Pickup winding wire - remove insulation?

Modellista

I'm repairing a cheapo Squier for a friend and one of the coil wires is broken off from the solder points.  I can't multimeter the pickup because of the insulation on the pickup wire, so I need to resolder the copper wire back on to the pickup points before I know the pickup is working.

Do I have to strip the insulation from the copper wire somehow?  There seems to be conflicting info on the internet.  A Stewmac video showed just winding the copper wire through the hole a couple of times and then soldering - presumably the solder melts the wire insulation?  Any tips would be gratefully received.

ICBM

Modellista said:

A Stewmac video showed just winding the copper wire through the hole a couple of times and then soldering - presumably the solder melts the wire insulation?

Yes, that should work fine. You need to get a reasonable amount of heat into it though, which can cause problems on plastic-bobbin pickups - the eyelet can melt out of the bobbin. This is why so many modern Fender USA and Mexico pickups have cold joints, because the workers are trained to apply the minimum amount of heat necessary and sometimes they under-do it.

If you need to be more certain and it's a plastic bobbin, you can carefully scrape the coating off by running a knife blade along the wire with it held against the bobbin, but it's extremely easy to cut right through it.

rossi

I have used it on model train  DCC wiring  which can be nut grindingly delicate.The secret is to use a hot iron and a largish tip .I use an Antex 25 watt..Then you practise first until you get it right .THEN you solder your pickup.

Funkfingers

All of the above comments assume that the damaged pickup is a single coil, in a Stratocaster, Bullet or Telecaster. 

There is an argument for using the damaged pickup as an excuse to upgrade to something better.

Modellista

^ Yes it is a single coil.  The guitar is a mildly interesting Korean Squier from the late 80s or early 90s.  It has a Schaller Floyd copy but no locking nut at the top.  Frets are totally shot.  No point at all in upgrading the thing, the chap is going to buy a better guitar to start playing again and keep this one for sentimental reasons.  I'm fixing it up for practice/experience.

Modellista

Cheers @ICBM and @rossi. ; Will have a practice and then bite the bullet!

Henrytwang

I’ve never really achieved a good solder joint on pickup winding wire  without carefully scraping off the insulation with a scalpel. You do have to be extremely careful though as it’s easy to snap the wire, I use a magnifying glass to see what I’m doing.

Modellista

Henrytwang said:

I’ve never really achieved a good solder joint on pickup winding wire  without carefully scraping off the insulation with a scalpel. You do have to be extremely careful though as it’s easy to snap the wire, I use a magnifying glass to see what I’m doing.

Ever tried burning it off with a lighter?

Modellista

Having tried the scrape method I know for certain I can't do it.  The wire just keeps breaking.  If I'm careful with a lighter you can see the coating flaming off.  But it's really easy to evaporate the wire itself!

I suspect the pickup is properly borked anyway, but I think I'll just solder it without worrying about the coating and see what happens.

OilCityPickups

The only coating we scrape (and we manufacture pickups) is heavy formvar ... and not always then. A hot iron (we use 60w) and a tiny bit of flux paste in the eyelet will sort it. However if it's a plastic bobbin, as ICBM says ... forget it, you'll have to scrape.

Modellista

Yep, it's a naff plastic bobbin.  I can't scrape.  Looks like this is headed for the bin... 

Alegree

Get a little bit of insulated wire, strip it back and wrap the end of the coil around that and solder it to your heart's content.
Connect the other end of the wire to the eyelet with a brief bit of heat.  

Modellista

^ hmm, clever...

ICBM

Or hold the end of the coil wire in the air and tin the end of it with fresh solder - where you can heat it as much as you want - then wrap it through the eyelet and you should be able to solder it with a brief touch.