1. ickups that feedback: I like best using hot wax at a controlled temperature for newer pickups. Older pickups I leave alone as it can lower the value of the pickup. You need to follow proper procedures and safety. Pickups with plastic or nylon bobbins need extreme care and attention so you don’t distort the shape of the bobbin by the hot wax. If single coils are potted too long, the coil and rod pole pieces get so hot it causes the wax to drip out of the pickup while cooling. Quick and complete agitation should be done to remove air bubbles that can contribute to the feedback
2. Steel wool on pole pieces: Use a fine tooth brush to loosen, compressed air and masking tape to remove. On humbuckers removing the magnet from the pickup when possible works well and will help loosen the filings. I put the tape on the bobbins first then remove the bar magnet in Gibson style humbuckers. I you remove the magnet first, the darn things jump off onto the bar. Note: When using compressed air, always use eye protection.
3. Loose pickups in mounting rings: Try using a stronger compression spring and foam rubber in the cavity to keep the pickups from vibrating and moving around. Make a nice seat for the pickups. Some manufactures use 3 elevator legs to help balance the pickup. I still like the traditional two screw height adjustment.
4. Lowering the pickup too much and it falls into the cavity: You need to use a longer screw with the same threads. Most American Fenders use 6/32 and Gibson pickups use 3/48 pickup height screws. If the Gibson leg is stripped, you can solder a 3/48 nut to the bottom.
5. Legs Broken off Gibson Humbuckers: If the leg is broken at the elbow where it’s threaded for height adjustment, it can be bent, drilled and re tapped for the 3/48 thread height adjust screw. If the total leg is broken off, most often a new leg can be soldered on or get another replacement bottom plate.
6. Too many overtones when playing low notes above and near the 12th fret: This especially happens with Stratocasters and by lowering the bass side of the neck and middle pickup will help reduce the overtones. Also using a reverse wind and polarity pickup in the center will help too.
7. Lever switch static: Use a contact cleaner and manipulate the switch from the front and back position several times. Wipe off excess cleaner and becareful not to bend the contacts on the switch.
8. Strings extend beyond the pole spacing of a Gibson style pickup: Use an “F” (Fender) spaced humbucker available from several manufactures. Some folks like Eddie Van Halen slant the pickup to align the strings better with the poles but there will be some loss of performance.
9. Pots are noisy: Use a contact cleaner and rotate the pot many times to break up any oxidation on the wafer inside the control. If it doesn’t solve the problem then replacement might be necessary.
10. Toggle switches on Les Paul’s pop out of position: You need to slightly bend the legs where the plastic cap glides across the contact. I often use a white lithium grease on the contact.
11. Pickups are out of phase when two or more or connected together: If the pickup is electrically out of phase then the coil direction or wires should be reversed. If magnetically out of phase the magnet polarity or magnet bar reversed 180 degrees.
12. Strings hit a pole and the signal shorts out: This can happen to Fender vintage style single coils because the beginning of the coil (magnet wire) is wrapped directly around the rod magnet or polepiece. If the magnet wire is shorted to the magnet and the wires are reversed, the signal is hot and shorted to the magnet. A string that’s grounded hits the pole, it could short out the pickup. This usually happens when players are trying to reverse the pickup polarity to be used with another pickup that may be wound or magnetized differently than the one being installed.
13. Making single coil pickups: They can be made four different ways. The coil can be “Top Going”, “Top Coming” and the magnet polarity can be North or South and calibrated to the desired gauss. Gibson and other companies have calibrated magnets for years with remarkable results.
14. The shape of the pickup: Pickups can be made tall and thing and short and fat. Strats typically have a tall and thin coil as compared to a Gibson P-90 that has a short and fat coil. Fender style pickups normally have less layers of magnet wire as compared to a Gibson P-90. Fender style pickups normally have more turns per layer as compared to a Gibson P-90. Much of this is due to the width of the winding area or the distance back and forth each layer makes. I call the winding area the traverse dimension.
15. Maximum number of turns per layer: The traverse (.50″) divided by the diameter of the magnet wire (.0026″). If the traverse is .50″ (1/2 inch) and the magnet wire is .0026″ diameter. I do the following… .50″ divided by .0026″=192 maximum turns I can put on in one layer. If you try to go beyond the maximum number of turns per layer you start to get bulges and spreading of the flatwork or bobbin.
16. Pickups out of Balance: If the output is not balanced with a combination of pickups, I adjust the bridge pickup first to the desired output I need. Note: depending on your pickup, the closer the pickups are to the strings the increased output also depending on the strength of the magnets, string pull that can dampen string sustain. After the bridge pickup is adjusted, I adjust the neck pickup where there is a nice blend between the both pickups. If the pickups are not matched properly the neck pickup can overpower the bridge pickup. Often the neck and bridge pickups are reversed for better balance, but this will change the sound you once had in the neck or bridge position. If the neck pickup is too loud, try lowering it for the desired output.
