What does hand wound mean?
The term hand wound is actually a bit of a misnomer, because the wire isn’t actually wound onto the bobbin by hand, and the bobbin isn’t turned in the winder’s hands. There’s over 8000 turns to make a stock Strat pickup, so the concept of actually “hand” winding is a bit unrealistic, though perhaps a fine way to spend your time should you have a 30 day stint in county lock up. A hand wound pickup is wound on a pickup winder, as are machine wound pickups, however in a hand wound pickup the wire is guided and tensioned onto the bobbin by the hand and eye of the winder. It takes a lot of patience and skill and a lot of trial and error to get it right, but some of us think it is worth it. Just check out the prices on pre CBS Fender guitars and you’ll get the idea. It’s not a mojo thing with those guitars, nor necessarily the age of the pickups (as they sounded good back then too, didn’t they? – but more on the “aging” thing later) – the pickups were hand wound by skilled workers, and they
