The Creamery

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A P90 design to fit a Tele Bridge Pickup

Fat, grittier tones from your Tele Bridge position whilst still keeping some of that classic Tele twang

Magnet: Custom Alnico 5
Poles: Steel Slug Screws
Polarity: South Up
Coil Wire: 44AWG Plain Enamel
Lead Wire: Vintage Cloth Pushback
Output: 10.4k
Baseplate: Copper Plated Steel

Telecaster Sized P90 Bridge Pickup

A P90 design in a standard Telecaster Bridge size. The Creamery Telecaster sized P90 pickup houses two unpolished custom Alnico 5 magnets, wider steel slug screws and a short, fat 44AWG coil. Huge, fat single-coil tones still with clarity, presence & a defined voice. Get the grit of a P90 in a standard Telecaster Bridge size. Great fat, rounded clean tones - turn up the gain and let the pickup scream.

The geometry of the standard Tele Bridge Pickup size as opposed to a standard P90 means there will always be a slight difference in tone between the two pickups as the coil will be slightly narower - Its for this reason I don’t call it a “true” P90 although I’ve voiced this pickup as a balance between the classic P90 tone with the unique twang of the Telecaster bridge.

A higher output, fat single-coil tone in a standard Tele Bridge sized pickup. The higher output balances with the narrower, lower strength magnets for a much rounder bridge tone.

For more details, you can visit my Creamery Custom Handwound Telecaster Pickups page here

Original Article

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One of the most common pickup repairs that I get in the workshop is where the pickup wire has been snapped or damaged right at the start of the coil. With little free coil wire left over, often the pickup requires a compete rewind to restore it to working order but in some cases I’m able to tease enough wire free to work with. In these instances it means a vintage pickup can be repaired as close to the original as possible.

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Carefully teasing out the start of the coil, I worked free enough fine wire with which I could solder and create the join to an extra length of jump wire. This could then be connected to the flatwork eyelet to make the pickup connection.

[caption id=”attachment_836” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Creamery Pickup Rewinds & Repairs - Telecaster ‘74 Bridge”][/caption]

I couldn’t leave the large solder joint like this it could easily be damaged so with a simple solder suction stick the joint was ever-so-carefully reduced. The join could then be taped down to keep it free from damage.

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The new solder joint was taped down and with a quick test with the multimeter, the pickup was repaired. Its always good when a vintage pickup can be repaired and I always go for a full pickup rewind as a last resort. If I can, I always try and fix pickup without the need for a rewind.

If you’ve a pickup that needs repairing or a rewind, then get in touch. You can find details & case studies of my guitar pickup repair & rewind services here

Original Article

Introducing the Red ‘79 Strat Pickup Set

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Magnets: Alnico 5
Poles: Staggered or Flat
Coil Wire: 42AWG Plain Enamel
Lead Wire: Vintage Cloth Pushback
Bridge Output: 5.9k
Middle Output: 5.7k
Neck Output: 5.5k

Inspired by the New Wave/Post Punk era of the late ’70s & early ’80s, the Red ‘79 Stratocaster Pickup has that brittle, bright attack associated with much of the music of that era. The lower in output, 42AWG coil wrapped around Custom Alnico 5 magnets gives you that cutting tone great with effects (a little phase, a little chorus ;-). As with the Telecaster Red ’79s, I settled on the final designs (after many versions) to create a pickup that has that bright, brittle tone without the ice-pick shrillness of thin, lower wound pickups. To achieve this the coil is wound slightly shorter with a looser scatterwound pattern to achieve the balance I was looking for.

[caption id=”attachment_723” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Creamery Red ‘79 Handwound Strat Pickup”][/caption]

With staggered magnets the tone is concentrated more around the D & G strings for a spikier attack whereas with the flat pole version the tone is rounded a little more as the tone is spread evenly through all strings.

NOTE: If Red really isn’t your thing you can always order it in White or Black vintage String as well (or standard Strat covers) ;-)

The Middle Pickup can be RW/RP for hum cancelling in positions 2 & 4.

You can buy a single Red ‘79 Strat pickup or for a Bridge, Middle & Neck pickup as a complete Handwound Red ‘79 Stratocaster pickup set here.

They look great on a jet black Strat ;-)

Original Article

[caption id=”attachment_694” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Creamery Extra Width Fatter Strat Bridge Pickup”][/caption]

A rounder, fatter tone for bridge position Stratocasters

I’ve always been in two minds about the Strat bridge position. Unlike the Tele with its copper plated steel baseplate, the strat bridge position can sound bright, very bright in fact - and some would say too bright (especially in those 70s CBS era strats where corners were cut even on the use of coil wire).

