Those old DeArmond GFs were wound with 44awg and tend to measure between 9.5k to 11k. The magnets were ferrite rubber like thick refrigerator magnets but a weaker ceramic does well. The magnets are actually touching the steel backing plate which makes the case around the windings function as part of the magnet. There were a couple versions with the magnets beside the coil. Some had pole peices to the side and others were in the middle. I have made a few and the first couple I didnt use a bobbin. I figured out how much I needed to go around the magnet and I soldered a wire to the start and wound it by hand. When it was when it was where I wanted it I wrapped the coil with white thread tape as a thin cover/barier from the metal and magnet. I dropped it in over the mag attached the last wire routed them and I used hot glue to guard and hold the pos and neg wires in place plus I added some hot glue in a couple places to hold it together kinda like potting I have also poured wax in them before to pot them but kind of liked them without the potting. Those old foils were always kinda microphones in the best kinda way. They always had 1 or 2 pieces of card stock under the foil separating the mag pole and coil from the foil and cover. I'm gad I'm not the only person who loved those enough to try to make them. That is awesome. That makes you a member of a small cult of gold foil guitar enthusiasts. I went so far I made made mini versions for a few mandolins so I could top mount them under the strings and but worry about the piezo sound etc. I had one I used a combination of neodymium disk mags and small square ceramic rods and let the magnet come out of the top cover and pluged in it sounded closer to the acoustic sound of a mandolin than any pickup on the market. Only a condesor mic could get it closer and it wasn't far apart. Rock on

Interesting. I'd like to try making my own, but being British, I only have access to pound notes. How do you think different currencies will change the tone of a guitar? Will Tone Currency (tm) affect the sound based on inflation?

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

At the moment, your pickup would have 0.81 of the sound of a dollar pickup which is pretty equal, but these are $2 pickups, so you might need to shove another pound note in there to get close. But I mean, what kind of tone are you looking for? Beatles or Beach Boys, y'know? Use the right currency for the right tone.

@SirRawThunderMan

2 жыл бұрын

@@timsway Well, our paper currency starts at £5, so I've got some leeway built in. Mostly I build metal instruments, so maybe I should look into acquiring a store of Scandinavian notes, and such. For extra Metal points.

@av.punk.801

2 жыл бұрын

@@SirRawThunderMan I second this, but get some of the bigger budget notes, so you get a hotter output. whatever their equivalent of a $100 bill would be, ya dig.

@Blueshirt38

2 жыл бұрын

Well I don't know what "tone" is but the toan will def be different from a pound note. It will sound more like a vox most def.

@based_prophet

2 жыл бұрын

us money has lil metal bar reader strips I'm it we could identify stollen notes from space

I made a similar pickup cover, but in a humbucker, with those open covers, and the leathery material from a book cover that was partially destroyed by termites. It was a book from the 19th century.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

love it!

I’m a metal guitarist and would have no use for these, but I’m 60 and understand the fun you’re having. As a kid, my first guitar in the late 60s was a Harmony. You did a great job creating those pickups 🤘

Thank you Tim. I always enjoy seeing what you come up with.

I kinda want to put 3 of them on my rickenbacker clone I built...

Awesome. I always loved these and the old Kay speedbumps. Nice job

Love this, great delivery and editing. Genius video, subscribed!

Yours definitely has similar sound characteristics to the original gold foils on the Harmony. And I like the mellower sound compared to the standard single coils. But I also really like jazz guitar, so maybe I'm just drawn to the clean sound. Anyway, another fun experiment that looks pretty dang cool. Thanks for sharing!

I'd love to see a kit/parts for these thinner style pickups! Really cool tim!

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

I never thought of that, making kits... Interesting idea. I am slowly trying to revamp and expand my parts/kits supply (perhaps even some cnc plans I'll share)...

@James_Dawes

2 жыл бұрын

@@timsway exciting!

As usual, your work is super inspiring. Don't ever stop.

Enjoying the video so far , txs for the fun 😉

That is such a cool idea! Super modular and open to customization with different top materials. Great work Tim, I dig the sound and aesthetic!

Completely awesome! I think the tele pup and yours together sounded the best (really balanced). As always, nice work!

Very creative. Nice build

I thought the vinyl p90s (from one of your friends) were cool, your pallet nail pups were wild, & now you’re throwing money pups at us... truly you’re a mad man! They’re all great, I gotta get some of these on a build!

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

for the record, the vinyl p90s was my idea, that was just before I was winding them myself :-p I still really like vinyl top look and plan on doing more with that.

