Rebuilding DeArmond Gold Tone humbuckers

OilCityPickups

Generally seen in an environment like this ... the US built DeArmond Gold Tone Humbucker is a fascinating beast.



Kinda like a 70s rockabilly/country Gibson T Top with a bit more yeee ha :-)

Sadly the pair that popped through my door from one of our members here the other day had lost precisely 50% of their yee ha per pickup ... both had a coil down. 



 These pickups have an interesting ... if slightly flawed design that I thought might make a good photo story to strip down and repair. 

The first thing to note about these when you see them from the back is that they use EZ Bobbins. What I hear you cry are EZ Bobbins ... I shall elucidate ...

 
Like some Fender pickups you can see two soldering 'turrets' per bobbin poking through the baseplate Top bobbin red and black wires, bottom bobbin green and white.
When you strip down a pickup like this you see that there are no 'pigtails' or output coil wires as on a  conventional bobbin ... lets get the cover off to see ...  



Lift out the coil that's reading open circuit ...



And here we go ... an EZ Bobbin ...



It has no spacer, no keeper bar ... the 'spacer' is moulded in and in the case of these DeArmonds, steel 'standoffs' similar to those used to space off a motherboard in a computer are pressed into what is essentially a slug bobbin for the pole screws to screw into ... and by the way they are super short pole screws which adds to the biting nature of these beasts. 

 
Here we see how come there are no output wires as such ... the coil wire goes straight down that notch in the bobbin 'foot' ... has a few turns round the metal pin and is soldered ... then the hookup wires are soldered to the pins when the bobbins are mounted on the baseplate ....
One sliiiiiiight problem there is of course no taped pigtail cable to add strain relief to the fine coil wires ... but worse ... the bobbins are soft thermoplastic, the pins are plated brass and moulded into the bobbin ... and of course anything more than the super fast soldering in the factory with brand new and clean parts ... melts the bobbin around the pin and unless you are super careful ... out pops the pin propelled by expanding gasses from the melting plastic. 
I'm showing you the good end here ... the coil start wire at the other end of the bobbin was broken off flush with the coil! 

So off came the wire  -  I had my suspicion about the winding direction ... so I tried to find the finish end to unwrap some turns and confirm my suspicions - this had to be done by soaking the coil in the potting bath ... then prodding with a cotton bud till the broken end came into view ... magnifying goggles were needed!   
Yep ... at least this screw coil was wound back to front to almost every humbucker you will come across ... this seems to be common with EZ Bobbin pickups. 
With the wire off ... and you can see how short those screws are ... 


I won't bother to show rewinding ... it's the same as rewinding any normal humbucker ... 

More in part 2 

grungebob

Looking forward to part two 

Jez6345789

Interesting work nice

OilCityPickups

Really only remains to show you how shitty the wiring was on the 'neck' pickup 'top'.  New output wire was fitted all round keeping the DeArmond wiring code ....


Better than the 2" of four conductor someone had chopped em to! 

And ready to rock for years to come!