How I Make A Revel Custom Pickups

I use the finest components and painstakingly assemble them into a pickup intended to last. Here’s a great example: Every Strat pickup has the magnets pressed into the flatwork one by one to assure alignment and integrity of the bobbin. I then glue the magnets to the flatwork using a water thin CA glue. This prevents a premature separation of the components and ensures that the pickup will last. I then dip the assembly in lacquer and let it dry for a day. This increases the longevity and insulates the magnets from the coil wire. Once the assembly is dry I tape the magnets to further insulate the magnets from the coil wire. This means that it will last though far more than a lifetime of playing and exposure to sweat and elements. Finally the coil is hand wound and the entire pickup wax potted. 

This isn’t an option for my pickups. All of them are made this way. 

I wind most coils by hand using different gauges and insulation builds of the highest quality copper wire. These coils are scatterwound. Scatterwinding can really only be done by hand and I consider it an integral part of what makes many Revel pickups what they are. Several other pickups, like the Vintage ’72 and the Retro P.A.F., are machine wound on an old, mechanical, Geo Stevens 39AM model coil winder.