[tatittle]

My Fender Tex Spec's and Jerry Donahue SD Tele bridge pus BOTH have BRASS. I think that is traditional too.

[schmidtz]

I'm sorry to dredge up an old thread, but this has sparked something in me that I like!

Couple of things:
1) Is the Dimarzio brand single coil cover necessary? I see that they are roughly three times the price of my usual dealer....

2) It seems that The Magnet Source will now deal only in orders of 50 dollars or more.... at $0.40/magnet, I'm looking at 125 magnets. Yowza.

3) In my tearing apart what appears to be a non F-spaced Super Distortion (DP100), it looks like I could simply recreate these pups via my little winding contraption!

It seems that I could just jam some regular humbucker bobbins inside a cover with a ceramic magnet and brass plate and I'd be there, at a cost of roughly $7 per pup. It *seems* like the dimarzio I had my hands on was using 42 AWG poly, but I only have formvar and plain enamel. I also noticed that the windings were top-heavy, in the sense that there were more windings towards the "top" of the pup... it seems to me that I'm going to have a few long nights in front of me full of tinkering!

[eric]

Need Help! My pickups are fully assembled, but have some wiring questions..

In the pictures, Scott has a blue wire soldered to the brass plate.

Is that a new ground?

What is the status of the other two leads then?

[tatittle]

Take this with a grain of salt, cause I am not looking at the modified pup. But in general, there is a hot lead and a return/ground lead coming from a coil. But then the baseplate also needs to be grounded (if there is a baseplate--typical single coils dont have them). This can be done different ways, one of them being running a 3rd wire from the baseplate along with the 2 coil leads to the control cavity I imagine. Usually it is attached to the return/ground at the pickup, so the coil lead provides its ground source. It needs to be attached to ground somewhere though, just like cavity shielding, otherwise it becomes an antenna for noise.

[waldo041]

Need Help! My pickups are fully assembled, but have some wiring questions..

In the pictures, Scott has a blue wire soldered to the brass plate.

Is that a new ground?

What is the status of the other two leads then?

Yes it is ground, and needs to be tied to ground. Usually this is ran as a shield around the 2 conductors to shield them from interference.

~waldo

[ScottWalkerGuitars]

Hey! Yeah What Waldo said. In a std Super 2 (and most other pups) the "shield" for the 4 conductor cable is soldered at to the brass plate, and then on the other end grounded in the electronics cavity somewhere (back of volume pot). So I just ground my brass plate to keep it consistent.

The other two leads are the Start and Finish of the coil. One is ground and the other is hot. Sometimes I have to switch them (the leads) to keep it in phase with whatever other miscellaneous pickups I am using in the other positions, for that guitar. ALso magnet polarity....

The Dimarzio covers are deeper than stock strat covers, allowing you to "bury" the coil and magnets.
If anyone wants some of those magnets let me know ill send you a couple. AND i wont just put them in an envelope to get stuck in the mailbox somewhere in rout! (done that!)

[Smolder]

...AND i wont just put them in an envelope to get stuck in the mailbox somewhere in rout! (done that!)

lol... I just had a vision of an envelope stuck to the top inside of my mailbox... like hot cheese on the roof of my mouth ; )

[claytushaywood]

i dont know much about pickups but is that wax potting removed in one of the first steps? or is it just some glue?

[ScottWalkerGuitars]

That is either the hot glue that holds everything together, OR the pic with the lighter is softening the wax, from the potting procedure, to undo the coil leads.

[Brandon Bowlds]

sorry to bump this old thread but I was wondering what was used for brass plate material and how it was cut?

[eric]

I just found some small brass plate online. Think it was 3/32 thick if I recall correctly. I cut it with some heavy duty metal shears from HD. Rounded everything over on an inverted belt sander. They work out killer. Great solution for a Strat.

[Brandon Bowlds]

I just found some small brass plate online. Think it was 3/32 thick if I recall correctly. I cut it with some heavy duty metal shears from HD. Rounded everything over on an inverted belt sander. They work out killer. Great solution for a Strat.

Eric, thanks so much. Is there a place where I can download/print the template that Scott shows?

[waldo041]

I just found some small brass plate online. Think it was 3/32 thick if I recall correctly. I cut it with some heavy duty metal shears from HD. Rounded everything over on an inverted belt sander. They work out killer. Great solution for a Strat.

Eric, thanks so much. Is there a place where I can download/print the template that Scott shows?

Hey Brandon,

Get yourself a single coil pickup cover and trace around it as well as the mounting holes. You will then center and trace out the 2 holes that mount the brass plate to the coil, you will use the Super 2's original brass plate for the template for this. And you will use 2 of the original screws to mount it.

Use 2 conductor wire with a shield and ground the shield to the brass plate.

~waldo

[Brandon Bowlds]

Thanks so much Mike. Ok, now I just need some magnets. Anybody want to hook a brother up, or split an order?

And decide whether I want to use the Super D that I already have at the store I work at, or order a Super II. I was listening to 4-15-82 last night and the tone was killing. That is a Dual Sound I think.....

[eric]

Thanks so much Mike. Ok, now I just need some magnets. Anybody want to hook a brother up, or split an order?

And decide whether I want to use the Super D that I already have at the store I work at, or order a Super II. I was listening to 4-15-82 last night and the tone was killing. That is a Dual Sound I think.....

Home Depot- Halfway up the machine screw/ fastener aisle , they carry an assortment of rectangular ceramic magnets. You'll have to do a little modifying for exact fit but they'll work fine.