4000 HS project.

Building pickups from the ground up

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Seans
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4000 HS project.

Post by Seans »

I was lucky enough to find a 60's 6 pole HS pickup from a local guitar repair shop, non working and after being told it wasn't worth repairing as they are very weak pups anyway, I bought it.
On examination it had broken coils, I feel this had been due to the fact that the poles were too short (cut to length with side cutters!), so once assembled and over tightened the whole bobbin compressed in the middle and over the years pushed the winding out and the first couple of coils that made it out got broken.
The magnetism of the shoes seemed just ok, not having a Gauss meter I used a 12 inch steel rule, the further off centre they could lift it would give a very rough idea of strength, they both in turn lifted the rule at about 4 inches from one end. I re charged them and the results are pictured below.

I decided I would try and repair the coil, so I found the two broken coils and joined them back together, whether I joined the right one to it's former self I can't be sure, but the coil once fixed measured 6.25K. New poles cut to length to suit string heights and also touch the shoes below without compressing the bobbin and it's ready to fit to a bass.
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johnallg
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Re: 4000 HS project.

Post by johnallg »

Impressive, to say the least. Especially finding the broken coil wires and rejoining them. Seriously. Congrats and I would like to hear it in a bass.
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Seans
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Re: 4000 HS project.

Post by Seans »

Thanks John, :D , I had a rather blase attitude towards the coil, if it works it works, if not I'll just rewind it, perhaps that's why it worked out, although half way through I thought this has got to work I want to hear a 64 HS :( ( I do have another 64 now, but that's another thread).
I carefully removed the tape and found that I could see only two coils broken and they were stuck to the bobbin side with the tape residue, I unwound a turn each to get some wire to play with, paired them up and soldered, on unwinding I could feel that they were running deep and not just on the surface with the last coils on the bobbin, my first idea was to unwind till I got back to the break, glad I didn't.
:oops: when I wrote the first post, I knew I'd have to back things up with a sound sample, but being only just able to post a picture, going video leaves me lost.
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