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Demystifying the Breadwinner Toroidal Pickup

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Nihillandvoid66
Posted 2024-05-20 7:41 PM (#560244)
Subject: Demystifying the Breadwinner Toroidal Pickup


Joined:
December 2023
Posts: 7

Location: Brisbane, Australia
After some deep searching (including digging through some old foreign listings) I found someone who had actually rewound an Original Breadwinner Toroidal pickup. This has answered a lot of questions and revealed a lot of interesting details about their construction I wanted to share with everyone.

First thing, their are Three main parts to the pickup;
The metal base plate with the square Pole Pieces
The Coil with an Curved Top Bobbin and the magnet + coil orientated horizontally (!!!)
the Adjustable screw pole pieces.

Here are some rough drawings showing the pieces and how they go together.
IMG-6035
IMG-6036

Basically, the coil is oriented Horizontally (that being the magnet and coil are on their side) with the magnet resting against the Square pole pieces and the screw Pole pieces. You can see in the photos below where the square pole pieces were resting against the bobbin and magnet, and the curve on the top side of the bobbin to follow along with the curve of the pickups cover. Here are some photos showing the underside of the pickup, where you can see the large base plate with the square pole pieces, and the screws within the plastic housing next to it. The next photos shows a clear image of the bobbin with the curved top, showing some marks where the square poles were resting against the bobbin/magnet.

bv68oqerwwcy1sdewtju
breadwinner-pickup

Within the pickup cover there seems to be some molded plastic area for the screw pole pieces and to secure the baseplate/square poles and the bobbin. Very very interesting construction!

Thanks!
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numbfingers
Posted 2024-05-29 5:43 PM (#560260 - in reply to #560244)
Subject: Re: Demystifying the Breadwinner Toroidal Pickup


Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 1118

Location: NW Washington State
So it's a sidewinder design! I always wondered, but my set have some blue silicone-like adhesive holding them together, probably done by a previous owner. I've seen pictures of some that look like the back cover had come loose. I wonder what the factory used. IIRC a Deacon pickup I took apart was full of something other than wax.

It doesn't seem that toroidal is a very good description of the design. It's not much like like the torioid "donut" form that's used for chokes or transformers.

-Steve W.
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Nihillandvoid66
Posted 2024-05-29 9:11 PM (#560263 - in reply to #560244)
Subject: Re: Demystifying the Breadwinner Toroidal Pickup


Joined:
December 2023
Posts: 7

Location: Brisbane, Australia
Yeah the "Toroidal" name is certainly incorrect, but I guess they were trying to give it a unique name that would make it seem innovative. Its still a unique design, I'm hoping to get a second Breadwinner soon with these pickups so I can compare them to the later Mini humbuckers.
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