Ooooo Arrrrrrr!

Here comes a plug for one of my customers and his band: the customer being ‘Dirty Dick’ and the band being the Punk Pirates. Punk is pretty close to my heart as that’s really what I started by playing … and I always seem to come back to.

Here’s the guys site http://punkpirates.webs.com/

 

‘Dick’ has one of my Oil City Thames Delta Bridge pickups in his trusty Telecaster … here’s what he has to say about it.

If I had to sum it up in 2 words I would say 'growly mids'. It's that resonant Tele sound you can hear/feel through the neck. The TD definitely retains and communicates that character into the amp, and there is definitely more bite than my original SCN. Feedback is very predictable and controllable (almost too nice...maybe?!). Also this is a very quiet pickup even at full volume and gain up (...and my Orange has a LOT of gain) There is no noticeable ambient noise difference between the SCN and the TD. I have tried several other hand wound Tele bridge pups (in friends/punters guitars) and although it's difficult to compare directly without having a warehouse full of axe's, I cannot remember anything that sounded better than this.

On the technical side, I've found the best setup position with it pretty low (backed away from the strings). Normally I've found hand wound single coil pups like to be a bit nearer the strings otherwise you can get a weird (nasty) type of feedback (particularly with wah). No such problem here. This is great for me as I am not interested in output, rather clarity and character which this helps to retain. Secondly, the SCN neck pup measures up at approx 12Kohm (impedance), and the original Bridge SCN was around 13Kohm. The TD measures up at around 7.4Kohm and yet there is no drop in volume switching between the two or even a balance issue in the mid position. I was expecting this to be an issue, but not a bit of it. I realise impedance is only a guide to output based on the number of turns of wire etc..but it confuses me a little (am I being thick here?!). Anyway, again, it works for me.

I can only sum up by saying it's staying in, and I am VERY picky about my gear....oh yeh, and THANKS

....oh yeh, and when are the P90's due out (bridge/soap-bar/cream please)

All I can say is tanks to you too Dirty Dick … we thrive on customer feedback and it’s nice to have such a cool review. When I’m passing my old haunts in and around Portsmouth (those who have read this blog from the beginning will know I’m an Isle of Wight boy originally) I will be sure to look in on one of your gigs.

Building a Strat™ pickup set part 4

Our pickups are now off to have a wax job ...I still pot pickups individually, keeping a close watch on temperature and time. Fender™ style pickups get a single long dip in 20% beeswax 80% paraffin wax blend.

 

Then out on to kitchen paper to cool. Some makers leave things at that, original fifties pickups simply had bare coils under the plastic covers, but these are modern times, and people like to swap covers etc so I build my pickups to withstand handling that would kill more delicate vintage pickups. They get a black overcoat of cloth tape to protect all my work!

Finally the covers are refitted and the pickups are meter-checked again, followed by getting their Oil City labels attached and signed!

 Normally to go with the relic poles I would have attached relic covers, but in this case the customer is happy to stain the plain white ones to his specifications.

Well there you go ... the saga of three Oil City Thames Delta 'HSM' Special pickups ... they'll be with you soon mate!

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Building a Strat™ pickup set part 3

Now it's time for our pickups in waiting to have the holes drilled for their soldering eyelets and the holes in the top and bottom flatwork that allow the hot potting wax into the centre of the coils. The shiny rings around the base of the magnets is where I have run some super-fluid cyanoacrylate around them just as belt and braces for keeping everything together during winding.
Nearly forgot ... the magnets get a coat of nitro sanding sealer to insulate them from the first layer of wire at this stage too.
The soldering eyelets are absolutely tiny, and completely authentic to fifties spec. Many pickup makers import these from the US as they are hell on earth to source in the UK. We found a supplier and bought several thousand which should keep us going for a while.

  

Setting the eyelets requires a special punch ... ours came from Stew-Mac.

I've lost count of what 'mark' I'm at with the coil winder ... the guts of a variable speed drill drive a counter weighted backplate to which the bobbin is attached with double sided tape.  Mounted at one end of the backplate is a magnet that trips a reed switch in the housing you see at the bottom of the picture. 

The impulses are counted by a nice little electronic counter mounted in my line of sight ... the wire is guided by hand between adjustable 'limiter' stops mounted on some 10mm stainless steel bar stock. The limiters started life as drill depth stops ... everything has another use!

 

Okay ... I can't really take pics one handed of the winding process so your imagination has to come into play here ... about ten minutes of winding per coil and ...

 Repeat three times, adjusting resistance to progressively make the pickups more powerful as you move towards the bridge. I get into a winding zone where I can shut out the world and just concentrate on making a nice even coil with the correct 'scatter'.

 And there you have three Strat™ pickups having just had their cloth fifties style wiring added. The centre pickup is reverse polarity to make the set humbucking in positions 2 and 4. After testing with my multimeter the pickups move into my potting area

To be continued

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Building a Strat™ pickup set part 2

Okay, episode two in the saga of the manufacture a set of my custom Strat™ pickups.

All eighteen magnets of the set are given tiny bevels to the top edge … Fender used to do this to make it easier to fit the top flatwork to the pickup. I do it simply for the look … and so the otherwise sharp edges of the magnets don’t hack a finger while playing. Many makers bevel magnets to a much greater degree than I do, but early fenders were seldom chamfered quite so extremely so I err on the side of conservatism. A rechargeable keyless chuck drill and a sharpening stone do the job nicely here.

Now the bevelled magnets are united with the lower half of the flatwork and gently tapped into place.

 

Once all the magnets are in place

A little jig is added that keeps everything straight while the top flatwork is fitted. Yes I make quite a few of my small jigs from scrap mahogany … it’s nice to work with and lasts well.

A bit of gentle tapping, and another little tool fits the top flatwork

All fitted …

…and now to add a little ‘relic work’ to the poles with a dab of my secret ingredient … and trial fit the covers.

Yes that’s an identical set under production in the background … I never just make one of anything, even a custom order! The reason for this is simple, somebody may well say, pretty shortly after an order is delivered ‘I’ll have what he had …’ it saves time and consulting records to just take an identical set out of stock.

Next step will be installing the soldering eyelets and drilling the mounting holes.

Before … gasp … winding!

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Building a Strat™ pickup set

Thought I’d follow a set of our Strat™ pickups through the production process just to give everyone the idea exactly how bespoke my products really are!

Firstly the order from the customer … in this case a set of very mildly over-wound vintage style ‘staggers’. I haven’t had much cause to produce staggers with the popularity of my ‘flush magnet’ Triple Blues sets, so a quick order had to be banged out to our magnet suppliers for alnico rod in the right lengths. Note to self to carry more lengths in stock in future!

While the magnets are on route I got on with cutting the flatwork. We use traditional  vulcanised fibre … as real fifties pickups would have used … and, also probably like Leo’s first hand produced ‘steel guitar’ pickups, I hand cut the bobbin blanks using a ‘follow router’ and a set of ‘plugs’ held in specially made jigs. I’ve built Jigs for all the common shapes … from P Bass™ to Telecaster™ … and am developing Jaguar™ and Jazzmaster™ ones too. One great advantage of this hand cutting process is that I am able to make subtle changes to bobbin specifications very easily to produce 'one offs' for customers. Eight string Strat™ anyone?

 

 

Here you see a pile of Strat™ flatwork with a couple of ‘stagger ‘magnet sets ready to be assembled.

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