AWG 30 for a pup ?

[Jimbo Cawthron]

All righty,
I found a pound roll of magnetic wire, enamel coated awg 30 in the garbage can at work.
And I was wondering what kinda sound I will get from this if I wind a pup with it ?
I intend to make my bobbins a lil wider to comp for the increase in size.
Has anybody tried this and if so what was the outcome?????????

[jim]

I think active pickups use thicker wire with less winds. thats why thay need the boost.

[Dave K.]

You'd probably have to pile on a bunch more winds to get a decent resistance to the coil. 30 AWG is about 10 ft / ohm, while 37 AWG (typical pup gauge) is about 2 ft / ohm. Another chart indicates a pound of 30 AWG is 340 ohms, while a pound of 37 gauge is over 8000 ohms. A little bit thicker wire yields a lot less impedance. Your pound won't go very far at that rate. But tryin' won't cost much other than time, so it's worth a shot to see what you come up with. Most likely sound thin, would be a bit hotter with a rare earth magnet (old hard drive neodymium, if you have one handy).

[Jimbo Cawthron]

Old hard drive ??? As in how old ?? Cause I have some that go back to the 80's...
Hmmm, Now I have an idea.....Steel rod with the magnets on the bottom of the pup!!!!

Dave Kroening said:

You'd probably have to pile on a bunch more winds to get a decent resistance to the coil. 30 AWG is about 10 ft / ohm, while 37 AWG (typical pup gauge) is about 2 ft / ohm. Another chart indicates a pound of 30 AWG is 340 ohms, while a pound of 37 gauge is over 8000 ohms. A little bit thicker wire yields a lot less impedance. Your pound won't go very far at that rate. But tryin' won't cost much other than time, so it's worth a shot to see what you come up with. Most likely sound thin, would be a bit hotter with a rare earth magnet (old hard drive neodymium, if you have one handy).

[Dave K.]

Jimbo Cawthron said:

Old hard drive ??? As in how old ?? Cause I have some that go back to the 80's...
Hmmm, Now I have an idea.....Steel rod with the magnets on the bottom of the pup!!!!


That's a fairly typical arrangement - either one magnet at the bottom, with iron pole pieces coming up thru the coil, or individual magnet bars for each string (all in the same polarity). The age of the hard drive is less important than the strength of the magnet - if there's a danger of (painfully) pinching your fingers between the magnet and a piece of iron, you're on the right track. Use caution with some of those rascals - those suckers that are positioned across from each other (with the head positioning coil between them) will try to get together, and you don't want to have your finger there when they do.

[Dave K.]

And I goofed on the standard wire gauge for pickups - it's actually more in the range of 40 - 44 AWG, with 41 and 42 AWG being among the more common sizes. Needz to check my 'facts' before I sendz 'em out!

[Jimbo Cawthron]

Here are some pics of my first attempt ...

now to get em done to see what it sounds like!

[Dave K.]

You will likely find that it suffers from microphonic feedback. This can be remedied by soaking in melted paraffin wax to fix the windings in place. Try it without first, so you can establish a baseline. It can always be waxed later. Also, there may be better ways to fix the windings - check with Ted to see what he uses on his.

[Jimbo Cawthron]

Well I hooked it up today and it amazed me, sound fairly good for the first try!! Oh and I potted it in poly.

Dave Kroening said:

You will likely find that it suffers from microphonic feedback. This can be remedied by soaking in melted paraffin wax to fix the windings in place. Try it without first, so you can establish a baseline. It can always be waxed later. Also, there may be better ways to fix the windings - check with Ted to see what he uses on his.

[Dave K.]

Cool! What did you end up with for a magnet? And by poly, do you mean a polyurethane varnish? And if so, what kind?

[Jimbo Cawthron]

well I used an old hard drive from around the 90's and it was polyurethane varnish. I can't think of the brand name right off , but I did get it at walmart!

Dave Kroening said:

Cool! What did you end up with for a magnet? And by poly, do you mean a polyurethane varnish? And if so, what kind?

[Dave K.]

I'll have to try that poly varnish - I've only ever used wax in the past, and it's a pain in the ass to melt and keep stuff submerged while it's soaking. Congrats on your new pup!

[Dennis R. Dehart]

yea i tried it,bought some from radio shack,it works but can't get enough turns to get good volume.once the wire gets so for from manets becomes a waiste,they need to be in the magnetic field.sounded ok but had to really crank the amp to get good sound.