Thinking about trying this for a mandolin build… every time you post a video, I get another idea for a build I need to do.

Ordered one and super excited!

I have a Harmony H72 (similar to yours, but with double cut and 6 inline tuners. I love the funky old sound of the gold foils.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

they are fun guitars. I have a couple of them.

Well done Tim! Those 2$ bill pickups really sound great! Your innovative guitar building skills just keep expanding and getting better all the time. Keep it up.... 👍👍🎸🎸👏👏

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

thanks man

Hi Tim! I'm re-watching this to try it myself, but I noticed your guitar body amp, I love it! Think I'll try that with a freebie.

I love your videos and ideas, but every time my project list grows!

really love the new pickups

Your pickup sounds great! Love the idea; never thought about winding my own pickups before.

You really nailed it on this one. The look of the custom metal with the $2 bill and the sound are right on!

Dig the clarity of yours! Nice work. What if you cut the bobbin in half, put in two of them and reverse wound one of them? You'd have a noise-cancelling humbucker inside a gold-foil! Might be cool.

Cool concepts. I love fiddling around with guitars too.

I really love your raw guitar design. Might have to get one sometime!

Cool. Guitar pickups look pretty simple and fun to make. I think I may have to give it a go. A Neodymium bar magnet should be a good fit under the strings on an acoustic-electric, no cutting or routing necessary. 👍

Cool Stuff. I dig that winder you got :)

I see your really getting into the pickup winding. That’s so cool. Makes we want to start winding some more myself! I had someone ask me about the gold foils and if that winder could make them. I guess I’ll be pointing him to your success. Great sound out of cereal box flatware - who knew?? Thanks for the info on the people who cut the covers.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

yea, I'm real in to it. another design coming out this weekend!

Great Job!

I love gold foils. I have one in a custom build and have been dying to build some myself. I think some models have ferrite rubber magnets outside the coil. They made these things all sorts of ways.

I think the cereal box label side up would look cool

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

i make biz cards out of them, too, so the back side is a little piece of pop art (pop TART?) But lately I've been using vinyl record sleeves instead

Funny because I would have just left the "Captain Crunch" visible on the front 😊 The 2$ bills are nice design wise, but the penny just doesn't cut it for me.

I love the look!

Bowden tubes(bicycle cables) to a wah pedal to slide pickups around maybe. Like instead of the B-shift spring gizmo a while back(sry, I keep thinking on that, heh heh.) Gotta love the unique sound from these man!

This reminds me of matchbook pickups lol yes they're an actual thing along with a whole category of flat pickups designed to go places that weren't originally made for them to go without getting in the way.

You could try using a neodymium magnet to get more output. Just be VERY careful with those things if you try that route.

@zhiracs

2 жыл бұрын

He did that with the sliding pickup proof-of-concept build a few weeks ago

@TheBaconWizard

2 жыл бұрын

No need, if he uses 44guage wire, like the originals, he'll get similar output and it will be slightly warmer sounding too.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

I am using a neodymium pickup in this one, too.

@TheBaconWizard

2 жыл бұрын

@@timsway A lot of the time, modern "rubber" magnets are made with neodymium dust, so you could actually do both at the same time and truly reinvent this kind of pickup for modern times.

@Bleats_Sinodai

2 жыл бұрын

@@timsway oh, I thought it was alnico! Nevermind then!

Those harmony meteors are pretty sweet, jealous you have one in such good shape. Not an easy find these days. Love the pickup, awesome design 👍

If people send you something they think is fun and/or significant to them, you could build some personalized pickups. Cool stuff, either way! I have some “black foils” on my Teisco ET-200; same concept, but less fancy...they’re awesome.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

One of my favorite parts of what I do is incorporating personal items in to builds. Some of my earliest furniture build were done this way as well as guitars.

@ricos1497

2 жыл бұрын

@@timsway what a fantastic idea. I've been collecting the eyes from all my dead cats, in jars, over the years just waiting for an opportunity to use them. Do you think you could do something with them?

Always fun and cool gear

I've got a Teisco ET-200 and while it might not be the most comfortable its pickups are great

These pickups sounds great! Look the part as well, absolute banger of a video as always :)

I just wish they had slightly wider fretboards. Then I’d be in love. Love looking at them, glad they exist and love, love these gold foils. Built a tele around it.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

the skinny neck is tough for big hands like mine, but without it, it wouldn't be as special.

