Source for white pickup tape

[David Aubke]

Anybody know where I can purchase tape that closely matches what was used on later model pickups?

[JanneI]

Did anyone find a suitable clear or white tape? Or can I use just any tape? I guess it's 1/2" wide?

My mark II 73 has white tape on the pickups, but they are complitely covered with dirt and I would like to have then cleaned, preferable changed to clear tape. The whole harp is going to be renewed, and those ugly dirty white tapes can't stay Any ideas?

[voltergeist]

I'd caution against removing the tape.  You'd probably kill a number of pickups in the process.

[David Aubke]

The closest I've been able to get is this 3/4" white tape from Grainger.
https://www.grainger.com/product/SCOTCH-Electrical-Tape-2A228

I haven't used any yet and don't know what my plan is when the time comes. I guess I'll try to rig a cutting jig to bring down the width.

I remove and replace the tape from all of my pickups. So far I've done this with three pianos without incident. This is after having separated each pickup from the bus wire. It would be a major pain to replace the tape in situ, and you probably would damage one or two.

[David Aubke]

For clear tape, I have been using a roll of packing tape that I cut down (messy business). I got this for my next job.
https://www.grainger.com/product/SCOTCH-Film-Tape-1F198

[JanneI]

Thanks David!

So, the tape is there just to keep the dirt out and protect the wiring? And yes, I know that removing the pickup bus wiring can damage the pickups. The Rhodes that I'm currently restoring has been out of its (lower) case for many years and literally everything is covered with dirt. I won't look new if I'll leave the pickup tapes the way they are. I even took the tone bars and the harp metal frame to be re-zinced.

[JanneI]

I removed all the pickup wiring (73 Mark II (5280) with white tape pickups) and 12 of the 73 didn't make it. They varied between 180 to 214ohms. 

[JanneI]

1 more mic broke when I soldered them back. The caution about removing the mics is well justified, but if you are willing to learn how to rewind the broken mics, go for it! For rewinding I used 38AWG copper wire, reel mounted on a steady steel pole, a cordless drill with the mic mounted on a wood stick and a tachometer. It took 20-30min per mic (i was going slow just in case..). It's really not "rocket science", you just need those basic tools and _patience_. If you'd like to rewind the SAME OLD wire, then you'll need to mount the pickup to a very smoothly rotating surface, otherwise the old copper wire will break. I wasn't able to do that, but I didn't need to, because of the new wire that I was using.

A short video of my setup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv1raPnFmvg

Cheers,
Janne

[pianotuner steveo]

That video is pretty cool....

[David Aubke]

How well does that tachometer work? Are you able to run faster than what's shown in the video?

[JanneI]

That cheap tachometer actually worked fine even faster rate than in that video. My biggest concern was how steadily the big heavy reel would spin (but it did!) and that's why I was taking it slowly.

The reason why I posted the video was to show that fixing a dead rhodes pickup with a brand new wire (AWG38) is pretty easy! Using the same wire is more problematic, mostly because it tends to break when rewinding. Instant Game Over.

[David Aubke]

Try rotating your spool ninety degrees so that the wire falls off the side rather than unwinding.

From instructions for the Schatten Pickup Winder:
"Pickup wire isn't meant to feed off a rotating spool. It's too thin to take the strain of turning the spool. Instead, let the wire feed off the end of the spool vertically, about 3 or 4 feet below the winder."

[JanneI]

Thanks, have to try that. I saw you doing it like that on your video..

[David Aubke]

The tachometer looks like a good solution for a counter. Sounds like you may have seen my pickup winding rig with the CD-ROM/mouse counter. It worked pretty well until I damaged the mouse by letting the disc crash into one of the optical sensors. The next mouse I tried didn't work very well at all. I got another that worked but by then I was getting tired of fiddling with it.