The Art of Winding Pickups | A Relaxing Guide 

The world is scary right now. Stay calm with this contemplative pickup winding video while learning about the merits and processes behind making your own humbuckers. Nebula Humbucker Kits: www.nebulabelgium.com/collect... Nebula Webstore: www.nebulabelgium.com?aff=2 Thank you to Nebula for supplying the pickup kits. This video was funded by members on Patreon. Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars #pickups #handwound #humbucker Affiliate Links: Thomann - www.thomann.de/gb/index.html?... Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/2mGGg More from CSGuitars: Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk CSGuitars uses: LEWITT Microphones - www.lewitt-audio.com/ Hoffnine Cabinets - www.hoffnine.co.uk/ Hosa Cables - hosatech.com/ Dragon's Heart Guitar Picks - www.dragonsheartguitarpicks.com/ Title graphics and logo by: www.studiosmithdesign.co.uk/ Join the discussion at: Facebook - facebook.com/csguitars Instagram - instagram.com/csguitars/ Twitter -twitter.com/CSG_Scotland

"Humbucker making - Pickup winding and unwinding to relax/study to"

Wind me right round, baby right round, like a pick up baby, wound wound wound wound

That was really great stuff! Nice work, Colin!

Does it interest me? Yes. Will it make me rip my hair out trying to figure out where to put more gear. Definitely. Will this stop me? Probably not!

The gearhead's equivalent of knitting. Imagine doing this at 80 while sitting in a rocking chair and endangering the tail of your cat.

I would genuinely enjoy a full length tutorial on the entire process from assembly to soldering in

6:19 *DENIM, AND LEATHER, BROUGHT US ALL TOGETHER!*

I'm terrified of that super thin wire slicing through your hand

You've absolutely got me interested in making my own pickups. Has a very pilgrimage-like vibe about it and brings me back to that old bit of Star Wars lore: Jedi make their own lightsabers as a rite of passage.

1:19 - OH SH*T! I almost fell out of my chair. You do the thing with the ring too. Man. I thought I was alone in the universe. And a fellow scotsman too. I salute you!

I've been winding my own for almost 40 years, using a MUCH cruder process than you show. But then, winding only a couple of pickups in any given year, I've never felt the urgent need to either invest in or build a winding machine or jig. Perhaps it would have paid off had I obtained one 40 years ago, but amortized over the number of pickups I expect to make over my remaining years, I see no point in changing my methods now. So how do *I* wind them? I use an old-school hand-drill; the kind you crank. The chuck doesn't turn with the smoothness or precision that your winder does, but it works well enough. I also like it because unlike a motorized winder that has a certain momentum, if I feel a snag coming on, the stopping is instantaneous. The bobbin is held in place via a slender boIt that feeds through the centre hole in the bobbin to the chuck, such that the bobbin spins around like a propellor. I get 4.25 turns of the chuck/bobbin for each turn of the handle. When I'm on a roll, I can crank about 80 times a minute (340 turns of the coil). Assuming I don't need to stop very often, that works out to around a half-hour for a typical Strat coil. If I was running a business, that would be no way to make a living. But since these are pickups for ME, not for a customer, a half or even 3/4 of an hour is fine. It would take me at least that to get in the car, drive to the nearest music store, get a clerk to provide me a pickup (they're generally behind the counter), and drive back home. I clamp the hand drill in a vise and secure it to the bench-top, making sure I have clearance for unobstructed access to the drill crank-handle. The spool of wire goes on the floor immediately below, such that it unspools vertically. I like to put a sheet of black foam or felt underneath, such that when I look down at the spinning bobbin, the shiny copper wire is easy to see against the dark background, helping me to distribute the wire evenly across the coil. Sometimes the results are fabulous, and sometimes not so much. Because I was able to obtain large 5lb rolls of #42 wire from a scrap dealer for $2/lb, I don't mind tossing a coil if it either ends up sounding poor, snapping once too many times, or being loose and microphonic. In some instances, one is *obliged* to wind your own, simply because no commercial product fits the bill. I have a pre-war Kalamazoo archtop that desperately cried out for a pickup near the fingerboard. Sadly, there is very little clearance between the body and strings to accommodate even the thinnest commercially-available unit. And I wasn't about to cut a hole in the guitar to accommodate what WAS available. Over the course of several years, I found some suitable material to make the flatwork with, and some suitable tiny "button" neodymium mags, and wound a pickup that is about 1/8" thick, and still leaves room for picking the strings. This week, I should probably get back to rewinding an original "gold foil" I have. I've wound unusual things in past. Last year I rewound a 1948 DeArmond pickup.