They sound great Tim look pretty sweet too

The 'addendum'! I love it.

I've seen folks do some amazing metal stamping for smaller parts in thin steel with a 3d printed form. That might make the next version easier.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

oh yea? I'll look in to that. It's a simple shape and I thought about just making a wood form but I don't have a press and stuff...

@revchadbrooks

2 жыл бұрын

@@timsway yeah. They were using a 3d printed form and a vise.

Am I the only one distracted by that one super long, missed whisker on his left side?

I thinking this would be great BEHIND THE BRIDGE position just for the surface mount convenience but maybe resonance peak too high freq?. I guessing you might want to balance the trebly behind the bridge strings with more bass, idk if im correclty thinking there. ugh. but if the behind the bridge string sound gets too relevant we would need to find a way to calculate an aproximation of the sympathetic string resonance, maybe based from the main scale ratio?... idk maybe im rabbit holeing.

For the penny pickup, maybe you could try sanding a bunch of them down so they're thin and then making a pattern with them.

id love to do a bass build with these kinda pickups

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

more will be coming (and I'll get some more low end out of them). Check out today's video. Those work pretty good on a bass.

Tim I thought the way this came out was great , love the Gold Foil pups As far as guitars only one I have left is a 1990 Gold Top Reissue, 1956 LP M.S. has basically stopped/ slowed guitar playing. Playing bass is what I do now onstage , was a bassist first then started doing lead guitar because of the spot light , bass is not covered well by the spot lights even if your a Enwhistle , I am not but he was an influence. But Love what you do If I had money would Love to have you make a bass , pups for it , idea for you anyway bass pups Great Job Always

Cool channel Tim!! Just noticed….. Guitar body as an amp? Brilliant!!! Love it!!! 😂

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

here's the video about that amp: kzread.info/dash/bejne/foaMurWdoMeaYrg.html

😁cool!.... i gotta try that.... hmmmmmmm...... i like the case concept more than screws n pins|nails.... got a couple of accoustics with unique sound i wanna loop on a electric.pedal... i was looking to buy a conv.kit but i like to tinker...lol... making my own seems like fun actually, thanks.

Zinc solder. 950f and wets steel, Nickel, copper and aluminum.

man!!!! my tiny hands would love playing this. ive never heard anything that sounds like it :-)! what a great piece

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

yea, the necks on a lot of that old stuff are narrow. you can still find deals on these types of thjings if you look hard.

hmmm using a acoustic guitarbody as a speakercabinet might actually improve the sound of the speaker used , as the top of the guitar is a big soundboard , wonder if it amplifies certain frequencies though bilfold idea is fun , looks like you can actually roll the bill up around the coil and still have it fit inside the metal case been folowing a builder of guitarpickups and he mentioned that theres a difference in tone between alnico and neomedium magnets , the latter having a lot more high in the tone he allso experimented with a copper sheet between the magnet and poles and that changed the tone dramaticly filtered out a lot of highs , if you still have one that is unused or can still pry one open you might try one that has the magnet packaged in copper foil before putting it intoo the bobbin and see if that changes the sound

Love your channel.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

thanks!

The copper penny one would look cool with multiple pennies i think

I restored one of those Meteors. I loved the size of the guitar and the pickups but the neck has no tapper to it which always felt strange in my hands.

@timsway

Жыл бұрын

yea, the neck is a little skinny for me, too.

oh man the knobs on that guitar... 2:11

Wow! Just the right kind of dirty and retro I really like!

Well your pickup is more open and has a nicer tonality that might not make some guitars sound their best but is certainly a good pickup. That D'Armond was a bit fatter sounding. I wish I had $ for that on my Junior neck position

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

I once played a gig where Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads was in the club. So we played a cover of Burning Down the House. I was on upright bass with a wah pedal and stomped on it for the B section of the song, which was how I always played it. I saw her react viscerally to this in the back if the room, standing up on the seat so she could see what was happening then quickly sitting down. I never found out if it was joy, pain or rage that caused this reaction!! lol.

@peterrahill9263

2 жыл бұрын

@@timsway ...fun story, brings into my head Melanie Safka singing, "...look what you've done to my song, Tim... look what you've done..." Okay... that was from the bygone era of hippies on roller skates. :0)

a serious upgrade for guitars like that would be adjustable bridges. I can't imagine recording without adjustable bridge tuning.

I'm guessing the tone and volume are wide open to simulate your direct pickup input ? This is interesting and I enjoy it !

