Motivation
The unsatisfied guitar builder
For me, the quality of the guitar and choices of wood decide the play-ability, the feeling and comfort. The pickups makes the sound.
I enjoy the building process to a degree that is unhealthy from a financial perspective.
I tried many pickups, some were good, some bad. But even the pickups I liked, there was always a nagging feeling that the instrument could sound better.
The need to know if I could make a pickup that would satisfy myself and my fellow musicians grew ever larger.
The Beginnings
A wrong Turn
Surely, armed with an engineering degree in Physics, profound knowledge of electrical currents, measuring equipment and a hyper rational approach would yield the desired outcome?
With every additional detail and variable, I was moving further away from making a decent pickup. It was a futile exercise that failed at all levels.
No pickups were made, no Music was played, only misery, confusion and despair.
I had to re-think the whole process or face the fact that this endeavor would end in failure.
Re-Calibrating
Be specific. In order to hit the mark I had to know what I was aiming for.
My choice: The earliest production years of Humbucker and P90 pickups.
Make it and worry about the explanation later.
Imagination comes to the Rescue
Finding another way
I drew a picture of a P90 pickup. I studied the winding machines manuals from the 50s and 60s.
It was like the story of the hen and the egg. I needed both the visualized magnetic field and the finished coils to make sense of this mystery.
Then I understood something at least. I made some humbuckers and repeated the exercise. Many times.
The Outcome
I have worked out a framework that explains to me how to wind a pickup for a specific result. Many roads lead to Rome, I just found one of them.
During the evaluation phase, proper musicians tried and tested the different variants. What is on offer is what I and my musician friends have approved.