Companies in the past had a thing about stationing women on the string winders to 'hand wind' the Pu's The Fender Custom Shop still has an elderly lady doing the hand wounds. Rickenbacker makes PU's primarily as replacement parts and the lady that comes in to make them a few hours a week is in her late 80's. She made the first high gain PU for Townsend in 1966. It is really by today's standards a medium gain PU. She made one for me ... technically since it is listed as a replacement part it cost me $75.00 US lol. The in house triple chrome plating costs more. lol I put it in a Fender Duo Sonic at the neck and I have a Duncan hand wound ' 55 Tele PU at the bridge. I get both of the two sounds Townsend used on early Who records and gigs out of one guitar. Yes it does sound great! My Plexi helps too. LOL

see how the coil is made is very satisfactory 🦖🌸

the zeus pickup sounds fucking incredible. the ability to get pro quality components by learning to diy is so inspiring to me. thank you for giving me a great place to start with making my own pickups (and subsequently my own guitars)

Denim and Leather is rather an appropriate base for distorted tones to demonstrate on. By the way, the whole video gives out a relaxing vibe which is very pleasant. Man, it is also quite motivating to show that piece of craft and creativity at least by your own hands when everyone else just makes exclusively promotion content and nothing more. We need more stuff like this. Cheers!

I’d love to try this some day! I modded my first pedal yesterday!

All I can add is , thank you for this video, this is the real purpose for the internet

Great tutorial, gives me the inspiration to try for myself. Those Medusa pickups have such great clarity on high gain, really impressive

Thank you for continuing the silly endings. They are a cherry on top of the great content you make!

Really enjoyed this. I think I speak for everyone when I say I would quite happily sit and watch you quietly wind pickups for an hour.

Great video! love the sound

They sound great too!!

Excellent video. Thanks, Colin.

Thanks Colin. That was relaxing.

Cheers, mate. Nice, relaxing video. Just what I needed... and some tasty playing, too. Stay safe and well.

I have almost the exact same ring, and it comes in handy in the same way. Thanks for the chill and informative guide. Really helps the head in the current climate

Never miss a video, enjoy all the content. Hello from Washington state!

Very cool video. Those sound great. I liked the Saxon riff !!

This has really inspired me to wind my own pickups! Gonna check these guys at Nebula out, hope they can ship their products to brazil. Beautiful video man

Hey - these actually sound pretty damn good!

Never been so relaxed by winding up. Thank you

Zen and the art of winding pickups ... Gotta love it!

That neck pickup sounds great!

Seeing the site now and there's telecaster parts on here. Time to see what these guys are all about.

This is super zen man. Good stuff.

Sounds great.

I love how you say contemplative.

Every aspect of making a guitar construction interests me these days. Thanks for this little bit of Zen, Colin!

Thanks for the video, needed to relax 🤘

6:50 that Paradise city though 😍 and 7:49 that awesome nothing else matters.

Great video! Just subscribed.

funny and relaxing video, would recommend to a friend, 5 stars.

Dang it! I have been recently looking into diy guitar kits and recently i saw a diy amp builds and now a freaking pickup kit. In the future when i get the chance to build my own guitar kit my own amp and my own pickups that will be one hell of a project! Think about the customization! Thank you CSGUITARS for showing this amazing opportunity for further more ways to customize guitars!

nice work!

You shouting "Fucker!" was my favorite part of this video. I enjoyed the articles positing that Scotland is the birthplace of this most useful of words.

Just ordered a winder!

