Burns Rez-O-Matik rewind

Here we have a lovely old (and sadly very dead) Burns Rez-O-Matik pickup from the 60s/70s ... our job is to breathe new life into it.

cover off and you can see why the Rez-O-Matik and several other Burns pickups are so different to practically everything else: firstly there is the split and opposed ceramic magnet array in the middle ... and around it ... the coil. Yep no bobbin. The coil was wound on a sort of 'basket' wire former ... potted, tape wrapped then pushed over the magnet. It's a total nightmare for a rewinder ... but we will get there.

Above: you can see the rock hard and very dead air coil out of it's slot. Below: Out with the pencil and paper to design a former for the coil ... I specialise in fast 'back of a fag packet' style drawings!

Now to think of how to build it ... over a mug of 'builder's tea ... I do my best thinking with a cuppa ...

The 'Fag packet' stage doesn't last long ... I whistle out a 2D drawing program and get stuck in. On screen is the central 'core' of the former .. the little 'bumps' will stop the wound coil sticking on the core ... and provide a gap for me to pass tape through.

Below: the basic components ... to be laser cut from acrylic then bolted together.

Then as if by magic ... it's made ... well the magic took quite a while ... as did the design!

Above: nearly ready to wind ... note the layer of tape on the core ... sticky side outwards ... this will stop wire sticking in the former joins ... and start the wrapping process for me. More soon :-)