The making of an ASL Blackmachine Blackbird

OilCityPickups

For those of you who are interested, I thought you might like to see what's involved in making one of our ASL Blackmachine Blackbird pickups.
No doubt you are all aware of the reputation of Blackmachine ...  we needed to pull out all the stops to create a pickup worthy of finding a home in Doug Campbell's creations.

The first step is mating the solid nickel base plate to the four conductor wiring.



A good hot soldering iron and high silver content eco-solder takes care of the connection



Next, one of our transparent bobbins is readied. This takes lots of care, as all my work can be seen in the finished article!



Wire selection is made from the many kilos of premium wire we carry ... in fact each of the large rolls is 6 kilos, and we always have a couple of rolls of each popular gauge.





Next, a colour coded 'pigtail' is soldered to the hair thin winding wire. We use good old fashioned 'flux paste' to help make a sound
connection ... it needs a steady hand!
The pigtail is mounted in the bobbin ... and then taped.




To be continued

OilCityPickups

With the bobbin pigtail taped ...



The bobbin is mounted in 'Gloria' the winding machine! And yes that's a penny in the top of the shot ... it counterbalances the winding faceplate and cuts down on vibration :-)



Part wound .....


And fully wound and taped ... we use 'Toyo' paper tape ... as it is unaffected by potting and is much easier to work with than the fabric inner coil tape some winders use.



As this is a slug coil ... the drill press is used to pop in the nickel plated slugs ...



More to follow :-)

samzadgan

this is cool...cant wait to see more!

monquixote

Great stuff Ash. 

Brilliant to see the man at his work.

EricTheWeary

Ha, you fool, can make my own now.... :P

OilCityPickups

Here the baseplate is prepared with an alnico 5 magnet and two mahogany spacers ...



With the screw coil wound too ... both are united with the base plate ...



And screwed into place ...note, we use non ferrous frame screws just like the first PAFs!



Right .... over to my able assistant Katie to solder up .... and add heat shrink tubing ....



At each stage the pickup is tested to make sure it is within our strict parameters.



Katie adds the pole screws ...



And finally .... elastic bands keep the tape secure ... and ready to be potted.



And the end result ....

ThePrettyDamned

Such a cool looking pickup.

And if it's good enough for blackmachine...

OilCityPickups

Working with Doug Campbell, Blackmachine's founder has been a real privilege. Seldom have I met someone not only as knowledgeable about all aspects of guitar design, but  as in tune with my own ideas of tone and pickup construction. A ferocious technical metal player, he also shares  my love of SGs and wrap over bridges ... and when the two of us get together mega geekdom occurs! I remember a memorable evening with the two of us sitting cross legged on my lounge floor, surrounded by 6, 7 and 8 string Blackmachines ... wiring in pickups and getting excited about tone.

FelineGuitars

Excellent write up of the process. With your permission Ash I will share it on my website in our "spotlight on" section. We've certainly had a lot of interest in the Blackbird, partly because of the Blackmachine connection, and also through word getting out how damn good it sounds. I have a zebra set in one of my 20th Anniversary Lions and it's as good there as it is in the Blackmachines.

OilCityPickups

More than welcome mate ... there is a set nestled in my flying V at the moment ... getting duty playing anything from classic rock to 'white boy blues rock' ... shows they don't just suit BM's!

longshins

God that's a gorgeous looking guitar.

OilCityPickups

longshins said:

God that's a gorgeous looking guitar.

I'll fully admit to being skeptical till I first got my hands on one.I mean there is a mahoosive amount of hype about about them on line. All I can say is the quality is breathtaking: I sat cradling a spalted maple top eight string for ages ... amazed I was able to play that huge but comfortable neck ... amazed further that I could play it ... and sound like 'me' on it too. I must add I don't normally do many stringed beasties.