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

yes. even wide open, the pots do effect the tone a little. Direct wiring to the pickup is always a little crispier.

The foil pickups with the copper tape, did they have a smidge of a tele sound? Tele bridge pickups have that copper or steel plate on the bottom to alter the magnetic field. I was just curious if the copper tape might do something similar.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

I think there's so much metal in them they sound similar (between the $2 and Penny) and that copper top doesn't make too much of a difference. But in theory, yea, a metal top would alter the field vs a paper one.

I think that your pickup has a better attack/transient. Oh and what’s that interesting instrument at 8:37 (and forward)? Looks like a six-stringed bass but sounds like a guitar too. I really like that! Thanks for another great video! Music *and* woodworking/making… can it be better? :)

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

that is a bass vi: kzread.info/dash/bejne/nKyem8StgLiropM.html

Very creative. I like.

fun pickups personally i'm quite a fan of lipstick pickups

Cool pickups! Reminds me of a P90 but with like half the impedance and no pole pieces. Didn't catch what magnet you went with on the inside :)

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

these have neodymium and sold out.. the next batch I'm going to try ceramic and 44 awg to get a few more winds and higher impedance.

Really impressive!

I looked up new prospectives music and nudoling for a DeArmond like $2 dollar pickup is $90 nudolings and is more than I can afford at this time. I am building about 10 different kinds of electric guitars. One is an archtop I'm making a neck for a laminate body made in China with a nice maple veneer top. I bought some gold fillers or TV pickups? I fix up a Harmony thin hollow body simular to a 330 hollow body like Epiphone's or Gibson's with (you can guess this) DeArmond pickups I fixed up for my neighbor's guitar and I'm making a film documentary over 2 kinds of tests. One is the different kinds of clean to dirty tones between 6L6's used on a 40 watt Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Mod 3 and a Bugera 50 watt T-50 with it's use of EL34's. Second is more close and dear to my heart is difference in sound over a Celestion 80 watt speaker that came with the Fender over my homemade custom cabinets I built using D123e 12"inch JBL. I can already tell you the Celestion doesn't win. The reason I decided to do this is when I was a teen my dad bought me a Fender Twin Reverb in 74 with Altec Lancing's in them instead of Jensen's or (the recommended upgrade) JBL's. After 30 years later I finally heard from another music person that the speakers were the problem and not the amps fault. I really lost it and made it my mission to teach others to never make this mistake ever again. I bought 3 D123e JBL's and 2 - 2130 JBL's and in 2014 had the speakers cleaned up reconditioned (except for one 2130) and placed them in my cabinets. Between the tools, wood, accessories, electronics, pickups and speakers I spent everything to make and sale homemade equipment for different kinds of guitars. I'm in a position that I need to sell some of my equipment (2 - 5-string fretless bass) a Micheal Kelly and a Dean-Pace fretless on a stick bass to regain back assets to operate with some cash again. That's if I wish to do any nudoling again. I like your site and I admire the stuff you're making. Thank you for your efforts in making guitars! Bye - oh I all most forgot I have pictures of the bodies of my work at this time. Now bye.

You should be able to get fairly thin copper sheets and use those instead of the tape, as you can polish them and they won't show folds either. Now you just need to find an artist called, "penny" to give it to!!! The copper will start to weather naturally due to the oils and acids from the hands, when being played.

as long as you use less than 50% of the bill in each pickup, and given you only use one bill in each pickup, ostensibly you could go to a bank and have the other parts of the bills exchanged for fungible currency

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

legal tender, baby! :)

I know a pickup maker named Brubaker who makes great copies of these pickups for a great price.

Will each of those pickups be ascribed a cereal number? :0/

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

punny

I have a1964 harmony Bobkat with same gold foils as your Harmony. They measure 12.54ohms in the bridge and the neck is 10.34 so 4kohms might be low, you should get more girth out of your tone with more windings.

SWEET! You should make and sell some P90 covers like that. I would buy several and I'm sure a butt ton of people would too. P90's are making a HUGE comeback. I'd grab some of those $2 open covers too! I'm a broke, disabled vet so I can't afford entire pickups. LOL.

Your pickup would darken a bit if you had it hooked with volume and tone pot, but still not enough to match original pickups. Not that there's anything wrong with them being different, but I personally would prefer just a little bit more meat on them bones :)

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

indeed. I didn't get in to that but yea, they're always a little crispier direct than through a pot or two. I think I can get a little more out of them next batch with a few minor changes, too.

