UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45
Oil City Pickups: rewinding a very scummy 1972 Jazz bass PU
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Here we have a very scummy 1972 Fender J Bass pickup sent to me for a rewind. The pictures don't do justice to the level of 'mank' here! Sweat reusted poles, enamel
insulation breaking down, the whole thing smelling of mildew ... bleeerrrrk.
![image](http://i849.photobucket.com/albums/ab51/beginnersdigital/IMG_3610.jpg)
The rubber cushion seems to have been stuck on with a compound similar to bitumen, and with age it has mixed its self up with the solder joints. Damn it smelt bad when I un-soldered the hookup wires!
Right, wire removed to show no tape on the bobbins ... or lacquer. The former definitely dates it to 1972 ... and helps explain why the pickup failed. After 72 the almost always taped the bobbins on JB pickups and they fail from shorts less regularly in my experience.
Most of the gunge removed from the bottom flatwork ... and here you will see the slightly projecting magnets which are the reason for the little spacer jig I used in the winding shot!
Here I've taped the coil to prevent the same shorting fault happening again.
The tape is sprayed with nitro laquer as 'belt and braces'.
Here is the pickup being hand scatter wound. The original was a very crappy machine wind ... it appears they didn't centre the bobbin properly, and all the early layers were built up against one side of the flatwork. A scatter wind will improve the tone anyway.
Wound
And now potted ... lightly in wax
And the job's a good'un!
Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ...
Oil City Pickups ...
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Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
looking forward to seeing the Super Distortion you rewound for me, not that I'm pressing you of course!
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
Speaking of correcting design flaws, is it possible to do a humbucker which fits in a Rick 4001 bridge pickup mounting without incurring the Wrath Of RIC? I've got an old Kent Armstrong (guitar mini-humbucker with bar polepieces, I think - original neck pickup from an Eggle Broadway) in mine that happened to fit perfectly after a little work, and sounds great. It's essential given the amount of fuzz I use on bass, but is another of the things RIC won't fix. Their humbucker is good in the neck but doesn't sound right in the bridge, it's too muddy - and too thin if you wire it in parallel.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog