Oil City Pickups: 1963 Patent label Gibson 'PAF' on the bench

OilCityPickups

Now for the fun bit, winding and getting it all back together!

What I haven't shown is the laborious process of layer 'turn count' assessment. for this I stripped off ten to twenty layers of windings by hand, one layer being one pass of the 'wire feed' as they were wound left to right ... or right to left. I then take an average number of turns to account from any errors in my counting. There are many figures bandied about concerning golden era PAF and patent number pickups ... Gibson I believe use around 63 turns per layer for their Burst Buckers ... some US winders would have you believe its around 42 TPL is the magic number ... this pickup has ... and in my experience many old Gibson pickups had ... a radically different turn count to either of those those figures. A turn count that suggests the old winding machines were very poorly adjusted to the actual wire being used, probably a major factor in their characteristic sound.

I'm not going to divulge that turn count ... In these days when anyone can drop a few hundred quid and buy a winding machine and call themselves a 'boutique winder', us old hands have to have a few secrets up our sleeves :-) When new winders start to become trusted with customer's old, and potentially valuable pickups ... they can do their own digging! 

By my own research this pickup almost certainly would have been wound on the original Leesona machines, so Info gained is very valuable as it applies to both PAF and early patent number pickups. This would seem to be a 'transition' PAF as attested by it's black 'pigtail' wires and several other features, and is essentially the same as 62 pickups that carried the more prestigious PAF label rather than the patent number sticker.

Anyway ... TPL counted on with the stripping.

 Nice clean bobbin all ready to take new wire. 

Bobbin's mounted and pigtail attached ... 

Now the info gained from the wire stripping is used to wind the new coil ... always an exciting stage.

And here it is 

                      

Next reassembly ...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

rsvmark

I love these threads, super work

entee

Excellent thread! 

Ossyrocks

I too am loving this thread.

OilCityPickups

More this evening ... if I can get time :-)

The pickups are now with Jonathan at Feline guitars who is handling the re-fret and refurbishment of the SG they come from.

OilCityPickups

Here we go for the final lap!!!

Having rewound the coil and tested it (never can be too careful) now it's time to re assemble the neck pickup ... and pay attention to the working ... but probably corrosion afflicted bridge unit.

On the bobbin goes ... and is screwed in place ... and the pigtails are re connected. I will insulate them with tape as Gibson did, rather than the shrink tube I use these days. It's a little nod to historical accuracy ... hopefully nobody will ever see (in my lifetime) ... but I'll know :-)

Off comes the bridge pickup cover ... and blurg! Just as nasty as the neck

So out come the pole screws ... 

And alcohol and elbow grease bring the bobbin up to match the neck ... I added a tiny drop of wax into the molding holes to stop any further ingress of nastiness into the inside of the coils.

Now to tackle the issue of corrosion inside the covers. After using a particularly fine Scotchbrite style pad to get off any surface corrosion, I put some shavings of potting wax into the covers ... after I had masked off the pole holes ... 

This wax layer will be 'chased out' super thin with the heat gun ... but will act as a corrosion barrier protecting the vulnerable coil. 

This done the covers are reunited with their respective pickups ...

A quick check of DC resistance ... and  ...

Ready to rock for another 50 years!!! A Clapton/Cream era SG on route to being perfect again :-)

Ossyrocks

Result!

OilCityPickups

The engineer in me loves taking old classic gear and getting it to work again ... seeing how exactly it was made, and feeding that into my own pickups. I tend to see far more dead Fender, Rickenbacker and Hofner pickups than Gibson ... largely as Gibson's engineering standard was a bit more 'logical' and exacting . What it is nowadays is a matter of opinion ... and mine is that the standard of construction on modern Gibson pickups is woefully short of their classic days ... even short of Norlin era. Cheaper components, less attention to detail ... I seriously doubt if many modern, mass produced units will survive the way these old warhorses have.

roberty

Fascinating stuff and great photos. Thanks for your effort in sharing all of this

drwiddly

Great thread Ash. Thanks for sharing.

OilCityPickups

I believe Jonathan will be adding a pic of the completed guitar when he can ...

It's another Oil City/Feline joint job, and I can't think of a more skilled set of hands for a precious old instrument than Feline.

TTony

Great stuff Ash - incredible to see the detail and care that does into something like that.

Craftsmanship.

OilCityPickups

TTony said:

Great stuff Ash - incredible to see the detail and care that does into something like that.

Craftsmanship.

I see it as adding to the 'legacy' of an instrument ... plus it's huge fun! I have an allergy to owners who won't have a sympathetic re-fret or pickup rewind to preserve 'originality'. What use is a worn out guitar apart from an expensive ornament? I have had a lot of dealings with classical violinists over the years ... who think very little of paying huge sums for very old instruments that have had major conservation and repair ... and look somewhat aghast at our reluctance to have basic maintenance on relatively young instruments.  

earwighoney

TheGuitarWeasel said:

TTony said:

Great stuff Ash - incredible to see the detail and care that does into something like that.

Craftsmanship.

I see it as adding to the 'legacy' of an instrument ... plus it's huge fun! I have an allergy to owners who won't have a sympathetic re-fret or pickup rewind to preserve 'originality'. What use is a worn out guitar apart from an expensive ornament? I have had a lot of dealings with classical violinists over the years ... who think very little of paying huge sums for very old instruments that have had major conservation and repair ... and look somewhat aghast at our reluctance to have basic maintenance on relatively young instruments.  

I've always considered things like frets (tuners, nuts, and so on) to be like strings, they have a lifespan and wear out.  

I really loved this thread, the before and after pictures of the asymmetric coil winding seem to show great care and attention and the pickups are labours of love. 

FelineGuitars

Was playing her tonight - sonically fabulous guitar - sounds very good playing cream riffs

Whilst in fairly good nick it had suffered a neck to body injury in the past - we went in and reglued it even though it wasn't initially evident at all - think we reduced the flexing. 

Also the refret has been a great move - going for the same size wire it would have had as new.

It still feels like an old guitar, but the frets are playable and bends are so easy.

Pics in the morning hopefully...

Sarge

Excellent stuff!

FelineGuitars

Here are the pickups back in the SG where they belong:

Adam_MD

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv31mcGSCP1qa6lp8.gif

impmann

That is a beautiful guitar

OilCityPickups

Isn't it gorgeous? I love a good SG ... and this one is out of the top drawer.