Oil City Summer Strat pickup sale

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OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9986
edited July 2018 in Made in the UK tFB Trader
Okay, so I've probably got a touch of the sun ... but in celebration of all things sunny and Californian I'm offering 20% off all my Strat pickups for the next three weeks, both Masterwound and Standard range. 
Simply select what you want on my site Strat page, type in STRATSUMMER18 and get 20% automatically! Depending on demand, build times will be around ten working days ... enjoy.
Oh, and some of you may not yet have realised, but my new site not only accepts PayPal ... but all major credit cards as well ... 
Promotion starts midnight tonight :-)

.
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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Comments

  • TwoSpellWizardTwoSpellWizard Frets: 238
    edited July 2018
    I'm on the lookout for some Strat pickups as it happens. How handy!
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9986
    tFB Trader
    I'm on the lookout for some Strat pickups as it happens. How handy!

    Psychic me :-)
    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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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30826
    Just like to chime in here...Ash recently rewound my 1961 Strat bridge pup and did and amazing job...buy with confidence 

    (I have admittedly not paid for the rewind quite yet....and need to do it) 

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9986
    tFB Trader
    Gassage said:
    Just like to chime in here...Ash recently rewound my 1961 Strat bridge pup and did and amazing job...buy with confidence 

    (I have admittedly not paid for the rewind quite yet....and need to do it) 
    Thank's mate :-)

    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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  • Potentially if someone were to acquire a Strat and they were after something akin to the CS69 set (in the sense they are definitively stratty) would that be the Route 66 set?
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  • tone1tone1 Frets: 5112
    Ive got some Masterwound Blues Strat pickups from Ash and I’m very happy :)
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9986
    tFB Trader
    Potentially if someone were to acquire a Strat and they were after something akin to the CS69 set (in the sense they are definitively stratty) would that be the Route 66 set?
    that's it
    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: 9986
    tFB Trader
    Potentially if someone were to acquire a Strat and they were after something akin to the CS69 set (in the sense they are definitively stratty) would that be the Route 66 set?
    Hold the press ... I'm just rewinding a set of 1968 Strat pickups ... and as their spec differs from the 66 slightly ... and is the same as the 69, I have all the 'straight from the bench info' needed to do direct copies.
    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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  • springheadspringhead Frets: 1583

    Possibly a slight diversion but as well as copying the wire type, winding pattern, turns etc. do you measure the field strength of the magnets and charge yours to match?

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  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14323
    springhead said:
    Possibly a slight diversion
    Nice to see that I am not the only one posing awkward questions.  :3
    Be seeing you.
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9986
    tFB Trader

    Possibly a slight diversion but as well as copying the wire type, winding pattern, turns etc. do you measure the field strength of the magnets and charge yours to match?

    Yes I do ... as an interesting point the magnets on the unmolested 68 pickups have barely lost any charge at all ... which is what I commonly find on 60s Strat pickups. Alnico is pretty stable, especially alnico 5. 
    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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  • springheadspringhead Frets: 1583
    Interesting.  So by saying they've not lost any charge is that based on there being a known full/saturation charge amount, presumably different for the various flavours of Alnico?
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9986
    edited July 2018 tFB Trader
    Interesting.  So by saying they've not lost any charge is that based on there being a known full/saturation charge amount, presumably different for the various flavours of Alnico?
    Indeed ... that's compared to a modern alnico 5 rod magnet of the same specification charged in our workshop. Strats (contrary to what some forums and internet pundits might say) have never had anything but alnico 5 used in their construction. The wire has changed, the magnets havn't. Unless a pickup has had some sort of close contact with a powerful magnetic field, an alnico 5 one will drop less than 0.5% charge by natural decay in 100 years. This cant be said for all flavours of magnet, but A5 is naturally very stable.
    Below ... rewound 68 Strat 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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  • springheadspringhead Frets: 1583
    Very interesting, thank you!
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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    Another question, just if you have time @TheGuitarWeasel ; - pickup makers sometimes refer to the "winding pattern". Is this basically just the amount of scatter they are putting into a coil, or is there more to it, and if so, could you say something about this? (without wanting you to give away any trade secrets). :)
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9986
    edited July 2018 tFB Trader
    Megii said:
    Another question, just if you have time @TheGuitarWeasel ;; - pickup makers sometimes refer to the "winding pattern". Is this basically just the amount of scatter they are putting into a coil, or is there more to it, and if so, could you say something about this? (without wanting you to give away any trade secrets).
    Winding pattern is how the wire is laid on the coil: essentially that equates to how many turns of wire it takes to complete one pass right to left ot left to right when winding. A complete pass or traverse is called a 'layer'. Hand traversed pickups have a random number of turns per layer, machine traversed ones have a set number of turns per layer programmable by the operator (on modern machines - fixed on older ones). The 68 pickups shown were factory wound on a machine with an automatic traverse, earlier ones were hand wound. For pickups like the 68s shown, I unwind a layer or two and count the turns, then program our winding machine to ape the 60s machine's turns per layer. For hand wound pickups ... I rewind in the same way they were made ... with hand traverse.
    Turns per layer is important, as it determines the angle at which successive layers cross each other. The bigger the angle of crossing the less capacitance the pickup has (laying wires next to each other builds up internal capacitance). The capacitance of a pickup acts as a filter to alter the pickup's resonant peak, so it's important to get that bit right!
    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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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    Megii said:
    Another question, just if you have time @TheGuitarWeasel ;; - pickup makers sometimes refer to the "winding pattern". Is this basically just the amount of scatter they are putting into a coil, or is there more to it, and if so, could you say something about this? (without wanting you to give away any trade secrets).
    Winding pattern is how the wire is laid on the coil: essentially that equates to how many turns of wire it takes to complete one pass right to left ot left to right when winding. A complete pass or traverse is called a 'layer'. Hand traversed pickups have a random number of turns per layer, machine traversed ones have a set number of turns per layer programmable by the operator (on modern machines - fixed on older ones). The 68 pickups shown were factory wound on a machine with an automatic traverse, earlier ones were hand wound. For pickups like the 68s shown, I unwind a layer or two and count the turns, then program our winding machine to ape the 60s machine's turns per layer. For hand wound pickups ... I rewind in the same way they were made ... with hand traverse.
    Turns per layer is important, as it determines the angle at which successive layers cross each other. The bigger the angle of crossing the less capacitance the pickup has (laying wires next to each other builds up internal capacitance). The capacitance of a pickup acts as a filter to alter the pickup's resonant peak, so it's important to get that bit right!
    That's me a little wiser, thanks for the excellent explanation. :)

