Oil City Pickups: restoring a pair of Wilson pickups part 2

OilCityPickups · May 2023

And so we continue ... the winding has to be very slow with these paper bobbins. They are strong, but they can deform - that's why for safety's sake I'm winding on the pickup's blade.

For the sake of full disclosure, the neck pickup had to be wound a second time - the top face of the bobbin distorted slightly and I was not happy with it even though it worked fine - so I cut off the wire and re did.

Bridge coil wound and taped - these pickups weren't potted, so I kept that .

Re assembly involved making shims to substitute for thickness of the 'trough' that originally housed the air coil - and securing them with a dab of industrial 'hot melt' glue. This is really only to stop vibration.

This and it's neck position mate are ready to rock for another 50 or so years.

Pickups like this are very much a labour of love. I don't make very much profit as time gets soaked up by all the little twists and turns as you access the issues, disassemble, fix or re manufacture damaged parts.then finally wind and reassemble.

Guess I don't like broken things -

Kittyfrisk · May 2023

Not liking broken things is a very righteous position.
Lovely repair job & some nice innovative solutions too.
Am I the only one that missed those unnecessary locking wires on the poles?

OilCityPickups · May 2023

Kittyfrisk said:

Not liking broken things is a very righteous position.
Lovely repair job & some nice innovative solutions too.
Am I the only one that missed those unnecessary locking wires on the poles?

Well I put them back - for all the good they did ... The dab of hot-melt was more likely to produce quieter pickups.

Can I sing the praises of hot melt while I'm at it. Larry DiMarzio was the first I believe to use something similar under the poles of his Allen key height adjusting humbuckers - though his more resembled bath sealant. Cuts out vibration and fixes parts without the need for heavy potting. Easy to get apart again ... great stuff ... we use black mostly.

Kittyfrisk · May 2023

^ I agree with you about the hot melt glue, it is brilliant stuff if occasionally a little messy.
I was de-icing a wild bird water container a month ago & knocked over my pricey black Bosch kettle & smashed the plastic exterior.
A couple of sessions with black hot glue & bit of remelting & reshaping & the case is sealed & safe again.
Marvellous

OilCityPickups · May 2023

Oh - an addendum to this. After considerable research I've found that this 'Wilson' pickupn is actually manufactured by Schaller for Wilson. I have just rewound a Hofner 511 blade single coil (not to be confused with the 511 'staple' pickup (Hofner had a tendency to re use model numbers for totally different products) - and most of it's internals were identical.

normula1 · May 2023

Interesting

OilCityPickups · May 2023

OilCityPickups said:

Oh - an addendum to this. After considerable research I've found that this 'Wilson' pickupn is actually manufactured by Schaller for Wilson. I have just rewound a Hofner 511 blade single coil (not to be confused with the 511 'staple' pickup (Hofner had a tendency to re use model numbers for totally different products) - and most of it's internals were identical.

I have a feeling that the Japanese single coikl pickups fitted to many early 70s instruments were in fact crude copies of Schallers. .

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Oil City Pickups: restoring a pair of Wilson pickups part 2

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