struggling building pickups

landychris

Hi, I've just joined.

I'm building some pickups to fit a guitar I'm building that has string spacing different to normal so can't buy off the shelf.

I'm pretty hands on and can normally work out how to do something but I'm really struggling with this and fed up of wasting magnet wire!

The issue I'm having is getting a reading on on the multimeter once I've wound the coil

I've done some sample solders onto some eyelets off the coil and it's soldered fine and got a continuity reading but once I've wound the coil, I can't get the thing to read. The wire is 0.056mm solderable enamel coated, I've tried burning it off with a lighter, gently sanding, soldering directly, soldering onto a stripped wire with no luck at all.

I've wound about 8 coils now with the same results so I must be doing something wrong, but can't work out what.

I built a winder with a drill and an Arduino as a counter, the wire spool is off the floor and placed vertically so the wire just comes off, I haven't noticed any snags or catches when winding.

I'm stumped.

Thanks
Chris

Adam_MD

@OilCityPickups @Alegree

Hopefully one of these chaps can help you. 

OilCityPickups

Have you got your meter set to the right range? 20k ohm range is what you need. Poly wire doesn't need stripped ... it's solder through. If you are using plain enamel PVA ... then this needs more heat to burn off the coating ... heavy Formvar can be a bugger too ... but check your meter settings first.

landychris

Yup, definitely had the multimeter correct!! tried it on continuity and on 20k.

I've just dug out my old gas powered soldering iron and see if that gets hotter than the solder station