Christmas Hats off to Ash@Oil City - Pickup Rewind

@OilCityPickups ;;;;

I just wanted to leave a little review here for our own Ash at Oil City.

I bought a lovely Greco LP Custom off here earlier in the year which I love and it's black with aged gold hardware. The only thing I wasn't mad about were the pickups and they were Washburn 621 and 622 and they were ok with high gain (not really my thing) but lacked versatility and clarity and weren't great for cleans.

After discovering that to retain the aged covers wouldn't work for a replacement set as the spacing was A/ narrow and that would require a replacement bridge/saddles and a new nut and B/ the pole piece screws might be silver, enter my fabulous tech, Alex at Guitar Guitar (Epsom) who suggested contacting Ash and getting them rewound to my specifications. 

Following a friendly chat with Ash where I threw sound references at him like good cleans, Gary Moore/Slash flutey neck pickup sound and a smooth, sustainy bridge pickup that also cleans up well, but can handle overdrive for classic rock, AOR up to 1987 Whitesnake, Ash got what I wanted and threw some suggestions at me and I let the 2 techs discuss things.

A few days later, the pickups were rewound and potted, retaining the original covers and Ash opted for Alnico 6 magnets and based the pickups on his own versatile 'Deep Six Masterwounds'. The result, highly useable cleans that actually have a touch of spank to them, particularly in the neck and middle positions, evenly balanced pickups and a wonderful bridge pickup with sustain and no harshness that works well with overdrive, as does the neck pickup for the fluteyness. There's now a clarity and airyness to them and it saved me undergoing the expense and work of a little more than your average pickup swap with much better than expected results.

Thank you Ash for understanding and interpreting my brief so well and also the quick turnaround.

Folks, I can thoroughly recommend Oil City rewinds and Ash's work!



 

Bet all you guys would like to know how I did this ... well I photographed the whole process :-) 
This is how they came in. 
Like many old Japanese pickups they simply had their covers glued on rather than soldered so when we removed them we got ... 



What a huge quantity of pink wax!!! Almost looks edible! 
Nithe the narrower than standard ceramic magnet and the HUGE threaded spacer/keeper bar ... that would prove problematic later ... 



Well they did a thorough potting job ... but as I don't want pink marbling in my own potting wax ... I won't get this off as normal by melting it in my potting bath. 


So I chipped it off. Note that two slug coils are used ... very common in 70s pickups ... and the pole screws screw into the threaded keeper bar and don't thread into the plastic of the bobbin. The issue will be wider modern alnico magnets won't work with that threaded keeper bar 'as is' as it's too bloody wide itself. However I can't junk it for a modern non threaded keeper bar as the pole screws need that thread ... 



The solution involved lateral thinking ... the threaded part of the old spacer unit here ready to be soldered to a modern spacer without threads (that's flux paste on the join). 



Soldered 

and filed to the correct width 



Now to get that old poly coated wire off ... 



I really don't know what they potted coils with in Japan ... but this is foul and sticky/gloopy and smells very 'chemical' ... basically over potted to hell and back. 



And nice new 50s spec PVA plain enamel wire ... yummy 

Finally 



Four conductor wiring added, alnico 6 magnet and a small custom spacer beside it as the as the bobbin flanges are a bit wider Gibson's standard. 

Repeat twice ... and pass to Alex at Guitar Guitar and you have what you see in the original @Kebabkid  photo :-) 

OilCityPickups said:

Bet all you guys would like to know how I did this ... well I photographed the whole process :-) 
This is how they came in. 
Like many old Japanese pickups they simply had their covers glued on rather than soldered so when we removed them we got ... 



What a huge quantity of pink wax!!! Almost looks edible! 
Nithe the narrower than standard ceramic magnet and the HUGE threaded spacer/keeper bar ... that would prove problematic later ... 



Well they did a thorough potting job ... but as I don't want pink marbling in my own potting wax ... I won't get this off as normal by melting it in my potting bath. 


So I chipped it off. Note that two slug coils are used ... very common in 70s pickups ... and the pole screws screw into the threaded keeper bar and don't thread into the plastic of the bobbin. The issue will be wider modern alnico magnets won't work with that threaded keeper bar 'as is' as it's too bloody wide itself. However I can't junk it for a modern non threaded keeper bar as the pole screws need that thread ... 



The solution involved lateral thinking ... the threaded part of the old spacer unit here ready to be soldered to a modern spacer without threads (that's flux paste on the join). 



Soldered 

and filed to the correct width 



Now to get that old poly coated wire off ... 



I really don't know what they potted coils with in Japan ... but this is foul and sticky/gloopy and smells very 'chemical' ... basically over potted to hell and back. 



And nice new 50s spec PVA plain enamel wire ... yummy 

Finally 



Four conductor wiring added, alnico 6 magnet and a small custom spacer beside it as the as the bobbin flanges are a bit wider Gibson's standard. 

Repeat twice ... and pass to Alex at Guitar Guitar and you have what you see in the original @Kebabkid  photo :-) 

WOW!!!!!!! This is the first time I'm seeing these pics and hearing the Full explanation of what was involved and I'm even more impressed. Ash, you're the Man and thank you once again :)

That’s a stonking looking and (now) sounding LP - WOW!!!

Amazes me sometimes the talent we have in these parts…