Electric guitars use pickups to sense string vibrations and make music. While a wide variety are available for purchase, what if you would like to make your own custom device for audio experimentation? In the video below, Ezra Spencer from the Mixed Signal shows how to do just that by automatically winding a pickup coil with an Arduino Uno, a CNC shield, and a pair of stepper motors.

Here, the winding-in-progress is mounted on one of the steppers, which spins in the neighborhood of 10,000 times to create a spool of pickup wire. Meanwhile, the carriage is moved left and right by the other stepper to produce an even wire distribution. If all goes well, after 20 minutes or so you can return to find your new pickup assembly, wound and ready for further exploration!