Thursday, May 13, 2010

What is 'scatter-winding' anyway??

Many high-end pickup manufacturers like to boast (myself included) that their pickups are "scatter-wound," but many people don't really understand what this term means.  In fact the whole art of winding pickups is quite foreign to a lot of people, even if they play guitar.  Quite simply, scatter winding is a method of making pickups that results in a unique and beautiful sound.  In this post I'll take a stab at trying to explain the principles of this method.

All electric guitar pickups use the same basic design, they are simply magnetic polepieces wrapped in very thin copper wire.  The polepieces generate a magnetic field that the string vibrates in, and the copper coils turn that vibration into an electric signal. 

In the '50s, electric guitars started getting extremely popular.  Humbuckers, used primarily in Gibson guitars, used a uniform wind made on a machine; and single-coils, used primarily in Fender guitars, used a scatter-wound coil made by hand.  Technically you could use either method for either type of pickup, but it is widely believed that single-coils sound better scatter-wound.  Tension also matters when winding a pickup, looser winds typically sound clearer and better.

When I first started winding pickups I didn't understand that the way in which you wind the pickups actually has an effect on the tone.  It made sense to me that the quality of wire you use, the number of turns, the quality of the magnets, and the strength of the magnets all played a part in the overall tone.  But I figured you would need some sort of ultra sensitive computer to hear if they were scatter-wound or not.  I made a couple of pickups by just guiding the wire back and fourth in a very even manner.  I made a couple variations of these and tested them, then I made a set of pickups using a scatter-winding technique.  The first thing I noticed was that the resistance (electrical output measured in ohms) of the pickup had dropped significantly.  When I installed them and tried them out I was amazed!  I was hearing details that I had never heard before, there was more treble and harmonics than I had heard from my earlier pickups.  The video below shows me scatter winding a pickup.  The wire is as thin as a human hair so you can't really see it, but you can see how my hand is moving to get an idea of how it's done.  It also helps to be blasting Pink Floyd while you're doing this for 15-20 minutes per coil.

When coils are wound on a machine, each consecutive wind is very close to the last wind.  when you scatter-wind a pickup the idea is to put lots of space between each consecutive wind, this lowers the distributed capacitance of a pickup so that more treble and detail get through.  Your tone control on your guitar has a capacitor on it, as you turn that control counter-cockwise it uses more and more of that capacitor to bleed off highs to the ground, and the result is you hear a darker guitar tone.  Scatter-winding does just the opposite, it gives the pickup more treble.  This sounds really good on single coils because they have a very open sound to begin with, extreme highs and extreme lows, a lot of the guitar's natural tone and character comes through.

When I'm scatter-winding a pickup, I try not to follow any sort of pattern and I move the wire randomly across the bobbin.  Machines are not good at this because they are programmed to do things very neatly.  I suppose you could program a robot to mimic the motion of the human hand, but that wouldn't exactly be cost-effective.  The human hand is a really good tool for this because it's hard for us to do things in a consecutive pattern.

Update 08/04/2010
You can also scatter-wind by simply guiding the wire back and fourth faster across the bobbin, thus putting more distance between each wind.

Scatter-wound pickups are more expensive because they have to be made by hand.  It also makes the pickup more unique because you can never exactly replicate what you did before, so each pickup has its own tonal character.  When Fender first started out as a company, all of their pickups were wound by hand, they are considered by many to be some of the best sounding pickups in the world.  Today they make thousands of guitars a year so naturally it doesn't make sense for them to hand-wind each pickup, but there are a few other winders out there like myself who still hand-wind every single pickup.


  1. Interesting shit man, thanks for posting!

  2. Very good job of explaining what a scatter wound pickup is and their benefits over uniform machine wound pups.I think it will help people understand the art of hand winding as well.It takes a lot of practice and skill to build a good scatter wound pickup. Great post , Derek Carignan

  3. Thanx for the explination. I assumed this was the deal with scatter winding at it makes sense. I am trying to learn about pickup winding and intend to give it a serious shot as a hobby or more. Mat build a winder but looking at the Sidewinder model.

    Can you offer an opinion on the best method of charging the pups. Is there one mentod better than the other? Should this be done with neodymium magnets say in a vice and pass the pickup through or would an electromagnet be better for charging? What about charge strength relevance and how to calibrate or reduce the charge if needed? Any input on where to obtain a good cheap gauss meter that shows pole and strength?

  4. You can get an affordable magnetometer from R.B. Annis Co. out of Indiana that measures gauss in 50-0-50. More precise meters can cost hundreds of dollars but this one works just fine. 15-25 gauss is perfect for most pickups. Too much can sound harsh.

  5. Great blog! I actually prefer my humbuckers to be scatter wound because I think some dynamic range and harmonics are lost with the hum canceling nature of them. Scatter winding seems to reclaim some of that. Gives them a touch of "honk" or "spank" too, like the old PAF's. Single coils tend to already be brighter and have that spank, so machine winding them gives them some warmth too. Of course, I don't make pickups, I just use them, so you're probably right!

    1. Unknown , yes I agree both coils are opposite wound and like out of phase !
      HB pups are not bright so they may be better scatter wound ? have at it 42 gauge or 43 like p-90 type for more twang !

  6. My roommate Walter is re-winding a old Gold Foil DeArmond pickup , it will be scatter wound due too by hand and not a mechanical feed guide.
    43ga. was too fragile for him at first, tedious it is !