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
Comments
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 :-)
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
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 ....
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
And if it's good enough for blackmachine...
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
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.
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