How do i make a cheap pickup for a homemade guitar?

Question

me nad my dad are building a homemade guitar and i really dont wanna pay alot for pickups what are some ways i can make a cheap one?

Answer 1

A typical guitar pickup consists of a magnet with a coil of wire wound around it. I know from personal experience of trying to make my own that it is really difficult!! You would be far better off finding either a junky guitar and cannibalizing the pickups from it or finding some cheap ones to buy.

For example, a typical Fender Strat pickup is wound with 42 ga. wire, which is .0025", which is very thin! Much thinner than a strand of hair. Since it is very thin, it's really easy for the wire to break in your hands. A Strat pickup is wound with approximately 8,000 turns, so, trying to do this by hand might not work very well.

To buy enough wire to wind your own pickups, and to buy the magnets, you would probably spend a lot more than if you searched on ebay for a parts guitar or a pickup for sale.

You shouldn't have to spend a lot of money for this, if you look around and are resourceful, you should be able to get pickups for very little money. Don't pay retail! Accessories like this are generally way overpriced in retail music stores.

I'm including a link to a Strat pickup on Ebay that is right now at 99 cents. You can't do better than that. You should be able to win that auction for less than ten dollars. It would cost you much more to make a pickup yourself.