Last Week a customer sent me a Joe Barden Tele neck single coil size humbucker for rewind. Little was I to realise what a nasty little job this was to become ... follow me into the Oil City workshop ... I promise to filter out the swearing!
Bottom view of the barden red and green and red are the start and finish colours of one coil, black and white ... the other. One coil was reading a healthy 2.2k (Bardons are very low output), the other was open circuit.
Right ... remove the tape covering to let the 'dog see the rabbit'!
And 'hummmmmmmmm' ....
First ... and major issue ... both coils were firmly and permanently stuck together at one end with some sort of green epoxy resin putty ... super hard and unaffected by solvents ... BIG PROBLEM. It was clear that in pulling the coils apart or trying to remove the putty the good coil would be wrecked too.
I cursed ... and frankly wondered why any manufacturer would use such a fumble-witted method of 'fixing' the coils that wouldn't allow for future repair? It was clear too why the 'duff' coil had gone open circuit ... little pins with flat ends passed through the lower plastic flatwork and had the output wires soldered to one end and the fine coil wires to the other. These pins were loose in the flatwork, no doubt because the act of soldering the wires to the pins in the factory had partially melted the plastic and made them a slack fit. If the pins could rotate ... they would simply snap the super fine 43awg coil wires.
Anyway in for a penny ... that putty must die!
Off came the putty ... and shooooo nufff ... now two duff coils ... gurrrrrrrrrrr!!!
You can see two of the offending pins at either end of the coils.
After cutting the wire off both now deceased coils ... I find another problem ... the bobbins have no plastic cores, the blades are taped and the top and bottom bobbin plates are simply 'washers' that are slid and glued over the blade core. This means the blade is non removable ... and so I would have to fabricate a jig to be able to mount the piddly little blade/bobbin on my winding machine. Double gurrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
Luckily I have a fair bit of scrap mahogany about in my workshop ... so a half hour with saw, superglue and hot melt glue ... and I have a pair of 'shoes' that allow me to centre and hold the bobbin firm .... phew!
And wind ....times two.
The 'north up' coil ... all wound, its pins re installed, and soldered to the start and finish wires ... and that ceramic magnet re attached.
Both coils wound and reunited ... no epoxy putty for me :-)
New four conductor hookup wire attached ... and strain relieved with a cloth tape binding to the base frame ...
And now to pot the little beast ... yes it's a little chip basket ... we have lots of them :-)
Potted and ready to tape .....
And now to solve the problem that originally killed one coil of this pickup ... those pesky rotating pins ...
And hey presto ...
Hot melt glue to encapsulate the pins and both strain relieve hookup wires and stop the pins ever rotating again.
Job done .... man I earned my keep on this one :-)
Comments
I'll be honest and say I can't see the build quality in the Bardon to justify that price ... but hey ...
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
I shall be sticking to my oil cities.
I had a set of Barden Strat pickups in the late 90s that were very nice sounding but looking at that set of pictures, I can't see where the money went!
I'd love a UK winder to offer a similar concept (noiseless but still Tele-sounding pickups), with maybe a smidgenly fatter sound.
In effect you are paying for the name and the idea and the whole thing being made in the US ... the construction is very similar to a £20 Artec when all's said and done.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
Thanks for making that mistake for me
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
I can imagine there was a quantity of industrial language.
I'm not generally a fan of this style of pickup, ie a humbucker pretending to be a single coil, but really like the sound of Bardon Tele pickups.
If they are good enough for Gatton....................
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
I played one of Danny Gatton's old teles recently, with Bardon's installed in it.
For some reason I didn't sound like him......
Wrong amp?
I swore I was never going to touch another of the things ... but never say never
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog