Want to learn to wind pickups with Oil City?

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OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9978
in Made in the UK tFB Trader
Now we are settled in to our larger workshop I'm going to be trialing an idea I've had in mind for some time: Pickup winding days. 

There are lots of build your own guitar courses ... but I believe this will be the first ever course for pickups! 
Two students at a time can come and spend a day with me in the Oil City workshop, and under full instruction, make a their own set of pickups ... all materials included.



Tea and coffee will be available as required and (we hope) a pub lunch will be included in the price ... at a wonderful hostelry mere yards from our premises  ... perhaps come and share a beer with me and our team after the days efforts (beers not included lol)

Learn how to hand scatter wind, or make your own, super authentic PAF replica. You could make a fire breathing metal pickup or a early fifties style single coil ... all with high quality/authentic materials.
 


The cost of this will be piloted at £195.00 per person ... that's about the value of a good set of humbuckers ... so you could see it as a day of fun and instruction with a free set of pickups at the end! 
 
Our workshop is on Leyton High Road, five minutes walk from Leyton tube on the central line. This puts us close to excellent and reasonably priced hotels one stop back up the line at Stratford City.

We hope to start in late July with weekend dates ... if you are interested please PM me.  
Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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Comments

  • ftumchftumch Frets: 679
    Fantastic idea! I'm sure this will do really well.
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27342
    What an excellent idea.

    Make your own design p'ups under Ash's watchful eyes, all the parts & tools, and a day out in East London all for <£200?  What's not to like.

     :+1: 
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • Zodiac51Zodiac51 Frets: 340
    That's a fantastic idea and at a great price..Nice one!
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  • lovestrat74lovestrat74 Frets: 2489
    Great idea mate - great Father's Day present ;)
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  • mrkbmrkb Frets: 6635
    I’m up for this, I want to wind a bridge humbucker with nickel cover for a strat.
    Karma......
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  • sev112sev112 Frets: 2739
    Blooming fabulous idea and I’m interested .  Would be even more interested if it could include supervising fitting the new pickups to our guitars, for those of us with limited / zero electronics and soldering knowledge - would that be viable at all or would that be impracticable in the time ?
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9978
    tFB Trader
    sev112 said:
    Blooming fabulous idea and I’m interested .  Would be even more interested if it could include supervising fitting the new pickups to our guitars, for those of us with limited / zero electronics and soldering knowledge - would that be viable at all or would that be impracticable in the time ?
    My idea would be to have more than just me available as tech support, so that could be a possibility ... it might have to be a little bit more expensive to cover another pair of qualified hands ... but it's something we could look at. This is very early doors on this process ... and I want to get as much input from potential customers as possible.
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • sev112sev112 Frets: 2739
    sev112 said:
    Blooming fabulous idea and I’m interested .  Would be even more interested if it could include supervising fitting the new pickups to our guitars, for those of us with limited / zero electronics and soldering knowledge - would that be viable at all or would that be impracticable in the time ?
    My idea would be to have more than just me available as tech support, so that could be a possibility ... it might have to be a little bit more expensive to cover another pair of qualified hands ... but it's something we could look at. This is very early doors on this process ... and I want to get as much input from potential customers as possible.
    Great - please keep me on your interested list.  Really great innovative and exciting idea :)
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  • mrkbmrkb Frets: 6635
    It would be good to have a guitar to hand with a HB and SC and interchangeable controls so we could understand the effect of pots and caps on the pickup sound - would that be possible?
    Karma......
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27342
    OilCityPickups said:

     and I want to get as much input from potential customers as possible.
    Adding to the PM ...

    Would you have to have some sort of boundaries on what people could design and build in the day, or would it really be  a case of "if you can design it, we can build it"?   

    Presume people would have to have a reasonably firm idea of what they wanted to build beforehand, if only so you can confirm that its viable, and ensure that you've got the necessary bits & pieces in stock?

    Does £195 give you enough margin?  A day of your time, plus all the parts, plus something towards overheads ...
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • BridgehouseBridgehouse Frets: 24578
    Get people to agree what they want to wind before they turn up... 
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9978
    tFB Trader
    mrkb said:
    It would be good to have a guitar to hand with a HB and SC and interchangeable controls so we could understand the effect of pots and caps on the pickup sound - would that be possible?
    We already have that ... our Feline test guitar works in that way.
    TTony said:
    OilCityPickups said:

     and I want to get as much input from potential customers as possible.
    Adding to the PM ...

    Would you have to have some sort of boundaries on what people could design and build in the day, or would it really be  a case of "if you can design it, we can build it"?   

    Presume people would have to have a reasonably firm idea of what they wanted to build beforehand, if only so you can confirm that its viable, and ensure that you've got the necessary bits & pieces in stock?

    Does £195 give you enough margin?  A day of your time, plus all the parts, plus something towards overheads ...
    There would have to be some limits ... stuff that required lots of CAD design and laser cutting would be out ... there would simply not be enough time.
    I think we will get potential students to fill in a form with a pretty broad selection of options and thus give us the chance to order in any parts we might not have in stock. We would also try to pair up students (we could only take two at a time) so that what they were making used different resources and they don't find themselves in each other's way. 
    We have two winding stations for example, but only one laser cutter ... so we have to be canny with our use of resources.

    £195.00 per person is based on two students for a full working day, and wouldn't include super exotic options like 'Time Machine covers' on PAFs ... as those are close to £80.00 a pair as it stands! Students could of course bring their own with things like that if they so wished. 

    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • ToneControlToneControl Frets: 11788
    Great idea
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  • RolandRoland Frets: 8590
    Excellent idea Ash. I’d love to do this just for the experience, let alone the pickups.
    TTony said:
    OilCityPickups said:

     and I want to get as much input from potential customers as possible.
    ... Does £195 give you enough margin?  ...
    There’s no reason why you shouldn’t revise the price after a trial period.
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9978
    tFB Trader
    Roland said:
    Excellent idea Ash. I’d love to do this just for the experience, let alone the pickups.
    TTony said:
    OilCityPickups said:

     and I want to get as much input from potential customers as possible.
    ... Does £195 give you enough margin?  ...
    There’s no reason why you shouldn’t revise the price after a trial period.
    That's why we are piloting on £195.00 ... that gives us a little upwards wiggle room ... I'm also in the process of writing what I hope will be a definitive book on pickups and winding ... and that may well wind up as part of the package at some point in the future. 
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    Sounds like a great idea!
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  • FezFez Frets: 499
    Brilliant idea.
    Don't touch that dial.
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  • m_cm_c Frets: 1211
    I do like the sound of this. However I'd probably be more interested in the machinery involved, rather than the pickups!
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  • Revolting1Revolting1 Frets: 295
    Stonking idea =)       Do you plan to keep it weekends only?
    When logic and proportion
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  • ToneControlToneControl Frets: 11788
    will the afternoon pickup made by the student have more scattered windings than usual after a pub lunch?
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