Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: richard on October 09, 2012, 06:29:21 PM

Title: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: richard on October 09, 2012, 06:29:21 PM
Who started it then ? When did someone first advertise scatterwound pickups ?
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: Telerocker on October 10, 2012, 03:58:45 AM
I guess in the early days of Leo Fender pickups were handwound. Seth Lover's PAF's were.
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: Elliot on October 10, 2012, 09:18:39 AM
I guess in the early days of Leo Fender pickups were handwound. Seth Lover's PAF's were.

Fender had a pool of Mexican-American women hand/scatterwinding pickups until about 1963-64 when they bought automated winding machines (and still continued to handwind pickups thereafter).  Basically, the old spaghetti logo Fenders are hand wound.  PAF's and P90s were never handwound - Gibson used a number of automated winders including the Leesona 102 winding machine from the 1940s.  However, those old machines do not operate in the regular way that modern computer controlled winders operate and scatterwinding captures some of that.

 
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: gwEm on October 10, 2012, 11:01:58 AM
Its true that the first pickups were hand/scatter wound.

Richard's question is a good one though - I wonder who was the first to revive it. Quite a few manufactures offer it now.
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: richard on October 10, 2012, 05:46:08 PM
Yes gwEm, that's what I was getting at. If early pickups were scatterwound it was by accident rather than design. Did someone look at these old pups and decide that they preferred the sound of those with a more random looking wind ? And who first started marketing the virtues of a scatterwound pickup ?
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: Twinfan on October 10, 2012, 07:39:41 PM
I have some David White "Old Glories" Strat pickups which I bought from David in the early nineties, sometime around 1994 I think.  They were wound on a machine controlled by a ZX Spectrum computer, which used a random program to generate "scatter winding".

That's the earliest reference I know of...
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: HTH AMPS on October 10, 2012, 07:46:39 PM
Those Old Glories were well thought of I recall - always wanted a set but never did.  They still get a pretty penny when they crop up on ebay occasionally.
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: Elliot on October 10, 2012, 08:44:31 PM
David White of Old Glories never advertised his product to be 'scatterwinding' though - his marketing get up was VTP (which was, I believe, a ZX Spectrum controlled winding machine).
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: Twinfan on October 10, 2012, 11:41:24 PM
True, he called in variable tension pattern or something?  It was scatterwinding as we know it today though...
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: Philly Q on October 11, 2012, 10:38:08 AM
I have some David White "Old Glories" Strat pickups which I bought from David in the early nineties, sometime around 1994 I think.  They were wound on a machine controlled by a ZX Spectrum computer, which used a random program to generate "scatter winding".

That's the earliest reference I know of...

Isn't that brilliant, something which was (briefly) cutting-edge technology but now seems as quaint and antiquated as those Fender ladies hand-winding pickups in the late '50s.  :D

(No offence to the ladies, calling them antiquated!)
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: Silent Rumours on October 11, 2012, 11:31:13 AM
Are BKPs actually Scatterwound by hand or machine these days?
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: gwEm on October 11, 2012, 01:34:01 PM
Are BKPs actually Scatterwound by hand or machine these days?

"Making the ultimate sounding pickups is our goal at Bare Knuckle and we don't do that by cutting corners. All of our pickups are completely hand-made, one at a time, and nothing but the highest quality is acceptable. We make each pickup to withstand a lifetime of playing and that life starts out with handwinding."
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: blue on October 11, 2012, 06:02:43 PM
but of course hand winding still requires a machine.  the difference is that the wire is guided by hand, so the operator can control it.  i would imagine a computer programme memorise a winding pattern as an operator did it, then replicate it precisely.  what would that be then?  wound by machine, but identical to, say, a particular Mule or Apache.
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: Afghan Dave on October 11, 2012, 07:05:14 PM
1) PERFECT Darth Vader mask made from new tooling featured in Epi 3

(http://media.screened.com/uploads/0/3042/245356-episode_3_darth_vader_helmet_2.jpg)


Looks WRONG!



2) IMPERFECT Darth Vader mask made by old molds + hand

(http://media.screened.com/uploads/0/1144/344007-vaders.jpg)

Looks SO right!



FEEL the Force of the BKP side!
Title: Re: Scatterwinding.......
Post by: JDC on October 14, 2012, 09:31:41 PM
Old Darth is better because he's more shiny