I am making my own basses at the moment and it costs me tons of cash to buy pickups from makers and have them shipped here! its outrageous.

i was wondering if you can provide me with resources, literature, books and other material that would get me started on making my own pickups?

i am interested in Dual or Quad Coils that i can tap. i know this is probably the most advanced type of pickups, but thats where i wanna be.

so all help you can provide is appreciated!

I know you want to jump into the deep end of the pool to the exclusion of suggestions like mine, but I would suggest starting with at least one simple pickup first. That way you can get a grip on the basic construction process, see what works and what doesn't, and then try your dream pickups.

But, hey, feel free to zip straight to your p'ups, if that's what you want to do. :D

Here are some kits (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Pickups:_Kits.html), but they're only for guitar pickups. Kinda handy in the sense that everything's there for you. Not handy in the sense that they're guitar pickups. Still, a place to consider beginning, especially if you have a cheapo guitar to fool around with. (Think about how well your future custom pickup business will be if you are versatile enough to make guitar pickups as well as bass pickups! ;))

They also have winding wire and some other supplies here (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Pickups:_Parts.html).

If you want to go balls to the wall, there is also a pickup winder here (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Pickup_winding_and_repair/Schatten_Pickup_Winder.html).

There are also two books on pickups here (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Books_and_videos_on:_Electronics.html). Remember, a lot of the principles of guitar pickup winding apply to bass pickups - any and all information you can get will probably help you!

Heck, all of the links I'm giving you are coming off here (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups.html), so why not just peruse at your leisure? ;)

Now I'm starting to want to build some fancy picukps...

There's also a homemade pickup winder (http://cgi.ebay.com/Homemade-pickup-winder_W0QQitemZ7358414970QQcategoryZ22670QQssPage NameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) on the 'bay right now - it looks like a hand cranker. You could check out that one or maybe make your own, if you're feeling like MacGuyver. :D

Basically you need a hand crank--with a counter on it. You don't want to count by hand....."six hundred fifty one...six hundred fifty two....six hundred--aw crap, was that two hundred sixty two instead???"

http://www.lollarguitars.com/

Might want to have a look here...

so i am assuming it is essential to own a pickup winder machine?

Yeah, a winder is quite essential. Proper feeding of the really thin wire is crucial, because if you happen to break it, it sucks to have to fix. Also, using a counter system helps you shoot for certain pickups charachteristics. Like higher impedance for higher output and such.

what other characteristics can you get by doing what?

this thread is old but i too would like to know what kind of sound you would get when you use certain types of magnets, certain number of winds etc.