I didn’t want to go down the root of fixing a tele style baseplate to the flatwork of the strat pickup, nor did I want to fatten up the tone by a high level of overwinding as that would give a higher output. I wanted to keep the essential characteristics of the pickup but just warm it up somehow, making it more pleasant on the ear.

The thing about pickup makers (like myself) is that they can obsess over the simplest of things and warming up the Strat bridge became one such obsession.

I tried a number of things but in the end decided on individual circular copper baseplates directly attached to the underside of each pole magnet to slightly shift the resonances towards the lows a little, which along with the flat stagger Alnico 2 rod magnets help to give the new pickup the warmth I was after.

I called it the “Extra Width” and designed a Strat set of middle & neck to compliment it. You can find the full details & spec below.

Here’s how it sounds, wonderfully played by Session Guitarist James Deane through a Fender® Hot Rod Deluxe - Let me know what you think.

Click to Play:

Extra Width Fatter Tone Stratocaster Bridge Pickup

… and this is what James had to say about it:

“The Extra-Width Bridge pickup sounds fantastic; crystal clear yet without the ‘ice-pick’ treble of the pick-up I was replacing. I really like the fact it responds to my playing and it comes to life with a bit of overdrive. Thanks very much for making my guitar warmer and clearer.”

- James Deane, professional Session Guitarist, Producer & Engineer

“Extra Width” Stratocaster Pickup Set

A great Stratocaster pickup if you want to balance the early ’60s strat tone with a more blusier feel.

Magnets: Alnico 2
Poles: Flat
Coil Wire: 42AWG
Lead Wire: Vintage Cloth Pushback
Bridge Output: 6.8k
Middle Output: 6.3k
Neck Output: 6.1k

A flat-pole hotter-wound Stratocaster pickup for a fatter twist on the classic Strat tone. Still with snappy highs, a fatter mid-range with rounded bass. Scatter wound with wax potted coils and flat Alnico 2 magnets. Higher output. Vintage style cloth covered lead wire.

The Bridge pickup has individual copper baseplates under each pole to slightly shift the resonances toward the lows which combined with the hotter wind, helps to create a warmer bridge tone.

The Middle Strat Pickup can be RWRP for hum cancelling in positions 2 & 4.

You can find more details of this and my other handwound Stratocaster Pickups on the main site - The direct link to the ordering page is here for a single pickup, or set of bridge, middle & neck

Thanks for reading.

Original Article

Repairing/Rewinding a Vintage Strat Pickup and Replacing Pickup Magnets

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Here’s an interesting pickup that came in for a repair & rewind - An early ’60s vintage Strat Bridge pickup. The thing is, its a left-hand stagger, meaning the shortest magnet sits under the ‘A’ string rather than the usual ‘B’ string. Either a mistake back in the factory many years ago or simply a pickup from a left-handed strat that was fitted to a right-hand guitar at a later date. Either way, the pickup was in a sorry state.

The coil wire had been cut right through and one of the magnets had cracked and split so not only did the pickup require a rewind, it also needed a new pole magnet. The owner asked me to swap the poles around to make it a standard right-hand stagger.

[caption id=”attachment_659” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Repairing and Rewinding a Vintage Strat Pickup”][/caption]

Replacing the cracked magnet involved gently pushing out each end without forcing it. As the flatwork was coming loose already, using too much force could have pushed the flatwork in, giving a shorter area in which to re-wind the coil.

Checking the remaining magnets with a gauss meter showed that they were still pretty much fully charged so selecting the correct size vintage style cast Alnico 5 magnet from my stock and charging it to pretty much full spec would allow for a very close match to the original.

Once the pole magnets were in place, and with the help of a little superglue to hold the loose flatwork down, the hookup wires could be carefully uncoupled, taking care not to loosen the eyelets. The pickup was rewound to around 6.4k as requested by the customer. The hookup wires were re-used as per request.

A quick test on the multimeter showed everything was working ok so after wax-potting and a final check on my test guitar, the pickup was ready to send back.

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If you have a pickup that needs a repair or rewind, just get in touch. You can find more details of my pickup repair service here:

The Creamery - Pickup Repairs & Rewinds

Original Article

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Guitar Pickup repair: Repairing/Rewinding a Vintage Telecaster Neck Pickup

A guitar player got in touch with the story of an early ’70s Telecaster Neck pickup that had seen better days - In fact, it looked like it had been attacked with shears. The coil had been gouged quite deeply and a complete rewind was the only way to fix things.