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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9986
    tFB Trader
    Megii said:
    Megii said:
    Another question, just if you have time @TheGuitarWeasel ;; - pickup makers sometimes refer to the "winding pattern". Is this basically just the amount of scatter they are putting into a coil, or is there more to it, and if so, could you say something about this? (without wanting you to give away any trade secrets).
    Winding pattern is how the wire is laid on the coil: essentially that equates to how many turns of wire it takes to complete one pass right to left ot left to right when winding. A complete pass or traverse is called a 'layer'. Hand traversed pickups have a random number of turns per layer, machine traversed ones have a set number of turns per layer programmable by the operator (on modern machines - fixed on older ones). The 68 pickups shown were factory wound on a machine with an automatic traverse, earlier ones were hand wound. For pickups like the 68s shown, I unwind a layer or two and count the turns, then program our winding machine to ape the 60s machine's turns per layer. For hand wound pickups ... I rewind in the same way they were made ... with hand traverse.
    Turns per layer is important, as it determines the angle at which successive layers cross each other. The bigger the angle of crossing the less capacitance the pickup has (laying wires next to each other builds up internal capacitance). The capacitance of a pickup acts as a filter to alter the pickup's resonant peak, so it's important to get that bit right!
    That's me a little wiser, thanks for the excellent explanation. :)

    Megii said:
    Megii said:
    Another question, just if you have time @TheGuitarWeasel ;; - pickup makers sometimes refer to the "winding pattern". Is this basically just the amount of scatter they are putting into a coil, or is there more to it, and if so, could you say something about this? (without wanting you to give away any trade secrets).
    Winding pattern is how the wire is laid on the coil: essentially that equates to how many turns of wire it takes to complete one pass right to left ot left to right when winding. A complete pass or traverse is called a 'layer'. Hand traversed pickups have a random number of turns per layer, machine traversed ones have a set number of turns per layer programmable by the operator (on modern machines - fixed on older ones). The 68 pickups shown were factory wound on a machine with an automatic traverse, earlier ones were hand wound. For pickups like the 68s shown, I unwind a layer or two and count the turns, then program our winding machine to ape the 60s machine's turns per layer. For hand wound pickups ... I rewind in the same way they were made ... with hand traverse.
    Turns per layer is important, as it determines the angle at which successive layers cross each other. The bigger the angle of crossing the less capacitance the pickup has (laying wires next to each other builds up internal capacitance). The capacitance of a pickup acts as a filter to alter the pickup's resonant peak, so it's important to get that bit right!
    That's me a little wiser, thanks for the excellent explanation. :)

    Don't mention it :-) 
    If I can share some insights and explode a few myths on the way I'm happy. 
    As far as trade secrets are concerned ... I don't share the turns per layer I find on a vintage pickup, as that's for other makers to find out by being trusted to rewind valued vintage pickups. When they pay their dues, they find out :-)
    You will see all sorts of 'turns per layer' numbers bandied about on t'internet with regards to PAFs ... not seen a correct one yet for the ones I've worked on ... lots of smoke and mirrors out there.
    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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