April 2009 \ Features \ How To \ How To: Pot Your Own Pickups

How To: Pot Your Own Pickups

Art Bryon

Nip microphonic pickups in the bud and dispose of those smelly gift candles in one fell swoop.
Premier Guitar April 2009
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Step 6
Using an oven mitt, lower the pickup into the hot wax, and let it soak for between one and two minutes (note the watch on the counter). We held the pickup by the wire pigtail, and the outer insulation almost melted through where it was pinched on the backing plate by the strain relief tab. We were okay this time, but next time we’ll probably use a pair of pliers to hold the pickup. Have a cooling plate ready, so you don’t get wax drops all over your kitchen counter. It takes a long time—about a half hour—for these puppies to cool down. The masking tape we put on top of the bobbins to keep the wax off lasted about 10 seconds in the pot. In the end it didn’t matter, so don’t even bother covering anything.

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Comments

 (24 comments) display by
UsernameComment
Chris G
on 09/21/2012 		David S that's a myth, covers do not dull the tone. Covered humbuckers are brighter than uncovered.
Ruff'n'Ready
on 04/03/2012 		"The istructions I gave earlier are from Paul Reed Smith." Wow, they make really awful pickups. Don't listen to anything they say. The guitars are nice though
David S
on 04/03/2012 		I didn't read this whole article, but I have been making pickups professionally for the past 6 years. You do not have to remove tape from a bobbin before you pot it. I pot all of mine after they are taped up. Just put a rubber band around it to stop the tape from coming off. Don't use old candles. Just get some paraffin used for canning. Be VERY careful heating wax on the stove. You can start a fire and melt your bobbins! Do stay under 150 degrees. If you are playing humbuckers with covers, take the covers off. That's where most of the feedback comes from, and they sound better with no covers. The covers dull the tone. This is why everyone tok the covers off in the 70s.
David
on 12/15/2010 		Guess I should have been more specific...a hot plate with a variable temperature knob....yeeesh. It's like trying to explain something to my 90 year old grandmother. How about this, try doing it in a fireplace suspended in gasoline.
Chadd T
on 07/21/2010 		lespaul83custom@yahoo.com if ya have any questions... I just did it so I can tell ya what I know... NO SUPER GLUE!!!
Chadd T
on 07/21/2010 		For the love of God, Women, Gibson and Marshall Halfstacks! DO NOT PULL THE TAPE OFF! Pull it of and break 1 coil and your off to musicians friend or Ebay to look for a replacement! I read the gas stove comment... I saw the hot plate suggestion... Hot plate would work good if it has a high med low setting My old one didn't...but an electric stove is my vote. melt the wax, set it on low, check the temp with a candy thermometer and set... Gas Stove? I would think that it would be hard to maintain a constant temp...
Chadd T
on 07/21/2010 		I potted 490 and 498T's today 1st time and I do still get a little feedback (bad) but the tone is how a lespaul should be. The feedback that I'm gettting is due the the fact of my settings being set to counter the muddy tone I was getting before I potted them. Not hard ta do at all but you do have to take your time and watch the double boiler...Cool tip! Ya want the wax around 140-150 anything around 100 goes solid... But if it starts to hop up over the 150 mark pour a little bit of cold water in the water basin... NOT THE WAX HOLDER!It helps to mediate the temp. be sure to rubber band the pickups so the tape doesn't come off... ROCK ON!
Chris Gordon
on 06/18/2010 		OMFG!! Step 3 - DON'T DO THAT! I just skipped ahead to this page and it had step 3 and there's a photo of one coil removed and the tape being pulled off. That is just plain wrong! (0/10) [X] no check mark for that behaviour. If you do that you are most likely going to be buying new pickups.
David
on 06/16/2010 		Notice how Spike mentions his STORE, and the pickups you'll have to buy if you do this yourselves? And ole' Doc Twang mentions he would be happy to sell you new pickups too because potting your own...blah blah blah....and Capn Chaos might just be a moron! You old idiots need to give it a break and quit scaring people out of working on their own instruments. You old bastards should be ashamed...you sound like freakin mechanics (thieves). Be honest and let the next generation of young musicians know that they don't need to pay losers like these guys a hundred bucks or more to do things you should know how to do yourselves!!! Psst, another secret these guys dont want you to know....setting your own intonation (harmonics) is pretty damn easy too, how much do all these helpful techs charge you each time they do that???
I'm 44 years old and been playing for 30 years and I'm tired of these kind of dirtbags scaring people. Biasing an amp..ok I get it, that should be left to others most times, but this stuff is easy and we should encourage young players to learn how to do these things, not act like crack dealer tethering people into thinking they cannot do anything for themselves!!!!!!!!!!!!! The istructions I gave earlier are from Paul Reed Smith. Thats how they do it...stay at or under 150 degrees and you WILL NOT damage your pickups!!!
Rudy
on 04/19/2010 		Will this also work on single coils, too? I have a cheap strat clone lying around I was wondering if this will help with feedback.



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