Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

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Jim Bonnell
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Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Jim Bonnell »

I bought all the parts I thought I needed to build a Firebird mini humbucker from Mojotone, but when I started to assemble it I became confused. The two bobbins didn't fit down in inside the two outside ledges on the frame. Then I realized on a standard humbucker they sits up on a bar magnet and a spacer. On the Firebird mini the bar magnets are in the two coils. What am I missing? Is there somethings these two bobbins are supposed to sit on also? Mojotone listed no such part I could find and I can't find a diagram on the construction of one of the Firebird pickups.
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Mark Swanson
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Mark Swanson »

You've picked a hard pickup to build for one of your first Jim! They aren't easily done if you ask me. Do you have any photos to show what you mean? I think it would help a lot, I can't picture your problem exactly.
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Jim Bonnell
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Jim Bonnell »

It's not my first, just my first mini. I'll try and get some pictures in the next day or two. It's a bit difficult to explain. On a standard humbucker the bobbins sit on top of a bar magnet and a spacer. On the Firebird mini there is nothing under the bobbins because unlike other types of mini and standard humbuckers each bobbin has a bar magnet in the center of the coil. The two bobbins won't sit down flat on the base plate due to the lip on two sides of the base plate. I don't know if that's any clearer or not. It may take pictures. I guess it's possible there is a problem with the parts I ordered. I emailed Mojotone about a week ago and never heard back.
David King
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by David King »

Jim,

You might want to read through this thread over at the music-electronics-forum.
http://music-electronics-forum.com/t9875/
It seems to cover a lot of questions but not specifically getting the bobbins to fit the baseplate width.
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Mark Swanson
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Mark Swanson »

So, the bobbins fit into the cover, but not onto the baseplate because of the lip, right? I know from working on a lot of the minihumbuckers- which are not the same thing, but have similarities- the only thing that holds the pickups together is the baseplate being soldered to the cover. So, maybe you can remove those lips. As long as you can solder the cover on to hold it all together you'll be Ok.
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Jim Bonnell
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Jim Bonnell »

Thanks Mark and David. Yes Mark, the cover fits the base plate but the bobbins won't fit inside the two lips. You also answered my other question... What the heck holds it all together? David, the link you posted was interesting. If worst comes to worst I my try the sidewinder idea. The reason I want to build a Firebird mini is because I'm building an electric tenor and I wanted something smaller looking for the bridge pickup so as not to look too over sized and I felt the rails would work better for the string spacing on a tenor. I'm planning on building a Fender style pickup with four pole pieces for the neck position.
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Mark Swanson
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Mark Swanson »

I know you don't want to hear this but why don't you just use Fender type pickups for both, and they can be wired as a humbucker when used together? There's bound to be a pretty big volume difference if you use that Firebird pickup and a Fender type.
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Jim Bonnell
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Jim Bonnell »

I'm open to ideas on this. I had originally thought about using two Fender style pickups but thought if I would make a slightly wider Fender bobbin and longer pole pieces for the neck pickup I could over come what you're talking about by getting more wire on it. Correct me if I'm wrong. I could be way off base here.
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Mark Swanson
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Mark Swanson »

Even if you did that it would still be a smaller pickup...and harder to get more turns on it. The Firebird pickup will be hot, remember it's made of two coils to the fender type's one, and usually has higher resistance and gain because of that. The Firebird will also be a bigger pickup because you are using a six-string design. Every time I see a six string pickup on a four-string instrument it always looks too big to me! You might think about a smaller P-90 style, that is how Gibson handled the four-pole pickups they made for the electric mandolins.
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Bill Raymond
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Bill Raymond »

What about simply putting a wood shim beneath the coils to raise them far enough off the baseplate to clear the lip?
Jim Bonnell
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by Jim Bonnell »

Thanks. The wood shim may work. I'm not sure if there is any need to have contact with the base or not, but after reading Marks opinion I think I need to reconsider my plan. I'm with you Mark on the six string pickup. Every electric tenor I've seen looks bad to me. They tend to take a standard body and stick a tenor neck on it and they always look pinheaded to me for lack of a better term. I scaled down the body and plan on making a floating bridge and modifying a trapeze tail piece in hopes of getting it all to look balanced. I thought a mini placed at the bridge at an angle would work out, but back to the drawing board. Thanks for all the help. I plan on calling Mojotone to try and sort out the problem for a future build.
David King
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Re: Looking for help on building a Firebird mini humbucker

Post by David King »

I realize you probably don't want to stock more wire gauges but if you're going to make a habit of winding oddball pickups it would be useful to have a broader pallet to play with. Some 43 and 44 might make these miniature pickups quite successful when your bobbin height is limited.

On getting the bobbins to fit the baseplate, I'd be sorely tempted "adjust" the bobbin flanges to fit and go from there. If the extra height is no problem then a spacer under the bobbins is the way to go. Rather than a spacer I'd experiment with an iron "keeper" that spans the bottoms of the two blade magnets.
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