Pickup, building

Magnets, wire, some plastic, Forbon or wood and a few tools is al you need to get building the thing.
the idea is pretty simple: make a thing that holds 1 to 4 magnets in place and wind some copper wire around it. Well, prepare yourself for a long journey.

First you need to think about how many magnets you will use per pickup. if you are willing to go for a split humbucker, bear in mind that it will be more difficult to fit the pickup on your violin.
You can choose from different set-ups for a 4 stringed violin:

• 2 - 1 magnet single coils pickup (can be a humbucker)

• 2 magnet singlecoil (easiest but not preferable, I'll explain later))

• 2 by 2 magnet single coils (humbucker)

For a six stringed it's 1 coil extra.

So, first step is decide which one of the above to make. Second is measuring. Measuring is best done with all the strings on your violin, otherwise you might not get a good position of the magnets.
By the way, I use ebony or forbon for the pickup.

The first pickup I made was 2 by 2 humbucker. I made two bobbins that looked like this:

     side view          drill positions

I placed them (after winding) lik this:

You can also make single magnet single coils. Just divide above bobbins by half.

After cutting out the forbon or ebony you must sand them so that all edges are very clean, otherwise the wire will snag. Take a drill size 47 MM (thats the magnet size) and drill the holes for the magnets. Be very carefull. I tape the pieces with double sided tape to a piece of wood. Much safer and a lot less to throw away. Sand again.

Place the magnets in the bobbins. The top of the magnet needs to stick out about 2 MM. Put superglue around the magnets on the inside of the bobbin to strengthen the bond between the magnets and the forbon/ebony.

It's good practice to insulate the magnets with insulation tape (after the glue has dried). There is always a chance of corrosion and/or short circuiting.

A 2 magnet single coil is not, I repeat NOT a good idea. I  had a lot of text about that (see old page) but I found out that it does not work for a violin. Since the strings are not lying flat next to each other as in a guitar, the strings move in a different angle in relation to the magnets. So in a situation like this:

the magnets are in a 90 degree angle in relation to the body. This means that the D and C strings will sound harder than the G and E strings because they vibrate at a different angle.

The rest of the pickups are all derivations from the above.  So for a six string you would make 3 2 magnet coils, or 3 to 6 single magnet coils

Now for some dreary work or: Winding