Humbucker Kit

I recently bought 2 of these kits, and the quality was great. the slugs DO go into the bobbin, but you need to press them against a solid object with quite a bit of force. there is no need to drill them as someone commented.

overall, I would suggest getting this if you are interested. I had no issues with the wiring, and was a great experience.

will definately buy these again.

I picked up a few of these to put in a flame top LP copy I was making. I had mixed feelings on these. first the good, the quality of the parts were the best, no complains there. it came with instructions that were easy to follow, but a few minor things were left out.

now for the bad. this kit did not include a pickup cover, which to me it should have been better disclosed that it was not part of the kit. the hook up wires included should have been longer. I recommend that anyone making these buy your own 28 gauge hook wires to use, because the kit does not come with enough. same story with the 2 and 4 conductor wire. the cost of leaving an additional 2 inches or wire would cost pennies and would make this kit rake much higher for me. also the metal rods do not go into the slug coil and there’s no information in the instruction why this is.

you will need to drill it out gently to be able to push the slug coils inside the coil. Make the slugs sit flush with the top of the coil (BEVELED SIDE GOING TOWARDS THE BASEPLATE) and add a very small drop of super glue on the underside of the coil to keep them from moving once they are in place and allow proper drying time. also the screws fit a bit too snug on the adjustable bobbin. I had to use an screw from an old gibson humbucker the work out the bobbin first to make sure the new screws weren’t too tight. Also old gibson bobbins were segmented on the inside of the coil, and these are smooth. I have no idea if this would do anything for tone or not, just sayin…

another thing is I wish this kit came with options like gold hardware for example or double cream bobbins, different lengths for the bobbins (just in case someone wanted to put one of these in a strat for example) and more magnet options. according to seth lover most 50's PAF's came with alnico 4 mags, but 2 and 3 were also used, but NEVER 5's. alnico fives were used later in the 60's versions almost exclusively and earlier on the 50’s P-90’s. GE was the company that provided gibson with these magnets, but you can find the 50’s correct magnets pretty easily with a google search.

the plastic spacer on these should have stretched the whole space of the baseplate fence in my opinion, even if it's not necessary, it just looks better. The 50’s PAF’s didn’t use a plastic spacer like in this kit, they use a maple wood spacer. I just made my own out of a square shaped dowel I had in my workshop. This will add a wee bit of treble to the pickup. 50’s PAF’s also only used plain enamel 42 gauge copper wire, which I’m sorry to say stew mac does not currently stock. Despite my complaints here, I will order these again, the price is right and like I said before the quality is great.

Great kit, and fun to make! Great sounding, and its so easy to buy this since all the parts are here! However, the instructions left me wondering... I tried to follow them, but I think the instructions are not ment for first time builders.

It was too difficult to get the finish-end of the coilwire through the hole. I now make my own custom wiring for this, but I still use this kit! Would love to see some extra magnets.

I've made over a half dozen of these now. I've been ordering magnets from All Star Magnetics just to get some variety instead of A5 that come with this kit. So now I have A2,A4, A5, and A8.

The only big complaint I have with this kit is that the springs are not long enough. Using these springs in a Gibson Explorer type guitar (with the skinny pu rings makes for a wobbly humbucker.

Keep in mind you CAN use Gibson gold or chrome covers on these pickups, but they have to be "neck" (not bridge) spaced. If you buy them, it will say which on the back by the UPC.

a magnet option, as well as a gold option would be nice.

The real hard part about soldering is how long the wires should be and how to tuck them in. I'm still messing with this and different ideas. Would be cool to see a video on this if anyone if up to it, customer or StewMac themselves!

Its a pretty good sounding kit. I've only wound 3 of these but so far (besides some little errors on my part) they've all turned out good sounding and looking. I plan on buying and winding many more of these kits.

I've built a few using these parts,it's a lot easier than trying to hunt down all the individual parts.
It would be nice to have the option to choose different magnet type, like alnico 2,4, or 5.

The StewMac humbucker kit was the first guitar pickup I built. After building over 150 pickups, mostly single coils, I have found that there is no higher quality pickup parts than StewMac. The instructions were very informative while I was learning. And again, they provide top quality products.
Pete

This is a great kit. All the pieces supplied, the result is all in the winding.

Pole spacing is the Gibs*n neck pickup.

Future options please:
1. gold pole-piece screws
3. AlNiCo II magnet option
2. bridge pole spacing

I really like these pick up kits. By winding the pick up's myself I can create the tones that I want. Gibson PAF or over wound hot, mix and match magnet wire for even more creative tones. Thank you stew mac for the wonderful kits. They are a money saver and a money maker.

I think these kits are very fine. I make many pickups very close to the original PAF of the '50. I use them for Les Paul, Gibson 335, and some Telecasters when I need to add one humbucker in the neck position or Stratocaster for the bridge position. I have always had great satisfaction.