Nice choice of riffage around 6 minute mark. Saxon - Denim and Leather. Great sounding pickups by the way

seriously tho... amazing video bruhv. keep at it!

awesome content

Poetry, great, relaxing, video, excellent

Great video Colin! I wish I could do such modifications on my own guitars myself

Honestly I love that 2:10 is the most replayed in this video, purely for the disperate moment in the ocean of calm.

VERY NICE VIDEO

AY is proud of you young Colin

With how many times I hear you play the Nothing Else Matters solo, I can't help but think that The Black Album is one of your guilty pleasure albums

Pickups sound great at the end :)

Damn that sounds good!!!!!!

Carl Thompson will be winding a custom humbucker for my bass build, which is badass.

Nice!!

Nice !!!

Still Game - an absolute classic.

great video! relaxing and instructive :)

Great. thx

good video, lots/10

Plus you can think of the potential of the wonderous notes that will be played through the pickup one day.

Super!!!!

This video is brought to you by Johnsons baby powder

Nothing like still game to pass the time lol nice 1 fella

Thanks cool

Those pick ups sound good Col! \m/

In the middle of building my first guitar body, went straight from this video to the nebula website so I could make something completely unique with my own pickups

omg, this video was sooo helpful, but in a different way: I'm planning to restore some humbuckers of mine, were the threads for the adjustment screws have worn out and some of the mounting brackets even broken off entirely. Furthermore, I'm planning on modifying all my PU's to be able to support coil tapping/splitting I went to nebulas website and it turns out, they have EVERYTHING, not only to build pickups from scratch, but every possible individual component can be purchased separately! Thx mate, you unknowongly did me a solid

I was too high to get this yesterday, but in glad it was there anyway.

Hi, nice Sound well done. LG Detlev

I like the sound on coast to coast

Love the comedy 🎭

Great vid as always man. I need a TATA on Gain Staging and Unity Gain!! Just an idea man. Keep up the good work.

Great looking pickups and great sounding too! But it didn't look all too relaxing when you had to cut the windings back off though. Love those last 2 seconds every time!!

Speeeeeeeen!

Great video and really inspirational! Can you please tell me the model of your winding machine?

Would love to give this a go. I'm currently working on a mod project and I need a new bridge pickup. What winder would you recommend Colin

This is very interesting. How would you make a super hot bridge pickup? more wire? bigger magnet?

I just purchased my fitst pickup winder kit...will be here next week...cannot wait to get winding! Do you wind single coil pickups and if so do you have videos?

I can’t put my finger on it but I really like this video. Maybe it’s the really cool video editing or the good description or simply your accent 😄

STILL GAME! good choice!

Love the video, where did you get the winning machine from?

I am not using hyperbole when I say this is probably my favourite video of all time

hey man great video!, where do you find the machine to coil them?

Cool

I want to try winding pickups for a while now. Do you have any recommendations for a pickup winder? I don't have the room/tools to build something myself and live in the Netherlands. I'm curious to hear what you recommend.

Great video man :) Where did you get that winder from? Do you have a link? Thanks

Stay safe Colin

I WANT MORE PLZ

Hi Colin. I've done a few pickup by myself. I ordered some material form nebula too, especially raw material to make strat style pickup but with two bobins to cancel hum (I thing you did the same thing recently). I have a question, how do you solder your cable to the coil ? Do you scratch the wire from the coil in order to remove the insulation ? Or the temperature of you soldering iron is high enough to melt the insulation (at what temperature ?) ? Tx for you answers. Love the show by the way (TATAs above all) 👍🏻 Thomas

I'm watching this at 6am I would be asleep but now I want to do this

Always wanted to do this for people.

Them are some fine looking pick ups. 😉

I'd love to make a humbucker "Hot Rail" pickup to fit a J-style bass pickup. I've replaced my P-style pickups with some DiMarizo DP127's and I love it so much so I'd love to make something similar for the J pickups!. I have a lathe so I could perhaps wind coils with that, although I have no clue how to keep track of the number of windings... maybe rev speed and timing?

That 30 second 7:48 Metallica solo blew me away, i could listen to that lead tone for hours on end.