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Wire for Winding Pickups

M

Milothicus

Nov 23, 2001
676
4
Greensville, Ontario, Canada
#1
I've been tempted to try winding my own pickups for a while now. i'd be building jazz-style pickups, and maybe a humbucker for an old hofner that i have that's missing a pickup...

anyway, i've been looking for wire locally, and just found a potential source that i've been going to for years. Here's their description of the wire:

------------------
Commonly used for winding R.F. coils and transformers and general lab or school classroom assembly. This is a standard round, pure copper wire with a polyimide enamel inner-coat and polyurethane over coat Thermo Class 130. The insulation will stand up and not crack during winding of tight coils, high speed winding etc.
------------------

It's available in 42 gauge. Is there anything in that description of the insulation that would make this unsuitable for winding pickups? i guess the main concern is that this coating sounds more complex than 'enamel coated', and i'm worried it's a lot thicker.
 
#3
Milothicus said:
I've been tempted to try winding my own pickups for a while now. i'd be building jazz-style pickups, and maybe a humbucker for an old hofner that i have that's missing a pickup...

anyway, i've been looking for wire locally, and just found a potential source that i've been going to for years. Here's their description of the wire:

------------------
Commonly used for winding R.F. coils and transformers and general lab or school classroom assembly. This is a standard round, pure copper wire with a polyimide enamel inner-coat and polyurethane over coat Thermo Class 130. The insulation will stand up and not crack during winding of tight coils, high speed winding etc.
------------------

It's available in 42 gauge. Is there anything in that description of the insulation that would make this unsuitable for winding pickups? i guess the main concern is that this coating sounds more complex than 'enamel coated', and i'm worried it's a lot thicker.
Click to expand...

In general this should be excellent wire. The advantage being it won't crack and age over time shorting pickups. The disadvantage as you note is a slightly larger diameter which makes doing things like "over-winding" coils more difficult.

According to my information the basic diameters for 42 gauge magnet wire are approxiately:

Bare wire diameter = 2.49 mils
single insulated = 2.70 mils
double insulated = 2.97 mils

mil = 1/1000 inch. The double insulated taking about 10% more space.

If you've got a good price I'd get some. You can always buy some single insulated later if you have a project where bobbin room is tight.
 

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