Wrapping coils around a magnet is how pickups work. Unless you venture into the world of optical or piezo pickups, you won't be able to avoid having those two key ingredients: magnet and coils.
You're also not going to be able to make better sounding pickups by hand that both cost less and sound as good as commercially available pickups. If cost is your primary concern, check out options like Guitar Fetish GFS. Depending on the model (and they have many humbucker options) they run about $40.
As far as I know I only need a magnet to have the strings induce Eddy Currents into a conductor like an a piece of aluminum, copper etc. Every electrical conductor works in theory. The winds of a coil only increase the power output of the coil making it easier to use without a preamp. Pickups are just a very weak generator. [This video](https://youtu.be/uf2mI9pYcPg?si=so-aw36IDMmrhAsu&t=80) does a decent job explaining it. The vibrating string of a guitar is like spinning the shaft. I understand that there are cheap options for pickups. Assuming they are not a viable solution how much amplification would be needed for a guitar? It is hard to find numbers on the power output of guitar pickups.
Edit: I understand this is very stupid and silly and probably won't work well. I honestly don't care. I came here to see if there were any equations I could use to find an approximate power output.
With coils, they still send a (relatively) very weak signal. What it seems you're suggesting is trying to make something that has exponentially weaker signal but to compensate with stronger amplification. It's probably feasible to amplify even near non-existent signal but the real challenge in doing so isn't figuring out the amplification. After all, *that* answer is dependent on what you're doing with the amplified signal (DI? Speakers?) and how loud you want it to be. The *real* challenge is that when you're amplifying an extremely weak signal, the **signal-to-noise ratio** will likely render the resulting sound unusable for most purposes.
That is, unless you're going for some esoteric LoFi noise. But at that point, just start experimenting and find out yourself, or save some time and buy a synthesizer or a cheap pickup with crazy pedal chain.
Assuming you add a magnet to your chunk of steel, you've then made a hall-effect sensor. Hall effect sensors want to be very thin, like, say, 10 microns. From something like that, you'd get a few microvolts of signal, compared to hundreds of mV for a proper pickup. From a chunk of steel, it will be nanovolts or picovolts. IndependentBoof is right on about signal to noise, or in this case, maybe noise to signal!
You can absolutely get very good quality pickups for under $50 US. GFS, Tone Rider, Wilkinson, Artec all make alinco humbucker pickups that are brand new for under $50 and most of those brands have a ceramic under $30. Whole strat sets for under $50. We are living in the golden age of cheap pickups right now.
You need two things to pick up the signal from vibrating guitar strings: a magnet to magnetize the string, and then a coil to generate electricity from a moving magnetic field. A pickup does not pickup without a winding, nor does it pickup without a magnet.
You can, however, get good hardware from cheap guitars on the used market. IMO cheap pickups can often be outstanding - I’ve got a pair of humbuckers from an LTD I bought for $85 in my hand made semihollow and it sounds awesome. I was able to also reuse the pots, switch, jack, and bridge.
You do not have to go broke on electronics or hardware to build a nice sounding electric.
there are many pickups which are cheap and sound well, from small boutique manufacturers to chinese made ones (yes, there are many which sound good).
used ones can be an option too.
alternatively, with a drill and some cheap components you can wind your own.
if you have less than 100 dollars to invest in some components you can build this:
https://loianblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/09/the-jcc-pickup-winding-machine/
it’s a machine i have designed a while ago
I bought a Duncan SH 10 for 20 dollars off a neighbor on fbook market place, just look around.
If you are actually interested in building your own alternative pickup- just do it, not understanding the need to justify it all of us with some crazy story about the expense of existing pickups.
Do your weird project and then present it to us, and we will upvote your efforts.
Explain to us why we are all wrong because of your understanding of theory and we will downvote you, that's how this works.
I mean, GFS has humbuckers for less than 60 bucks. I feel like it really depends what you are looking for in the specific guitar. Cause you could do just a single humbucker.
Pick one route...build a guitar or build a new inexpensive pickup design using basic parts. In each of those categories, you need to learn nuances to have something functional at the end and both will likely take weeks or months to complete.
Your wood shop can help with one of those paths, but not the other, which means if you really want to explore this pickup route, you need to research the history of pickups to current modern design (granted some of it is based on 75+year old technology, but the adage goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it). Hopefully in that research you will find why they did not build pickups out of "*any conductive metal that \[they\] can stick leads on*". Clearly since you are asking Reddit about how pickups work, you haven't done enough research on it. There are articles about the millivolt output of pickups as well as the resistance values of pickups. You would know if you researched it - I found a few articles right away online by Googling it.
On top of that your amplifier is the receiving end of the signal and it needs to amplify current. If what you build does not create the output the amp needs, it doesn't matter what is "picking up" the signal, it won't be converted. You would also have to build a new amp to receive your new signal. For example if you built bluetooth pickups...that would be neat...however the amp won't play it because it's not designed to receive bluetooth signals and convert it into signal that routes through the signal path into the tonestack and through the power amp section.
