Rish's Lego Pickup Winder

[ChrisWoodle]

This is genius.



[Burntoast2000]

Cool lego winder!

[zeppeled123]

how do you get all this wire???

[caulinrocker1]

@zeppeled123 1 spool can make many pickups ... you can get them on stewmac

[RishPickups]

@caulinrocker1 : I worked it out a while back, I think I made 5 pickups of around 7700 to 8000 winds from one spool (that said I had a few winds break) but I wanted lower output pickups. So I limited my winds to 8000 as a max. 

[RishPickups]

@zeppeled123 Hey there sorry for the delay in the response. Quite correct StewMac is a great site for this sort of thing. Not so easy to get it in Europe though. So I had to import it from the US and Canada. I got everything else from StewMac. They are fantastic.

[LollarGuitars]

this is funny- the first pickup winding machine i made was very similar- some sort of lego set and I made it guide the wire back and forth automatically with a wire guide on a plastic lego worm gear track with a reversal switch on each end of the track- that was 1979.

[pece33]

Thats just great stuff mate.Im going to make one of these sooner or later to make my own high output full of mid growl pickup.

[RishPickups]

Hey @pece33 making your own pickups is great. I now have built my own 15Watt Class A amp, a little valve boost pedal and really having a load of fun :) hope you have a great time making pickups.

[JonDeth]

Nice work, cool video man

[RishPickups]

Hey JonDeth, thanks man... :)

[JonDeth]

@RishPickups I have a question.

Does coil wire have to be coated with an enamel or some type of insulator so it's not conducting into itself?

[RishPickups]

@JonDeth, Coil wires are already coated when you buy it, with a poly-synthetic. For two reasons, one is to prevent the coils shorting (touching) and the second, because the wire gauge is as thin or even thinner in cases than hair, the coating provides strength. 40+ years ago they used lacquer, but this becomes brittle and cracks.

[JonDeth]

@RishPickups I had assumed as much but some companies actually still use vintage enamel coated wire. Carvin pickups for example and while I can praise the performance of their single coils, their humbuckers are quite noisey or were at least 10 years ago. They still sell the flagship models I bought so I doubt much has changed. I'm really not a fan of lacquer for any purposes anyway though it does give probably the most pristine finish.

[RishPickups]

@JonDeth I have worked with many pickups over the years, and by all counts there are really just a few from varied manufacturers that I like. But there is nothing more satisfactory then making your own. You make it to spec of your amp and the effects you use. It takes time to get there, but the result is finding your own sound, which is best for you and makes you unique.

[JonDeth]

@RishPickups I feel pickups primarily just need to be quiet and sufficient output with a balanced frequency spectrum production. A nice "yahw" sound is also preferable. I use primarily boutique brand pickups as they tend to be cheap and very high performance. Most are coming out of Korea who is known to produce the best outsourced parts in the world and I tend to agree.

I engineer and build my own overdrives/preamps so virtually any pickup sounds good through them, granted they're noiseless.

[JonDeth]

@RishPickups the flip side to that tonal outlook is of course, a pickup with a dominant midrange spike and adequate bass. I notice pickups with a VERY dominant midrange hump produce a flux that gives a near wah effect to their "yahw".

That means big buck name brand, trying dozens of boutique brands or building your own to find this characteristic. Hopefully I build my own soon as I have also invented a new type of pickup.

[RishPickups]

@JonDeth One tip I use for pickup winding - Use a drinks straw and wrap it around the poles cut it just wide enough to fit the pole pieces in the gap. If it is wider than the poles, cut it thinner and use a small torch to heat it onto the pole. That avoids the poles from shorting on to the coil during the coil winding and or potting later.

[grndaykid10]

i wanna hear how they sound and i made a pickup winder out of knex

[RishPickups]

Hi @grndaykid10 please see my other posts - if you click on my channel name Rishpickups you should see my other youtube posts I have a video showing their quality.

[tommyguitarz]

Very cool! What other Lego set did you use besides the NXT? Looks like another kit's worth of parts. Make more stuff and show us.

[indyperry]

Great idea...very cool!

[SearcySW]

HA! That's insane. I'll have to make a video of my Hot Wheels winder now.

[accordiancole]

This is great! It Inspired me to make my own winder that runs of the older rcx version (in my opinion it's a little more costumizable) I'll be putting a vid of it up soon, although i still have a couple more tweaks with it, its turned out pretty well. Thanks for the inspiration! ^_^

[wowusukk]

its pretty kool but i just gotta say unless you make your living outta selling pickups you have too much time on your hands

[lrecords]

Great - now please give us a sound example

[plinkytx]

Friggin Awesome! Going to the toy store right now to look for some Legos. :D

[trebor166]

That's fantastic. I make money building pickups outside of my regular profession and I'm always amazed at what folks come up with to get the job done. Well done.

[Gallowham]

Well done Rish. A great use of a great "toy" Hope you have many faultless pickups :)

[scorpion097]

It is a nice machinery you built there! I'd say brilliant but I thought of it first so that would be praising myself and I don't do that ;)

Anyway, mine is nowhere near as sophisticated as yours, but it works to wind or unwind a bobbin in either direction.

Good job!

[RishPickups]

Hi Scorpion97 - sorry very rude of me not to have acknowledged yours!! My apologies sir! I'll post there too. Thank you for you comments. Mine can unwind :) about as quickly as a wind, but I will save that for another video posting as the offical unwinder is already posted :) - besides I have to try and milk this one for while.

[scorpion097]

It wasn't rude... There was no reason for you to have even seen my video.

Anyway, I love how far you took the idea... I suspect at some point you must have seen an actual winding machine...

[BenDempster]

Amazing Dude just Amazing :)

[RishPickups]

Thanks Mate, it does a great job. My filming does not do it justice. But the pickups turn out really great.

[old6stringer]

Rish, two words...simply brilliant!

[RishPickups]

Thanks Old6Strimger... appreciate that.