how many times should i wind the bridge pickup i am making?

Stacks of times, depends on the pup but you're in the ballpark of 8,000. If you're trying to imitate a certain pup you can get an estimate by finding its resistance, then find the resitance per length of wire, this'll let you calculate how much length you need, all you have to do then is gauge the distance around the bobbins. That'll give you an idea of how many winds you'll neeed, its not exact because there's heaps of variables, particularly because coils make electricity do odd things.

I ran into a site that had the number of coils for your J's and P's but I dunno where it was, head for a search.

Josh D

the neck is a Gibson Thunderbird p/u.

You're on your own there I think. I did a brief search but came up with nada, maybe if you fire off a few emails to some folk in the know or try a dedicated pickup winding forum and see what they recommend.

Josh D