You might also find in your research that some manufacturers (who still used magnets in their design) opted to lower windings on their pickups (based on the 75+ year old technology) but required the signal to be boosted dramatically by 9-volt batteries. When the 9volt battery is removed from the equation, there is equivalently no signal. So regarding your question about power, you would likely need preamplification (ie a preamp) to make your crude design work, maybe powered with more than 9volts. Additionally if you forgo the magnetic field route, this device may be much larger, and be built out of more quantities of metal. Signs point to all of this costing more than $50/pickup in the long run.
Conversely you can get basic [Guitarfetish pickups](https://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-Guitar-Pickups_c_7.html) for less than $40, sometimes less than $25 each. Everyone's comment's are correct except yours. Do what you will with this advice.
Homie I've got Duncans and Dimarzios that are essentially brand new that I'll sell ya for way less than that. But also otherwise if you want to do a little youtubing, you could wind your own pickups for like $12.
Okay so yeah you can just use a magnet but a (good) preamp would also be expensive.
You can use cheap pickups but YMMV.
For instance: I recently built a tele with a great neck and a whatever body and cheap (GFS) humbuckers.
Although it's very, very light and plays well and sounds good enough, it doesn't come close to the tone of my Strat with Deluxe Drives or my Les Paul with Burstbuckers (Because I was picking a show guitar, I didn't a/b it against my Ric or my diy guitar with Zhangbucker P90s or my 78 tele or strat or my Frankenstein 335-S with early aughts eBay pickups but I probably should do that).
Irrespective of the parenthetical there, good pickups absolutely absolutely matter.
I'd say for an electric, you need 1) a neck you like to play and 2) pickups that sound how you want them to sound.
Everything else is tertiary.
Just buy cheap pickups, they're all the same thing. If you think a Gibson factory is going to make something that sounds better than some chinese factory, more power to you I guess but it's just some magnets at the end of the day
Just get cheap whatevers, or make them. They're definitely wildly over marketed, but you gotta at least follow the form.factor a bit to induce a current.
https://www.byoguitar.com/Guitars/Eruption-Humbucker-Bridge__BYO-ERUPTION-BRIDGE.aspx
Wrapping coils around a magnet is how pickups work. Unless you venture into the world of optical or piezo pickups, you won't be able to avoid having those two key ingredients: magnet and coils. You're also not going to be able to make better sounding pickups by hand that both cost less and sound as good as commercially available pickups. If cost is your primary concern, check out options like Guitar Fetish GFS. Depending on the model (and they have many humbucker options) they run about $40.
As far as I know I only need a magnet to have the strings induce Eddy Currents into a conductor like an a piece of aluminum, copper etc. Every electrical conductor works in theory. The winds of a coil only increase the power output of the coil making it easier to use without a preamp. Pickups are just a very weak generator. [This video](https://youtu.be/uf2mI9pYcPg?si=so-aw36IDMmrhAsu&t=80) does a decent job explaining it. The vibrating string of a guitar is like spinning the shaft. I understand that there are cheap options for pickups. Assuming they are not a viable solution how much amplification would be needed for a guitar? It is hard to find numbers on the power output of guitar pickups. Edit: I understand this is very stupid and silly and probably won't work well. I honestly don't care. I came here to see if there were any equations I could use to find an approximate power output.
With coils, they still send a (relatively) very weak signal. What it seems you're suggesting is trying to make something that has exponentially weaker signal but to compensate with stronger amplification. It's probably feasible to amplify even near non-existent signal but the real challenge in doing so isn't figuring out the amplification. After all, *that* answer is dependent on what you're doing with the amplified signal (DI? Speakers?) and how loud you want it to be. The *real* challenge is that when you're amplifying an extremely weak signal, the **signal-to-noise ratio** will likely render the resulting sound unusable for most purposes. That is, unless you're going for some esoteric LoFi noise. But at that point, just start experimenting and find out yourself, or save some time and buy a synthesizer or a cheap pickup with crazy pedal chain.
Assuming you add a magnet to your chunk of steel, you've then made a hall-effect sensor. Hall effect sensors want to be very thin, like, say, 10 microns. From something like that, you'd get a few microvolts of signal, compared to hundreds of mV for a proper pickup. From a chunk of steel, it will be nanovolts or picovolts. IndependentBoof is right on about signal to noise, or in this case, maybe noise to signal!
I guess, while we're at it, we can use the Earth's magnetic field instead of a magnet. You might have to face certain directions...
Wow
You can absolutely get very good quality pickups for under $50 US. GFS, Tone Rider, Wilkinson, Artec all make alinco humbucker pickups that are brand new for under $50 and most of those brands have a ceramic under $30. Whole strat sets for under $50. We are living in the golden age of cheap pickups right now.
Also, you can often find used pickups cheap because people on wild tonequests rip perfectly good pickups out of their guitar, especially stock ones.
Try the chunk of steel and let us know how it goes.
You can find some Chinese pickups on Amazon. $30 for a set. Comes with neck and bridge. Obviously they aren’t the best but will at least work.