[caption id=”attachment_634” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Repairing/Rewinding a Vintage Telecaster Neck Pickup”][/caption]

Fortunately I have a selection of old vintage 42 & 43AWG with some spools original from the 60s onwards - I also have a few spools of modern reproductions on vintage wire. Once the correct wire was chosen and the original coil was cut from the flatwork and pole magnets it was time to start winding. The customer told me the original output was in the high 5k region, around 5.7k-5.9k. After winding pickups for a good while you should be able to make a pretty good guess as to how many turns are required of a certain gauge pickup wire to achieve the desired output. In the case of this Tele neck pickup, the customer loved the tone and wanted the rewind to be as close as possible.

[caption id=”attachment_635” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Repairing/Rewinding a Vintage Telecaster Neck Pickup”][/caption]

Whereas modern Poly coated pickup wire can be soldered, many types of vintage wire cannot. In the case of the Tele neck pickup here, the wire needs its coating sanded off at the point where the wire feeds through the eyelets, allowing it to be soldered to the hookup wire. Once done its was time for winding. The pickup was Reverse Wound / Revers Polarity (RW/RP) so the pickup needed to a rewind with this in mind.

[caption id=”attachment_638” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Repairing/Rewinding a Vintage Telecaster Neck Pickup - After the rewind”][/caption]

Based on the original pickup which had quite a tight coil, I worked out the number of turns required to give an output in the region of 5.7k-5.9k and started winding with a technique to try and mimic the tighter, consistant machine wound vintage pickup.

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Once wound, I needed to sand off the old insulation coating from the end of the wire, no mean feat when the wire is as thin as human hair. After soldering the hookup wires I tested the repaired pickup with the multimeter to ensure it was working. After the pickup was cooled after soldering I coudl take an accurate reading of the pickup’s output - Spot on at 5.8k!

[caption id=”attachment_641” align=”aligncenter” width=”600” caption=”Guitar Pickup repair: Repairing/Rewinding a Vintage Telecaster Neck Pickup - All done”][/caption]

Cover fitted and ready to be sent back to the customer, and although the pickup needed a complete rewind, with vintage wire and a little time and effort - Job done.

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If you have pickups in need of a rewind or repair then just get in touch. You can read more about my pickup repair & rewind service here.

Original Article

Repairing a Telecaster Bridge Pickup

Here’s an interesting one. A customer got in touch with a pretty new Telecaster bridge pickup that was no longer working. The coil ends had snapped away from the hookup wires, the higher piece of flatwork had started to work loose from both the polepieces and the base. If you look closely in the top pic you can just make out the snapped coil wires, the problem being that there’s very little protruding coil wire left to work with. The customer’s fear was a complete re-wind.

The upper flatwork is pulling away from the coil & pole pieces. this can happen if the pickup is either potted in too high a heat warping the flatwork or if the polepiece is too loose in the flatwork.

The danger is that if this continues, the flatwork could pull away from the polepieces completely leaving the actual coil wire exposed.

Also, the baseplate isn’t fully flush to the base of the pickup, not a big issue in itself but an example of poor quality control at the manufacturer’s stage.

To fix the pickup I carefully peeled away the base ring of protective cotton string to give me slightly more coil wire to work with. Thin jumper wires were carefully soldered to each broken end of the coil and wedded to the hookup wires to complete the circuit then taped down to keep them in place before wax-potting. The flatwork was carefully pressed back into place and held. Finally the pickup was wax-potted to keep everything secure and seal the coil.

Checking with the meter showed an output of 7.26k and with a quick wire up to the test guitar, the pickup was back up and running.

I always try and work it so a re-wind is the last option as many customers want to preserve their pickup’s tone - sometimes its inevitable but in this case the pickup was sorted.

Original Article

After an email chat about Wide Range Humbuckers I came up with these.

Essentially a single coil but with more presence and fatter tone. Like the standard single coil, each string has its own magnet. The difference with these is that the slug that sits opposite widens the area of string magnetised, creating a beefier tone but unlike the humbucker where the bar magnet lies underneath both the slugs & screws giving an even spread of magnetised string, these new pickups have a pole magnet and a slug. By design the slug is still magnetised but nowhere near as strong as the polepiece. Whereas the humbucker gives the tone of the full length of magnetised string between the slug & screw, these merely give the tone of the point of magnetisation over the pole with a kind of residual tone of the string above the slightly magnetised slug. This in effect is similar to the sound fading from magnet to slug which is somewhat fatter than a single coil but not as beefed up as a humbucker. Essentially a single coil with more presence. They’re overwound with thinner wire to a specific number of turns to really break up an amp and I use Alnico 2 magnets to give more warmth. The use of thinner wire helps to keep the high frequencies in a narrower coil. I’ve just recorded some audio files which I need to master for the site.