I kinda wanna make some pickups now. I have a squire that I wanna mess around with. I wanted to do a copper and walnut theme for a long time, do they cut copper there?

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

i believe so

On a real Rowe/DeArmond gold foil style pickup, the baseplate is steel, but the cover is nickel silver or brass. The steel baseplate contributes to the sound of the pickup. I’m not sure what you made the top cover out of, but ideally it should not be magnetic. But the baseplate should be. I’ve made bobbins from a Manila folder. 😃

@marcelboon6525

2 жыл бұрын

Steel is not magnetic.

Killer..love the 2$ idea

That Amplifier 🔥🔥

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

there's a video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/foaMurWdoMeaYrg.html

How much do the capacitor pots for the stock pickups flavor the sound vs the ‘direct-out’ diy foil pickup? Curious if you have any thoughts onnit

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

for sure pots, wires, etc., make a difference in the overall sound vs a hardwired pickup

Excellent. Congratulations for your video. What gauge is the wire? How many laps does the pickup have? Thanks for your help.

@timsway

Жыл бұрын

these pickups are about 5000 winds of 44ga and 5.9k ish

@byzantyum

Жыл бұрын

@@timsway Thanks a lot

Funny you built those pickups. I have been looking at the new Rhythm Chief reissues and found out they are not that well built. I was thinking of winding my own but I have my hands full. If your interested in making some low Z low profile pickups that would fit in a Selmer style flattop there is a market for it. Your well positioned to cater to a niche market like that. You could use the neo magnets and maybe the Mu metal in laptop hard drives. Keep up the good work!

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

I'm working on another universal, surface mount that will be a little less expensive than these and should cover most existing holes rather than fit in them. stay tuned! I hope to have the video out and a few in my store this weekend

Really hit the gold foil genre feel, look and sound. I liked the penny look but agree with offset placement under the cover would look better.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

or maybe two pennies? Or design a cover specific to the penny?

Now THIS is interesting

where can I find your amp/guitar build ? Very Kool thanks

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/foaMurWdoMeaYrg.html !

I like the dollar bill consept! Maybe cut out from tin cans could work too. Instead of goldfoil. Tunafish or whatever.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

tuna/sardine/catfood cans were part of the brainstorm...

@wiklundpe

2 жыл бұрын

Baked beans, corned beef pickups.

Be careful turning (or letting anyone turn,- including a seasoned professional) the truss rod in those necks as they snap easily. They are exceptionally short and weak, considered almost a joke so Harmony could tout that it comes with a steel reinforced neck. Neck adjustments should be done with little to no string tension while physically helping the neck bend in the direction you want it to go. I've replaced 2 in both of my H-49 Jupiters with a more current 2-way mandolin-length rod. This gives the neck much more reliable adjustability for both relief and back bow and it won't break merely by turning it.

Wow the 2$ pickup sounds great, they have a greater midrange slightly punchier too.👍👍

@samsleeeze2793

2 жыл бұрын

Btw hey Tim can you play an 8 string guitar?

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

I can't even play a 6-string! LOL. I have made some 7 strings and can make an 8 string, but it would be of better use in someone else's hands.

Wonderful., wonderful, wonderful

Love her I'm so glad you didn't mess with her!

It’s actually not illegal to destroy currency or to deface it, so long as you don’t do it in a way the makes the bill appear to be a different denomination I’m not a lawyer tho

That's a really cool looking pickup design. They sound great too! The cereal boxes remind me: Ever since you sent me your "business" card" - which was a rubber stamped piece of cereal box - 6 or 7 years ago, I've been saving and using every clean cereal and similar product box for reuse. I actually use them at least 4 times a week when cooking dinner. The un-printed side works great to set my air frying basket on (keeps the glass stove top crumb and grease-free), then I throw the chipboard away after use. The boxes also come in handy for various shop uses as well. Your reuse habits rubbed off on me and have saved me tons of money and cleanup time!

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

they are handy things. glad to hear I've influenced you :)

I think that's a great sounding pickup, if you said what the magnet was I missed it?

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

Neodymium

Hey Tim really nice pickups, i just wanted to ask, what type of magnets you're using for them?

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

in this batch i used neodymium. I had bought some ceramic magnets to use but the polarity was the wring direction (long way instead of flat way) so they didn't work quite right

@ajaxman1000

2 жыл бұрын

I was wondering that too. Are the poles the edges or the faces?

I love that amp.

@timsway

2 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/foaMurWdoMeaYrg.html