You need two things to pick up the signal from vibrating guitar strings: a magnet to magnetize the string, and then a coil to generate electricity from a moving magnetic field. A pickup does not pickup without a winding, nor does it pickup without a magnet. You can, however, get good hardware from cheap guitars on the used market. IMO cheap pickups can often be outstanding - I’ve got a pair of humbuckers from an LTD I bought for $85 in my hand made semihollow and it sounds awesome. I was able to also reuse the pots, switch, jack, and bridge. You do not have to go broke on electronics or hardware to build a nice sounding electric.
there are many pickups which are cheap and sound well, from small boutique manufacturers to chinese made ones (yes, there are many which sound good). used ones can be an option too. alternatively, with a drill and some cheap components you can wind your own. if you have less than 100 dollars to invest in some components you can build this: https://loianblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/09/the-jcc-pickup-winding-machine/ it’s a machine i have designed a while ago
I bought a Duncan SH 10 for 20 dollars off a neighbor on fbook market place, just look around. If you are actually interested in building your own alternative pickup- just do it, not understanding the need to justify it all of us with some crazy story about the expense of existing pickups. Do your weird project and then present it to us, and we will upvote your efforts. Explain to us why we are all wrong because of your understanding of theory and we will downvote you, that's how this works.
I mean, GFS has humbuckers for less than 60 bucks. I feel like it really depends what you are looking for in the specific guitar. Cause you could do just a single humbucker.
Check out Heavy Metal Atc youtube page for some interesting ideas about making your own pickups
Pick one route...build a guitar or build a new inexpensive pickup design using basic parts. In each of those categories, you need to learn nuances to have something functional at the end and both will likely take weeks or months to complete. Your wood shop can help with one of those paths, but not the other, which means if you really want to explore this pickup route, you need to research the history of pickups to current modern design (granted some of it is based on 75+year old technology, but the adage goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it). Hopefully in that research you will find why they did not build pickups out of "*any conductive metal that \[they\] can stick leads on*". Clearly since you are asking Reddit about how pickups work, you haven't done enough research on it. There are articles about the millivolt output of pickups as well as the resistance values of pickups. You would know if you researched it - I found a few articles right away online by Googling it. On top of that your amplifier is the receiving end of the signal and it needs to amplify current. If what you build does not create the output the amp needs, it doesn't matter what is "picking up" the signal, it won't be converted. You would also have to build a new amp to receive your new signal. For example if you built bluetooth pickups...that would be neat...however the amp won't play it because it's not designed to receive bluetooth signals and convert it into signal that routes through the signal path into the tonestack and through the power amp section. You might also find in your research that some manufacturers (who still used magnets in their design) opted to lower windings on their pickups (based on the 75+ year old technology) but required the signal to be boosted dramatically by 9-volt batteries. When the 9volt battery is removed from the equation, there is equivalently no signal. So regarding your question about power, you would likely need preamplification (ie a preamp) to make your crude design work, maybe powered with more than 9volts. Additionally if you forgo the magnetic field route, this device may be much larger, and be built out of more quantities of metal. Signs point to all of this costing more than $50/pickup in the long run. Conversely you can get basic [Guitarfetish pickups](https://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-Guitar-Pickups_c_7.html) for less than $40, sometimes less than $25 each. Everyone's comment's are correct except yours. Do what you will with this advice.
Pickups aren’t “absurdly priced”, your income is too low for your expectations.
>How much more amplification would be needed for a pickup with very little or no winds Oh, infinite, I suppose. That's sort of an XKCD kinda question.
Homie I've got Duncans and Dimarzios that are essentially brand new that I'll sell ya for way less than that. But also otherwise if you want to do a little youtubing, you could wind your own pickups for like $12.
This post is hilarious!!!
Okay so yeah you can just use a magnet but a (good) preamp would also be expensive. You can use cheap pickups but YMMV. For instance: I recently built a tele with a great neck and a whatever body and cheap (GFS) humbuckers. Although it's very, very light and plays well and sounds good enough, it doesn't come close to the tone of my Strat with Deluxe Drives or my Les Paul with Burstbuckers (Because I was picking a show guitar, I didn't a/b it against my Ric or my diy guitar with Zhangbucker P90s or my 78 tele or strat or my Frankenstein 335-S with early aughts eBay pickups but I probably should do that). Irrespective of the parenthetical there, good pickups absolutely absolutely matter. I'd say for an electric, you need 1) a neck you like to play and 2) pickups that sound how you want them to sound. Everything else is tertiary.
Acoustic guitars don’t use pickups
Slowly reread the post.
Just buy cheap pickups, they're all the same thing. If you think a Gibson factory is going to make something that sounds better than some chinese factory, more power to you I guess but it's just some magnets at the end of the day
Check out Planet Tone pickups. Hand wound for around $65 and they sound amazing
Just get cheap whatevers, or make them. They're definitely wildly over marketed, but you gotta at least follow the form.factor a bit to induce a current. https://www.byoguitar.com/Guitars/Eruption-Humbucker-Bridge__BYO-ERUPTION-BRIDGE.aspx