thin wire soldered on it and the wire is soldered to ground:

finpup-002.jpg (32.24 KiB) Viewed 3040 times

And finally the finished pup with the tape around it:

finpup-003.jpg (33.45 KiB) Viewed 3040 times

[village idiot]

Wow....impressive, look forward to a performance report in the near future

Roger

[mac639]

Bent....by heck that's a nice looking pickup. Where do you get the plastic stuff for the plates?
On the shielding.....somebody on here awhile ago mentioned that you should not have the copper shield as a continuous loop. Have it go all around but not have the ends overlap and touch together. Perhaps tape one end so the other end doesn't touch it electrically. Then it's sort of like a one turn coil, grounded. I don't know if this would help or not, hard to say.
By the way, I was talking to that Ian fellow from Ottawa on the phone today. He bought an older MSA single 12 string with 5/2 pedals/levers on Ebay. He's coming out to Carleton Place this coming weekend and we'll try to get him going. By the way thanks for the nice words on the SGF about "me and my efforts".
Mac

[Bent]

Roger, Mac, thanks for your encouraging words.
Mac,
That's right. I believe Georg told us that thing about not making the foil continuous. I have tried it both ways and to tell you the truth I can't hear any difference in hum levels.
You might not believe it but that plastic comes from a license plate holder. I bought one at Forest City Surplus for $2.49. Enough to make 5 or 6 pickups.
It is not quite right though..It is a tad too soft and bends too easily. I am always on the hunt for bobbin material. I think I have found out what some manufacturers use. It is layered pick guards. Layered, meaning it is black on top then white then black. Three layers make up about 1/8" thickness.
So I am on the lookout for cast-offs and remnants. Think I'll put an ad in the classifieds to see what happens..

[Bill Ladd]

Stewart-MacDonald has layered pickguard material.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Pickguards/ ... erial.html

[Bent]

thanks Bill. I've already checked it out and find stewmacs stuff so expensive. It might be ok for the US but here, I have to add exchange, shipping charges, Canadian taxes and brokerage fees so everything ends up a horrendous price.