Timothy Esau Sunday Musical Instruments LLC
Forum Replies Created
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If you decide to do a split coil setup (shorting the first coil in the series to ground), use a 1k5 resistor between the coil shunt and ground. That gives it a much better overall tone. In guitars that have thin and weak split modes a 1k5 neck and 2k7 bridge are usually pretty nice values.
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*Edit* Just saw you found one!
I was gonna suggest Scott Baxendale:
http://www.baxendaleguitar.com/contact.html
He does a lot of Harmony conversions where he removes the ladder bracing and puts in prewar Martin style x bracing. I’ve seen him do repro logos when he does the red white and blue Buck Owens Harmony guitars, maybe he can do Soveriegn.
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I do 15% off code for builders and looths on my pickups, just need to add their email to the list and it is good indefinitely as many times as you can use it! Normally a big order from me to a builder is 3-5 sets all at once, but I’ve done bigger. I’m building about 5 sets of pickups a day, shipping as many, plus little parts and merch orders, so something like 10 sets all at once takes special scheduling and maybe additional lead time depending on how busy I am.
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Yes, it does affect the tone, too much and it’s dull, just right and you get lively pickups that have great controllable feedback interaction with the amp. The especially thick paraffin and vacuum potted pickups always sound dull, and most of those have the neck wound too close to the bridge of vice versa and you have the dark and boomy neck tone on top of it being dull sounding.
I keep my wax pot a little hotter than most paraffin guys might do and use beeswax. This allows the wax to drain back out real well after potting to just the minimum amount. Beeswax also takes longer to stiffen back up. To get that thick wax cake you have to use paraffin at just above its melting point. I tape the rods in my single coils so the wax only really enters from the outside of the coil and partially penetrates. I also tape the outside of the coil on Tele pickups under the cover and string wrap, Jaguar pickups as the sides of the coil often get scraped and boogered up from putting covers on and of the the claw attached to the bobbin, and some of my Strat sets that are more Tele under Strat cover kinda stuff, but not for the vintage spec stuff. All of this keeps the pickups livelier by minimizing the potting of the coil, just into the safe zone for microphonics and squeal. My main goal with potting pickups with fixed covers, metal baseplates, PAF and Tele etc. is to have the metal parts fixed with a light wax layer to the bobbins and other parts. That’s where most bad squeal comes from, bobbin/metal interaction, just knock a Tele baseplate loose and hit it with some gain to explore the phenomenon. Beware as you get into potting that paraffin has a lower flash point than beeswax, right around 350° and if you leave it in a crockpot without a temp control or a saucepan in your stove you are asking for trouble. I use a small Walmart crock pot that rides on its keep warm setting right around 225°. Last potting note, butyrate does not like to be in the wax very long at all, it will deform in 60 seconds at 225°, my uncovered PAFs just get the baseplate and magnet side held in if it is absolutely necessary for the customer, otherwise none. The taped coils are really plenty in a PAF, the bobbin screws really hold everything tight internally. In a Firebird it’s just the tension between the cover and baseplate when soldered holding everything snug and it’s not quite snug enough, so they get more potting. PAF’s with covers I dunk the whole assembly for 60 seconds but the cover is quite a heatsink, so the butyrate bobbins are safe should they get cracked open later. -Tim
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I carry 10-46 and 11-50 Stringjoy and S.I.T. Strings on my webstore in the parts section where I have, pots, caps, output jacks etc to round out a customer’s pickup swap.
I regularly throw in a set with pickup orders, or one of my “Goopies” volume control treble bleeds, or a whole lil pack of goodies if the order took anything longer than fast to fulfill. I use them on local pickup swaps and setups.
A lot of Amazon/ebay/reverb sellers list them at just above wholesale cost plus reseller shipping and fees.
I try to just barely undercut the best deal on the marketplaces, and that is not huge profit margin territory.
Most string vendors will need your EIN number and your state sales-tax exemption certificate for resellers to set you up as a dealer.
I have thought about setting up a string vending machine near UGA campus in Athens.
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I have about 12 years with my Hakko 888D on the pickup winding bench, good lower powered station, holding up to daily use for as long as I have had it. Only gripe is no auto-idle, shorter tip life, more solder consumption to keep it tinned nice.
I also have had a X Tronic 3020 for about 8 years, I use it on the guitar bench, easily handles soldering to the backs of pots, Tele bridge pickup baseplates, trem claws etc. The 3020 is a great cheap 70w station if you are wiring controls, nice and hot, in and out quick, heats up fast from auto idle.
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Some Mojotone flatwork has little chads that don’t get knocked free from the pole holes, you could try to plug with them and redrill and tap with a 6-32, but that seems dicey. I’d be happy to send you some. Might be a better idea to use some little Forbon circles under the stock bobbin, glued on.
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I replied in your thread, no experience w the traverse. A clamp on articulated lighted magnifying glass and a wire guide with some sort of stops about the width of the aperture of the P-90 bobbin should help you get a god coil on there. Shoot for something around 8k, should be about 10000 turns with a tight coil, less with a looser hand-wound coil.
