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

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.

When making a 4 magnet humbucker you make 2 single coil pickups. Take the curve at the end of the fingerboard for the top of the pickup. Just mark it with a pencil on a piece of wood like this:

side view

top view

I make it 18 mm wide (that is for a humbucker, if you only make a single coil pickup it needs to be 24 mm because you need more windings). Saw it, but don't go sanding at once. You have a chance it will break when drilling.
Make one very flat piece (1 mm) as long and wide as the top piece.
To find out where to drill, place the top piece against the end of the fingerboard and mark the spot between the first and second string, between the third and fourth string:

Precisely in the middle vertically (at 9 mm) the holes must be drilled. Most magnets I know are 4.7 mm thick, so you need a drill that size. Tape the thin piece under the top piece, drill through both very carefully but at speed.
Also drill a 3 mm hole in the thin piece near the edge on a corner. This is for the microphone wire to go through. Or you can drill two very small holes in a corner and after winding the pickup, solder the two ends of the copper wire into these holes using small silver tubes that you put into these holes.

or

When nothing breaks you can sand them to give a good finish. Get rid of any irregularities that could snag the wire (very important). Place the magnets in the holes very carefully. They should only stick out a little on the top because of the curve. It is best to glue the magnets to the wood on the inside with superglue to make the bobbin more solid.

Et voila, an empty pickup.

The same idea applies to a four magnet pickup. Find out where to drill, not between the strings but under each one.

For a 2 by 2 split humbucker I use flat pieces of wood, as flat as I can possibly get them (about 1 mm). Find out the distance between the two top strings (A, & E) at the end of the fingerboard + 9 mm for the first pickup, and the distance between two strings  (G & D) at 17 mm from the fingerboard. Make 2 thin pieces of wood of 18 mm X the measured distance + 10 mm for each of the measured distances.
Mark on the pieces the position of the strings:

Tape the two pieces together for each of the two sized ones and drill through and put the magnets between the pieces. They should sick out a little at the top, about 2 mm. Use superglue on the inside to make it more solid.

Figuring out how to make a 1 by 1 humbucker should be easy :-)

The rest of the pickups are all derivations from the above. Now for some dreary work or: Winding