How To Wind A Guitar Pickup Step By Step Guide

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This is a step by step basic guide to show how a guitar pickup is made. We don't include every detail, but this will give you the basic rundown. Everything from bobbin prep to winding, to how to solder the lead wires,
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[@scillyautomatic]

0:37 THIS is what I love about Dylan's channel! He doesn't worry about sharing knowledge. I wish every builder was this way. In fact, anyone with a skill should have the same mindset.

[@omarstiefer449]

Thanks for sharing the knowledge of how things work It keeps me from buying everyone’s opinion when I can differentiate things myself.

[@markhammer643]

I've been making my own pickups for darn near 40 years. Because it's for ME, and not a business, there is no point in making or buying professional winding equipment, and I'm not aiming, nor do I need to aim, for consistency of product like someone selling pickups would need to. Even though it takes a bit longer, an extra 90 minutes in a year is not a burden. And because making your own in this fashion can be "cheap like borscht", if I don't like the result, I simply tear up the coil and wind another. So how do I make mine? I use an old-fashioned hand drill. I run a skinny bolt through the hole in the flatwork, between the D and G strings, tighten it with a nut on the other side, and run the rest of the bolt into the chuck of my hand-drill. The drill gets about 4-1/4 turns per turn of the crank handle. When I'm on a roll, I can do about 60-80 cranks in a minute, yielding anywhere from 250-340 turns per minute. With a Strat coil requiring in the neighbourhood of 6500-7000 turns, and factoring in the time it takes to give the hand a moment's rest and write down where you left off, that's about 30-40 minutes to make a Strat coil. Inefficient from a business standpoint, but it would take me longer than that to simply get in the car, drive to the nearest music store, get a clerk's attention, have them pull the pickup I want out of the display cabinet, ring it up, and drive back home. I clamp the drill in a bench-mounted vice, pointing out towards me, and place the spool on the floor, facing upwards. Because I will be looking down at the coil as it spins like a propeller, while I crank, I like to put a bit piece of black foam sheet underneath the spool, so that I can see the blur of the spinning coil and guide the wire with my finger, against the sort of visual background that makes it easy to see. I got my wire from a surplus place. They got in several industrial bins of magnet wire that they sold as scrap copper. I dove into the bins, fished around, and managed to come out with a number of rolls of lovely wire from Elektrisola and similar manufacturers, from #36 up to #43, with a couple of big spools of #42 - more than I'll ever likely use in my lifetime. Some of the rolls were banged up, but I found some nice ones, that I was able to buy for $2/pound. One of the reasons why I use the method I do is that the spools are so different from each other, and some so large (I think the #42 and 41 are 5lbs each), that no single physical winding system would be able to manage consistent wire feed. One of the things I like about the hand-crank method is that I can easily feel if there is a snag or resistance on the spool end and stop instantly before anything tears. Since it is always the outer windings that are loosest, while the inner ones are snug, I don't bother to pot the coils all the way through. I melt candles over the coil lying on its side, and use a heat gun set to low heat to keep the wax liquid and let it seep in to the coil. Works well enough for me; I'm not cranking a 100W Marshall stack, so they're not microphonic enough to be twitchy at modest volumes. Rather than tape with adhesive for covering the polepieces and outside of the coil, I use plain old teflon plumbers tape that you can get cheap at Home Depot or wherever. It's the right width and conforms nice and snug to the coil once you're done. One the coil is nicely packed in and secure with the teflon tape, you can then apply the more traditional decorative tape over top of that, without being afraid that the tape will tear the coil, should you ever need to remove the tape. On can certainly buy flatwork, but you can make your own as well, and experiment with different magnets and pickup sizes/shapes. I recently had to restore and rebuild a 1948 DeArmond pickup for a guy, and had to remake the flatwork, using some very thin fibreglass printed circuit board material. I etched all the copper away to both prevent any shorting as well as reduce the thickness. I also made a pickup for my late 1930's Kalamazoo archtop, whose design only provided about 3/8" clearance between the body and strings up by the neck, when you fretted. No commercial product fits in that space, and I wasn't going to cut a hole in the body, so I hunted around and found some small button neodymiums. Using the same thin PCB material employed for the DeArmond rebuild, the thin neodymiums, and some #43 wire, I delicately handwound the coil. I could not use the handcrank method, simply because the aperture available between the top and bottom pieces of flatwork (about 3/16") was too narrow a target for a mechanical approach. So this puppy was literally "hand-wound"; every stinking turn. It came out okay, though I think I need to make the flatwork larger, to accommodate a much wider coil. I could only get about 4k's worth of wire in there, so it wasn't particularly hot. But now I know how to do it, so it should come out better. If you're a beginner, you might want to start out with #41 wire. It can yield some decent-sounding pickups, and provides less heartache from tearing, being thicker and stronger.

