Hofner 'Diamond' Staple single coil pickup rebuild

OilCityPickups

Yes I know they look like Hofner humbuckers ... but the lack of screw poles usually means they are in fact single coils ... and like most Hofner pickups ... they have died! These are from a Colorama.

There you go ... after the cover solder joints were carefully cut with a Stanley knife ... a big gap where the other coil would normally be! There's a single ceramic magnet pressed against the base of the 'staple' blade pole piece.

Very loosely wound coils ...and loads of green corrosion on the hookup wires ... 
The wire is a strange gauge ... midway between 43awg and 44awg ... and not easy to get thesedays. Luckily I measure wire when it comes in from my suppliers, and any that is over or under gauge (there are always variations) gets put aside for 'special gauge' jobs. This is a touch expensive in the short term, and means I carry a whole load of wire ... but it comes in handy for situations like this.

Off with the old wire ... the sad thing is that the winding wire is in perfect nick ... but the core wire is corroded ... so it all has to go. Stanley knife followed by small scissors.

Winding the new coils ... a shade under 6k ... 

Meanwhile new output cables are soldered in ... the old ones were super short and very ratty.

New coil in place and hooked up with modern shrink tube.
And all ready for it's cover ... and another 50 years of service.

One thing I didn't photograph was the cover repair ... one of the small lugs that fits under the pickup rings had broken off at some point ... so I cut a replacement frpm a scrap Telecaster neck cover (roughly the same size) and soldered it in place.

Winny_Pooh

Nice work as always

OilCityPickups

I love bringing old pickups back to life :-)

earwighoney

Fascinating stuff there Ash.  

I've said it before but it's worth repeating, your pickup dissections and so on are some of the best aspects of this forum. 

Checked out a few videos of Hofner Colorama's on Youtube, they have a nice sound. 

OilCityPickups

earwighoney said:

Fascinating stuff there Ash.  

I've said it before but it's worth repeating, your pickup dissections and so on are some of the best aspects of this forum. 

Checked out a few videos of Hofner Colorama's on Youtube, they have a nice sound. 

I used to have one ... it was brilliant for slide. The single coil 'diamond' pickup is a dead primative design with a lot of similarities to gold foils etc ... it does blues very well indeed.