The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones.
Designed as a continuation of our introductory workshop (or for experienced builders with prior pickup knowledge), this advanced class emphasizes how and why pickups behave the way they do — and how to shape that behavior through technique rather than formulas alone.
Hand Winding & Advanced Winding Strategies
Students may choose to wind pickups using manual hand-guided techniques or advanced automated systems — or compare both directly.
You’ll work with professional-grade equipment, including:
Tonewinder (TW) 1.3 with Automatic Tension Control (ATC)
Mojotone winder upgraded with the TW Traverse system
For those opting into hand winding, we focus on:
Controlled scatter vs uniform layering
Traverse speed, hand motion, and coil shape
Tension consistency without automation
Listening for feel as well as measuring results
We’ll discuss when hand winding introduces desirable complexity, when automation improves consistency, and how experienced builders intentionally use both approaches.
Advanced Pickup Design & Voicing
This class goes beyond “how to build a pickup” and into how to design one with intent.
Topics include:
Advanced coil geometry and layering strategies
Intentional asymmetry in humbuckers
Output balancing vs dynamic response
Magnet selection and degaussing concepts
Fine-tuning pickups for specific guitars, scale lengths, and playing styles
Managing microphonics without killing responsiveness
You’ll explore how small adjustments compound into audible differences — and how to predict outcomes before winding.
Build Sophisticated, Custom Pickups
Participants will build more advanced pickup designs than those covered in the introductory class. These are not kits or presets — they are purpose-built pickups, shaped by your design choices and refined through discussion, listening, and iteration.
Each student leaves with:
A set of advanced, shop-built pickups
A deeper understanding of pickup voicing and diagnostics
The confidence to experiment and refine designs independently
Who This Advanced Class Is For
Builders who have completed the Introductory class
Pickup winders looking to refine technique
Luthiers and serious DIY guitar builders
Anyone ready to move from copying specs to designing tone
This is a hands-on, discussion-heavy workshop with a strong emphasis on problem-solving, listening, and technique refinement.
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
The Advanced Guitar Pickup Building Class is a deep-dive, hands-on workshop for builders who want to move beyond fundamentals and into intentional pickup design. This course focuses on fine control, repeatability, and purposeful variation — including traditional hand winding, advanced winding strategies, and the nuanced decisions that separate good pickups from exceptional ones. Designed as […]