[@jisanbaidya7743]

What do u use for bobbins?

[@markhammer643]

@@jisanbaidya7743 It varies. In some cases, I bought flatwork from a supplier, in other cases I made my own, and in still other cases I obtained non-working pickups from repair benches. I have a pre-war Kalamazoo archtop that only has about 7/16"" clearance between the body and strings at the end of the fingerboard, where a pickup would be optimally located. I wasn't going to cut a hole in the body, wasn't going to use a piezo bridge, and nothing commercially-available would fit in the available space, so I had no choice but to make my own. I found some very thin copper-clad board for printed-circuits to use for flatwork, etched away the copper, and found some very small neodymium "button" magnets. The total height is about 7/32", leaving enough room for picking. I wound a coil with #43 wire, entirely by hand - I could not rely on anything mechanical to have the needed precision to wind on a coilform that thin. I'm sure such devices exist, but I wasn't going to spend that sort of money for a one-off. The pickup sounds nice. I'm currently rewinding an original "gold foil" whose plastic coilform was shot, and also recently rewound a 1948 Rowe-DeArmond pickup, using the same thin fibreglass PCB material. If you have the room, pickguard material can also make serviceable flatwork. Of course, if the objective is to wind something like a "dual-rails" that fits in a single-coil space, or a mini-humbucker - Firebird style - you're best off ordering the flatwork/bobbins from somewhere that sells it pre-made.

[@jisanbaidya7743]

@@markhammer643 any idea for making pickup covers at home?

[@markhammer643]

@@jisanbaidya7743 I leave mine uncovered, so no ideas from me, other than buying pickup covers for anything you make that is one of the standard sizes. I imagine the broader community has likely uploaded files for making plastic covers with a 3-D printer, but that might be a costly and laborious affair. I did purchase some brass-plated drawer pulls at a hardware store, that looked like they would be perfect for an Italian-inspired retro-'60s look. They needed to have some metal removed, in order to accommodate a coil, but with that modification they were a perfect fit. Next time you are in a large hardware store, keep your eyes open for possible covers.

[@jisanbaidya7743]

@@markhammer643 I can't afford 3d printers

[@rafsza]

Thanks for your honest and unselfish insight. It revealed me a lot of my unanswered questions.

[@hendrix5757]

Truly amazing and informative video! Standout quality across the board! Really appreciate you taking the time to provide us with such an insightful video about the pickup design process, Dylan!

[@michor10]

I find this kinda stuff really fascinating. Thanks for sharing, Dylan!

[@PierceThirlen2]

I've found that the more you explain to someone all of the details that go into making something properly, the less likely they are to do it themselves and the more likely they will pay you do it for them instead. Explaining "how to make something" is usually good for your business.

[@fedayeentaqx9956]

Maybe because people don't realize how much work goes into making a lot of things until they see it broke down into every step? I know those things I've undertook simply because I did not realize how complicated they would end up being, and that forces you to just push through it because once you're already halfway into something and have your guitar torn up what else can you do?

[@mallninja9805]

I know I definitely want to wind my own pickups for a guitar, just to have the experience. I'm also close to certain that I won't do it twice 🤣

[@enkelcreekguitars]

super cool. I'm jumping in! thanks for the inspiration

[@joshmiller166]

Awesome video dude they are always very informative and interesting.

[@marcuspayne2426]

Oh, NOW he posts this! I spent the last week building something to de-spool the wire and figure out the tension, etc... Cool vid though. I appreciate how you give us this info. You've been a big help even before this video.

[@moosey62]

Thanks man. All your videos are very helpful.

[@davidshafer6388]

Thanks for the awesome video.

[@rickbearden6041]

Thanks for the video. Awesome to find new and different info about all things guitar. I agree wholly with you there are many ways to find "you're" way into the fun of trying new guitar related ideas. Just found the site and subscribed. looking forward to digging in!

[@jaysherbino686]

Good video, be interested in seeing the humbucker one and the number of winds you prefer for different situations.

[@sassycat]

Very cool, thanks for the demonstration. I'm looking forward to the humbucking one.

