Oil City Pickups: 1963 Patent label Gibson 'PAF' on the bench

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OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9984
in Made in the UK tFB Trader
I consider myself very lucky that from time to time I get amazing old pickups on my bench to renovate. These are a real treat and I am going to share my trip around the inside of a 63 'Patent number Gibson. These repair jobs are a pleasure and a rare and valuable opportunity to analyse and measure 'classic' pickups. This all feeds into my own product development ... but is fun as well!
Here's a taster ... I will feed more out on here as the job progresses    
image
Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • Adam_MDAdam_MD Frets: 3420
    Love these threads
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  • sweepysweepy Frets: 4159
    This could prove expensive ;)
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9984
    tFB Trader
    Right ... on with the surgery ....
    on a modern pickup I would have simply un-soldered the cover to remove it ... on old and valuable pickups that can be weakened by age, I always slice through tho old solder with a stiff craft knife ... taking great care not to cut below the solder and risk the outside coils. image

    And oh my god!!!! this is a bad case of sweat induced corrosion .... those are both meant to be BLACK bobbins!

    image

    I was now very suspicious of the screw coil .... especially as I could see that corrosion had entered the little round molding holes that leave small 'channels' to the bare windings themselves.
    image The one on the slug coil to the left of the pic is how the matching one on the screw coil should look! Instead the screw one is almost totally closed with corrosive gunk!

    More shortly!


    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • sweepysweepy Frets: 4159
    I look forward to the new pickup ;)
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9984
    tFB Trader
    Now to make sure it's the screw coil that's at fault .... by carefully taking the tape off of the 'pig tails and putting on a multimeter

    image
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    Within seconds I had my suspicions confirmed ... a healthy DC resistance from the slug coil ... zip from the screw coil ...

    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9984
    tFB Trader
    As soon as I ascertained that the coil break wasn't in the first few turns I consulted the pickup's owner as to whether he wanted a coil rewind. It's a tricky dilemma for some as of course that compromises originality ... but he took the sensible view that a working and great sounding vintage instrument is better than an expensive wall ornament! My view too ... so we will move on to phase two shortly, a full strip down, clean up and rewind of the poor, sad screw coil, plus measures to stop the rampant corrosion on the nickel cover and prevent any re-occurrence that might kill the pickup in future. We also agreed that the cover would be removed from the healthy bridge unit so that I could assess its condition, and also remove any corrosion in there too. Prevention is better than cure ... and less expensive in the long run!  
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • MkjackaryMkjackary Frets: 776
    Almost looks like a zebra humbucker
    I'm not a McDonalds burger. It is MkJackary, not Mc'Jackary... It's Em Kay Jackary. Mkay?
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27345
    It's like surgery.

    Dr Ash.
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9984
    tFB Trader
    A friend watched me working on the pickup and was laughing at the tweezers and probes I was using ... said I should have a little drip set up!
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • 4string4string Frets: 33
    tFB Trader
    A friend watched me working on the pickup and was laughing at the tweezers and probes I was using ... said I should have a little drip set up!
    I think the next procedure should be streamed live. :-)
    Chief Bottle Washer @ Oil City Pickups.
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  • FelineGuitarsFelineGuitars Frets: 11496
    tFB Trader
    A friend watched me working on the pickup and was laughing at the tweezers and probes I was using ... said I should have a little drip set up!
    The surgeon's mask would get in the way of Hobnob consumption surely.....

    Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
    Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.

    Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.

      Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com.  Facebook too!

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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9984
    edited May 2016 tFB Trader
    A friend watched me working on the pickup and was laughing at the tweezers and probes I was using ... said I should have a little drip set up!
    The surgeon's mask would get in the way of Hobnob consumption surely.....
    Nah the drip is for me ... liquid essence of Hobnob .... for those stressful moments.
    Turn count will be done next, while stripping the old wire .... three Hobnobs an hour job!
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • olafgartenolafgarten Frets: 1648
    A friend watched me working on the pickup and was laughing at the tweezers and probes I was using ... said I should have a little drip set up!
    The surgeon's mask would get in the way of Hobnob consumption surely.....
    Nah the drip is for me ... liquid essence of Hobnob .... for those stressful moments.
    Turn count will be done next, while stripping the old wire .... three Hobnobs an hour job!
    How do you go about counting the turns? Is it by the thickness of the wire? I can't imagine that you actually count them.
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9984
    tFB Trader
    As the original pickup was wound by machine each layer (every time the traverse system crosses the pickup) contains a specific number of turns. This 'turns per layer' count is vital to the sound of the finished pickup. It's this I count by hand over several 'layers' to obtain a TPL figure for the whole pickup. The DCR of the good coil will give a good guide to the likely DCR (and thus overall turn count) of the dead one ... plus years of experience with old pickups :-)
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • olafgartenolafgarten Frets: 1648
    As the original pickup was wound by machine each layer (every time the traverse system crosses the pickup) contains a specific number of turns. This 'turns per layer' count is vital to the sound of the finished pickup. It's this I count by hand over several 'layers' to obtain a TPL figure for the whole pickup. The DCR of the good coil will give a good guide to the likely DCR (and thus overall turn count) of the dead one ... plus years of experience with old pickups :-)
    I love these pickup teardown/restoration things, can't wait to see more.
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  • Amazing, I love these threads. Absolutely fascinating, and it's so good to get such legendary pickups as old pafs and super distortions brought back to life.
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  • EvilmagsEvilmags Frets: 5158
    Top work as ever
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9984
    tFB Trader
    Right, on with the job :-) 
    Out come the pole screws .... very carefully. They are threaded into the baseplate as on all real PAFs and patent number pickups but the danger is the threads breaking up on old butyrate bobbins. Luckily these came out cleanly (here numbered to go back in their original positions. 
    image
    image
    Here you can clearly see the threaded baseplate, also the machined keeper bar (cheap modern pickups have stamped ones that don't fit the poles as well). The other healthy coil will stay in place on top of that nice alnico 5 rough cast magnet and maple shim.
    And so the duff coil is free ....image
    .... next stage cleanup 
    It's amazing what some alcohol and a bit of rubbing can do (fnar fnar) 
    image
    Notice the molding marks and general unevenness of real butyrate bobbins ... not like modern plastic bobbins at all.
    And finally a look at the windings ... very typical coil shape for PAF/patent number pickups ... a result of poor operator adjustment on the old winding machines. I will replicate this when I rewind.image 
    Next analysing the coil, determining the layer/turn count ... then rewinding :-)

    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • skippy76skippy76 Frets: 615
    Excellent thread mate.
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9984
    tFB Trader
    Thank you :-) 
    I really enjoy letting folks see my day to day work ... especially restoration jobs, they have their own set of fascinating problems to overcome. 
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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