I got inspired to embark on a new venture after watching some of the greats wind pickups an after my own dealings with purchases of factory/ machine wound and hand/scatter wound pickups.
I decided I would start winding my own, both for myself and place some on the market for sale. After looking around I found that available winders were a bit expensive.
Not as expensive as a commercial grade computer machine winder but expensive for a hand winder and most were lacking in some respects. The few that are out there the Mojotone
is a well equipped winder but a bit pricey but it does have a nice red finish and a built in gauss meter for measuring the amount of magnetism. But this in itself is odd
because new pickups do not yet have been magnetized that is a process later in the production. But nonetheless a cool feature but probably not worth the extra expense of the winder.
But the Mojotone is a good entry and is represented in an instructional class from a top pickup winder.

The Mojotone does have some other features that are a notch above others like a programable winding counter and a class act bobbin holder.
The next alternative was the Schatten winder again a decent winder but much leass expensive than the Mojotone. This appaers to be a staple
of Stew-Mac and they even off it as a DIY kit. It is a good basic winder but lacking some features of the previous but it does offer a foot switch.
But from what I gather the footswitch just turns the machine on/off not necessarily a speed control function. Unlike some hand built models that utilize
a Singer sewing machine motor and footswitch for speed control. That being said sewing maching motors are much too fast for winding
and need to be stepped down in ratio with gears/pulleys to get a workable speed. But the Schatten winder is a unit that a lot of other winders
copy the design of beacuse I suppose it is a good basic unit. Double sided tape is used for bobbin mounting.

Next we have the Thomas winder which is a somewhat improved version of the Schatten design and what I looked at to design my own
because most of the other DIY designs were a bit exposed and looked a bit thrown together. This is a fairly nice unit and has a good price and some cool features
some of which I will definetely incorporate into my own design. It has a good speed around 2000 RPM, a lighted digital diasplay as well as some accessories.
Some winders say the Thomas models are what the Schatten should have been. The Thomas was what I was considering buying before I decided on building my own
custom model. But I like the containment and aluminum contruction.

So I embarked on gathering my materials, aluminum square tubing, motor, mounting hardware, digital counter, speed control, stainless steel shafts,etc.
I will be assembling it in the weeks to come and once it is complete and revisions are made (always need refining) I will obtain materials to start winding.
Once I perfect my technique and wind some quality pickups they will be on the market for sale here and Ebay. Evey effort will be made to set forth the best pickup at the least cost possible.
I will of course want to make it worth my while but at the same time provide you with the best pickup possible which is what we all want.
I will make some Blog posts as contruction and testing begins.
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