[@ClinToneCust23]

❤❤❤❤ love it bro!!!

[@jimmiller2270]

Thank you for the video. I really enjoyed it. What would the tone be like of a humbucker with one half with a brighter voice and the other half with a darker voice? Would they meet in the middle tone wise?

[@danandratis]

Very informative video, I'm a newer subscriber just catching up on older videos - Thanks for the content, cheers from Canada

[@Larry-Art179]

Thanks Dylan - I've just ordered a machine and this was good prep

[@DylanTalksTone]

Awesome. Let us know if you need wire

[@Alexandremorais574]

Hello! What's the technical name of the machine and where to buy it? Thank You in advance!💪

[@jorgegvb]

Enjoyed the video and would like to see more like this. Maybe a bit more detail about what them sound different and so forth.

[@ryanrobertson4001]

Bought the mojotone winder, and about to do some P-90s, but now I am all confused about RW/Rp for noise canceling. I could really use a video in that. Thanks for all the help and sharing.

[@billdyke9745]

That wire was so thin I couldn't even see it, and I can see paint dry. I'm glad someone else is happy to do this kind of thing for me. It would drive me nuts, and I'm almost there already. Well done, fella. You teach me things. Like there's always something more tedious you could be doing...

[@mrffoeg]

This is super cool stuff

[@makmcqueen8634]

Hi Dylan I have a question about winding patterns that I have never seen answered I have a set of vintage style pickups in my strat that have a v shaped wind i.e. the top of the pickup towards the strings is fatter than the base, what effect does this have on tone?

[@jessepebler9291]

Hey Dylan. Really curious on where to get reliable pickup winders, bulk wire and everything to get set up?

[@Capnmax]

I recently purchased a gong which I would like to amplify. Wondering if I can just use a regular guitar pickup or if maybe I should wind a larger magnet? Any tips appreciated!

[@adamsomerville6031]

I love the informative video Dylan as I start my journey into merging music and electronics! At 3:07 after you've tied the coil wire to an eyelet on the bobbin you say this is now the "start side of the coil". If you tied the coil wire to the other eyelet that would be the start side then right? Thanks in advance!

[@guitarsofvintage4422]

Great video, just I wanted to see the general process. I think you could add some more tone tips in the future without giving away any secret sauce recipes - but totally agree its about having your own "tonebook" ! Good to see one with Humbucker too.

[@berlymahn]

Very cool. Thanks

[@na7v645]

Dylan, I am curious if you measure Q factor and capacitance/inductance on your pickups. Not asking you for numbers because I know that is sensitive to pickup makers, just curious if you check each pickup for other specs than just DC resistance. Thanks, Dave

[@truthfulrobot9295]

Dylan, are you still thinking of doing that pickup winding masterclass? It was a kit that included the winder, cable and etc.

[@kirkgreenman1386]

That was a fun video, do you sell the parts?

[@acexxxoasis]

Have always wondered how a smaller winder creates a pickup and is consistent with it. So like if you were selling them and I had one and wanted it again

[@moosicnsk8]

Hey Dylan, what are those flatworks made off? love your videos been learning a lot from them lately, your a great teacher

[@DylanTalksTone]

Its a paper material. Thanks so much for sharing and subscribing! I really appreciate it

[@arthurcole6129]

Thank you man.

[@kevinking2468]

I'm putting together a center reverse wound pickup for my strat - Can you help me with what is considered a standard direction wind verses a reverse reverse wind? Thanks very much.

[@marcuspayne2426]

How long did it take from your first experiment in pickup making until you were confident enough to sell one? If you don't mind my asking.

[@ricardoa2894]

Dylan...do you have any idea what happens you make it over wounded ? I wanted to make 1 over wounded because the #1 of SRV supposed to be over wounded "by defect by factory" and it sounds better than regular '59s....but I have not done it so I wonder what if ....

[@evanrlocke]

Can you provide some more information on magnetizing it? I would have assumed magnets were already magnetized when I bought them... What style of magnets are you using? Does pole direction of the magnets matter? And do you need to pass through more than once or was that just for illustration?

[@seanjoynt2605]

I was wondering if there was a pro or a con to winding the bobin full to space that you have. Does that get into tone? Obviously the more winds changes the tone but how much? Cool video

[@tsyde2008]

Can you recommend places to buy parts and winders at, Stew-Mac, or?