I’m also working on a 12 pole version to give an even richer tone - still playing around with the windings though.

Original Article

Quick progress update. Here are the first three guitars from the Blackguard series - 6 guitars crafted from 30yr old pine. A jazzmaster style with custom handwound H-cover humbuckers, a Standard Telecaster and a Tele ‘72 Custom style, both with sets of my handwound pickups. Still to fit the tuners and string the Tele custom up but you can see how it looks.

I’m currently building the next three, a Gibson Explorer style, a Les Paul Jnr style and not decided on the final one yet though I’m toying with doing a Gibson ES336 style.

I’ll keep you posted.

Remember, you can WIN a set of my handwound Classic Alnico 5 Humbuckers! - Details in the post below.

Original Article

Win a set of handwound Classic Alnico 5 Humbuckers.

I’m giving away a set of my handwound pickups to one lucky person who’s joined The Creamery Facebook page that I’ve created. I’m planning to launch a new online shop for my guitars, effects pedals & pickups in April and once that is up and running, the first name pulled from the hat will win the pickups, regardless of where they are in the world. I’ll take the list of followers from both my FB & Twitter pages and whichever name is randomly picked will win (so if you’re signed up to both, you’ve got two chances of winning!)

Its simple, help me get to 1000 followers on Twitter & Facebook combined and the pickups could be yours. Don’t worry if you’re not on Facebook, just follow me on Twitter and you’re still in with a chance.

You can follow me on Facebook here - and the Twitter page is here

UPDATE: Facebook has just changed the way you follow, the terminology is now to ‘Like’ so look for the ‘Like’ tab once you’ve followed the link.

Here are the specs:

Classic Handwound Alnico 5 Humbucker

Balanced mids, snappy lows and a top-end with room to breath. The Alnico 5 magnet is brighter sounding than the Alnico 3 or 4, giving this pickup more of a snappier tone.

Magnet: Alnico 5

Coil Wire: 42AWG Plain Enamel

Lead Wire: Vintage Braided Pushback or 4way

Approx. Winds: Bridge - Pole 4600 / Screw 5000 - Neck - Pole 4175 / Screw 4475

Bridge Output: 8.2k

Neck Output: 7.3k

Good Luck!

UPDATE: The full site will go live in the next week!

Original Article

Magnet: Alnico 2

Coil Wire: 42AWG Plain Enamel

Lead Wire: Vintage Braided Pushback or 4way

Approx. Winds: Bridge - Pole 4600 / Screw 5000 - Neck - Pole 4175 / Screw 4475

Bridge Output: 8.2k

Neck Output: 7.3k

A vintage sound, rich and full of warmth with great harmonics. A real creamier sound when overdriven. Chrome plated nicker cover & vintage braided hookup wire.

More details & soundfiles when the site goes live.

Original Article

Just got the promo cards back from the printers. It’s all coming together.

Recorded most of the soundfiles for both guitars & pickups. Just got to finish off the final versions of the Fuzz and tremolo pedals, record the tones and get them on the site. Completion of the online store is the priority then its time to roll up my sleeves and get back to work - those pickups don’t wind themselves.

Original Article

Magnet: Alnico 2

Coil Wire: 42AWG Plain Enamel

Lead Wire: Vintage Braided Pushback or 4way

Approx. Winds: Bridge - Pole 4600 / Screw 5000 - Neck - Pole 4175 / Screw 4475

Bridge Output: 8.2k

Neck Output: 7.3k

A vintage sound, rich and full of warmth with great harmonics. A real creamier sound when overdriven. Chrome plated nicker cover & vintage braided hookup wire.

More details & soundfiles when the site goes live.

Original Article

New Pickup - Telecaster Vintage Alnico 2 Neck - Great with reverb - http://ping.fm/6N6Vi

Magnets: Alnico 2

Poles: Flat

Coil Wire: 43AWG Plain Enamel

Lead Wire: Vintage Cloth Pushback

Approx. Winds: 8,000

Output: 7.7k

The traditional tele neck sound - A clear bright tone with smooth mid frequencies and warm, rounded lows. The soft attack of the Alnico 2 poles is ideal for a clean tele sound. Nickel plated silver cover, vintage style cloth covered lead wire and wax potted - match it with the vintage tele bridge for that 50s tele sound.

Original Article