the art of winding pickups | a relaxing guide

Coils, Magnets, Science and magic…

Winding pickups is a relaxing and contemplative process that allows the winding operator to become the artist of the coils sonic properties.
While the science of magnetic pickups is well known and even fairly archaic at this point, there is still a certain magic in their operation that presents a unique result each time.

The DC resistance (dictated by how much copper is present) and the coil inductance (dictated by the way in which the layers of wire are physically distributed as the coil forms) are easily measurable and allow the operator to make wide predictions about the sound and output a pickup will have even before the bobbin is placed on the winding machine.

Yet, even with these predictions there are many tiny variances that will influence the final result:

The path the hand takes as it feeds the wire, small changes in tension as it is fed from the spool to the bobbin, how even (or uneven) the coil forms, and the speed at which the winding takes place are all constantly changing, chaotic events which make exactly replicating a coil an impossibility. Each will be slightly different, but that’s no bad thing.

It’s these slight variances and imperfections that introduce character to the induced signal. That’s the handwound difference; while machine fed winders can produce the same coil each time, they can’t replicate the random inflections, tension and speed changes, and creative decision making of a human operator.

The parts used in this video come from Nebula, a new EU based webstore selling parts to wind your own pickups.
You can find out what stock they carry by clicking here.

Become the architect of your own sound and delve deep into the calming world of pickup winding.