[@christopherguzzi1316]

Great video. I can see how the winding process can be so difficult and how it could make a difference in whether or not the pickup will have good tone. NOT!!! Seriously, 100 ladies could wind 100 pickups and no one could tell the difference between any one of them.☺☺☺. But it is fun to watch the process and encourages me to wind my next set of Tele pickups.

[@user-hp6yb6xq5u]

Thank you very mach!! Can you show how to make lipstick pickup? Please?

[@jswolfe94]

Do you sell coil wire and bobbin components? What type of tape do you use to wrap the poles? Awesome videos!

[@milosjeftic1702]

Mr Dylan, what do you think about wood bobbin pick ups?

[@therockandrollcreeps9398]

when you reverse wind, do put wire under the guide? or do you flip the pickup over front side facing machine?

[@mathew2818]

Is there any info on how to magnetize or demagnetize magnets? For example I heard Seymour Duncan mention in a speech that he was experimenting with taking a stronger magnet, say an alnico 5 and controllably weakening it to that of an alnico 2 or 3. He mentioned some positive results over just getting a lower strength magnet of the shelf. Does anyone have any experience with this and some info on how to. I would be curious to experiment and see the results. Thanks in advance!

[@TheFrankHuda]

Oh SNAP son! Hot fire! Thanks for the content thug

[@Mr.Peach90]

Would you do an active pick up please

[@charlesmeadows6869]

So when your adding the shielding tape to the bobbin before you wind the wire on, if you have a tiny gap on the side the wire could touch the poll things. This would short it, correct? Seems pretty imperative that the shielding tape is lined up perfectly against the inner wall. Would love for someone to confirm/clarify this. Thanks

[@StratmanJerry]

How do you test for coil capacitance and inductance?

[@justinpaquette224]

Is that tape the same as the black paper pickup tape like stewmac has?

[@Nerdzwerd]

I wonder why always all strings are under one (or two) coil and why stere is not a single coil for each string. Any reasons for that? Is it just for saving material ? Has someone tried it out? Thanks

[@telesandstrats3297]

I am planning to build my first set soon. I noticed you started the coil wire in the bottom eyelit instead of the top. I have seen others do this opposite. Does it matter which eyelit you start in and then finish in? Great video, I have watched quite a few of yours!

[@jeremiahmcguire1463]

Realistically, probably not. It's a whole 6 in one hand half dozen in the other type situation.

[@skern49]

what kind of tape did you use?

[@moosafytv3610]

Most Underrated Guitar Channel on YT... #Moosafy

[@josephzaja9210]

Hello. Please can you hellp me? I wound up several pickups with awg 43,42, and neo, alnico.. and i have allways same problem low outpu of pickup..? :( i wound from 6kohm to 15kohm. I onlly notice sound color differnces.. but low output.. i try to put under alnico rods strong neo magnets but all same.. nothing happend.. same output.. 😰

[@rowanmurphy5239]

I got a question for you: How do I get or make or buy a set of pickups for my Stratocaster that sounds as good as Ron Ellis 50/60s without having to pay 750 bucks for it. I have looked high and low I'm not come across anything that sounds like them, but I really don't want to pay that much for pickups.

[@bFOURdwZEROlf]

how do you wire noise cancelling jazz bass pickups?

[@2550marshall]

Is it possible to make a pickup without magnets?

[@r.b.rozier9692]

Does wire gauge effect sound?

[@patrickpalmer3374]

Makes perfect since to me me

[@dembydish]

If you are rewinding a pickup... do you need to re-magnetize it?

[@markntexas8265]

Uber cool!

[@buffalosteve287]

Hey man, what’s the name of your company?

[@Mixa_742]

5:32 is it ok to solder at 371 celsius ?

[@yohanngeffroy4072]

hello dylan, is it a reverse winding you did it on this one?

[@DylanTalksTone]

Yohann Geffroy I don’t remember.

[@mehmetkalkan6789]

please write the diameter and length of the magnets ... thank you

[@chrisbirch4066]

Where to source the components?

[@hdrjunkie]

do you rewire pickups for customers? do you have a website? i need to get one re wired. its an old Rowe gold foil...

[@DylanTalksTone]

yes we do! dylantalkstone.com send me an email

[@hdrjunkie]

@@DylanTalksTone email sent...thanks!

[@alexts4920]

How to find put when to stop winding? how to mesure coil resistance during winding?

[@PayUntoCaesar]

Please PLEASE give instructions on how to wind a tv Jones

[@audiomonster303]

what makes the ohms?