17. Rusting Pickups: Try to carefully brush off the magnets with a soft wire brush to loosen the oxidation. I would wipe with a little WD 40 lubricant to help keep down the oxidation from excesive moisture usually found in the guitar case lining. This should be taken care of as many old instruments are failing due to this. Keep the instrument in a pretty dry place around 40-60% humidity. Leaving the case in a hot trunk can make the instrument sweat and run the finish as well as the pickups.
18. Reversing the neck pickup 180 degrees: This was done by Peter Green who played with the early Fleetwood Mac. The stud side of a humbucker usually has a stronger magnetic field than the adjustable screws used on traditional humbuckers. The stud is in direct contact with the bar magnet and directs the magnetic field to face the strings. The adjustable pole piece extends out the bottom of the pickup along with amounts of magnetic field. The transfer of magnetic field isn’t as strong to the strings because of the loss out the bottom. So by reversing the pickup will give you a slightly stronger magnetic field at the string position closer to the fingerboard giving the pickup slightly more output.
19. Are patent applied for bobbins wound the same?: Basically the PAF (Gibson) bobbins are all wound in the same direction, the same machines and number of layers (pitch) per turn. Variables can be tolerances in the magnet wire and number of turns. Tension and winding speed play an important factor too. The older coil machines that wound the PAF pickups had a turns counter but had to be physically stopped to keep the pickups from over-winding. Earlier PAF pickups had a pre-determined number of turns to stop the winding machine but on occasion the winder was busy getting the bobbins ready on another machine and didn’t turn the previous machine off in time and thus you have hotter pickups and more turns.
20. Does the color of the bobbin effect the sound: On early Gibson Patent Applied For bobbins both cream and black bobbins were made from Butyrate a plastic often found on BIC pens and tool handles. Certain color dyes are added for the desired color. The color probably doesn’t have a noticeable sound effect but a desired visual one. I often wondered if the black pickups used a lamp black carbon for the color if it would have a sound difference. Nobody could answer that one for me. Later on when the Gibson T-top bobbins were made, a harder material was used. The “T” on the bobbins was for “top” so the bobbin was put in the machine properly to insure proper phasing when hooking up the bobbins. When the bobbin manufacture made the “T” top bobbins, they were molded in slightly different colors. I have ones with hints of blue, brown, and marbled. They must have been running another color with someone’s previous tooling.
21. Fender style bobbins: The bobbins are blanked out and the holes punched. They use a vulcanized fibre which is made from compressed paper similar to the old style drum cases. The blanked part becomes flatwork and comes in various thickness. The top flatwork is usually .062″ and the bottom is .093″ thick. It is very workable and has been used for many years to make bobbins and other electrical components. It’s used in many hard wired Fender amps.
22. Noisy Jacks: The plating can wear off inside the output jack leaving the brass on Switchcraft jacks to oxidize. The oxidation often causes the plug to make poor contact and makes the signal snap, crackle and pop. Clean with a fine brush and contact cleaner to remove the residue or best to replace the jack completely unless it’s a vintage instrument.
23. Removing Covers: Extreme care should be done when removing old covers. Over the years dust and moisture can bond the cover and the coils together and trying to remove them can scrape or snag the coil. If one turn is broken, the coil is history. If for some reason you need to remove the cover, I would carefully inspect to see how hard or easy it can be removed. Try not to handle the pickup too much. They were intended to stay put in the instrument and should not be messed with. Carefully label and wrap the pickup in tissue and put in a safe place. Make sure it isn’t mistaken for an old tissue and tossed out in the trash.

I recently made a trip to Washington, DC to do patent searches and found many interesting items. I will be working on articles from information direct from the patent office. The Nashville Namm show in July was a blast and listening to great players Brent Mason (Alan Jackson & sessions), Jimmy Olander (Diamond Rio), Elliot Randall, Albert Lee, Steve Morse, Bugs Henderson and band. Many of us played at the Wild Horse Saloon and was it hot! I had a spectacular visit to the Gibson factory from employee Roger Fritz and enjoyed it very much. Roger once produced a guitar for my friend “Roy Buchanan”. Everyone there was working hard and thanks for all their time to show me around. A special thanks to Dave Kyle who did a great cover story on Chet Atkins and for showing me around Nashville. We visited Ray Butts who invented the Gretsch Filtertron Pickup. Ray had many great stories and new inventions and had great stories about Chet.