[@jonathanunknown2357]

Which wire is positive

[@alirezahashemi8417]

Actually i expected more detailed information. Some information about the things and the way they affects the sound clarity and tone. And i am a fan. I learned a lot from your channel. Thanks.

[@furyiiiplate]

Ancient Chinese Secret! (over 50 joke)

[@whatyoumakeofit6635]

Are you not selling pickup building supplies anymore?

[@DylanTalksTone]

we are. just shoot me an email and let me know what you need.

[@anthonymiller3970]

Can you do a humbucker?

[@ldfox11]

Wow, right

[@fedayeentaqx9956]

I'd really like to know how many pickups you made before you had a set that was comparable to something that you could buy commercially, I don't mean like super high end stuff but I'm just curious how long and how many attempts it took before you had a playable set of pickups that you felt confident playing on?

[@andrewmuelleranantababaji8073]

Can you wind by hand without machine? As machine probably cost more than set of pups

[@patrickpalmer3374]

My winder!!! You mean my left hand. I did buy 2 magnifying glasses and duck taped them to my head. Warning duck does not come of in a satisfying way and after 3 days of 1 Mississippi 2 Mississippi 3 Mississippi I got this, yeah baby.

[@jamesla412]

Doesn’t that wire make your hands bleed?

[@jonathanseagraves8140]

What does the term "hand wound" and "organic" have in common? Neither means what you think it means.

[@aleksandrnestrato]

Hand winding pickups is tough 4:28 😂 That's not a hand winding! When I was 7, I saw my dad was hand winding a pickup. Hand winding. Hand. Winding. There was no any machine to rotate that bobbin. Not even a manually driven one. He was holding the bobbin in one hand and the wire in the other one. The only mechanical thing he had was a clicker under his foot to count laps. 6 to 8 thousand of turns around that bobbin by hand. Don't remember how long it took - a week or a month. I was a small kid.

[@therockandrollcreeps9398]

your dad was stupid. they had drills and a million ways to make a spinner, you had a hillbilly dumb ass for a dad

[@patrickpalmer3374]

How about this you wind I play, totally a plan.

[@ichiro319]

I only use an electric fan to wind my own pickup.

[@langmofamily]

great work but please were some safety glasses.

[@dadygee]

10000 hours...I can watch a tig-welder put down a perfect bead showing exactly how its done (knowledge)! But ME with same gear would halfass it because skill comes from practice.. So you can show anything and how its done, what you need and where to get it. Then you have to spend 10000 hours gettin good.

[@Noah-gq7pq]

instead of buying that machine ,,,how bout an electric drill,,and rig it up to hold the bobbin?

[@DylanTalksTone]

If you only want to make A pickup. I need to make like 20 a day

[@MrSimhacker]

Yeah, so this is kind of harmless to show because the majority of people such as myself, doesn't have a winding machine.lol Thanks for showing though. I'd rather let the ones who know what they are doing and build on that instead of starting down that road.

[@cdabcdefg12345]

boycott what?

[@patbassman8251]

Who or what are you boycotting Dylan ? Rodger Waters by any chance.

[@stevetottosy1477]

Your fingernails are almost as bad as mine.

[@trashyratchet674]

Big fucking sales pitch. What a waste of time.

[@DylanTalksTone]

thanks so much for watching. I wouldnt sell you anything even if you wanted to buy it so... no sales pitch here.

[@onlywhenprovoked]

Some unsolicited advice : I enjoyed the video but wasting the first two minutes begging for subs/likes to increase your ad revenue should come at the END of the video, AFTER we know if we liked the content or not. So many of you are doing this now, in every damn video, its just tedious. It literally makes me not want to like or sub. And all this might come off as cranky but I'll bet if you check your analytics youll find most of us skip right past that crap far more often than not.

[@chriss2452]

Step by step. Not so much. He didn't show anything at all. And he hasn''t done thousands of these.

[@DylanTalksTone]

I would say about 10,000 at this point.... conservative guess

[@onlywhenprovoked]

lol as if the first two minutes begging for likes and subs wasnt enough, make sure you start AND end every video e-begging. Disliked and unsubbed. More content, less pan handler fluff.

[@bbilman056]

can you do a 4 conductor humbucker?

[@DylanTalksTone]

All of our humbuckers are available in 4 wire

[@bbilman056]

@@DylanTalksTone no I meant a video on winding them. Is it pretty much just two single coils on the same baseplate?