Wind direction - something that confuses a few people, but really simple - single coils, Specifically from Fender, as of 1977 (ish) came with a reverse wound (and reverse polarity! thats another post for another day!) middle pickup - that meant that when the middle pickup was used with the bridge or neck (pos 2 and pos 4) - it didn't was out because oh phase cancellation. The "standard" is the have a counter clockwise - dont sweat on it too much frankly - you can tell dead easily by just looking at the hookup wires on the board - Black (invariablly the negative/ground) on the right hand side? Live on the right? thats a counter clockwise wind. (opposite? thats clockwise/standard wind/non-reverse)

Now - the first thing i look at when i see pickups, is the actual direction of that wind - I'm expecting to see the start of the coil heading off "around" the poles (before they were buried under the rest of the coils!)

Theres a few reasons for this - but primarily, its because i want to know that the pickup has actually been reverse wound - its, electrically, perfectly fine to WIND a coil clockwise, but treat the finish as negative, and the start as live - the circuit will see it as a Counter clockwise wound coil, it'll be absolutely fine! Doesn't care! Every humbucker ever made is built like this! (and rightly so - again, thats for another day )

BUT - you do hit potential problems doing it that way with singles (or anything wound around a metal "core". If the insulation on the coil wire wears through, you potentially risk a short against the pole pieces - that doesn't actually matter when its on the ground side (and chances are, its happens eventually on most single coils with age, but we never spot if if they've been built properly) - but if it happens on the live side? Its going to cause you bother - especially if your pickups got a metal base plate (Tele bridges!) - the live wire will short to ground via the poles, your pickups dead - simple as.

So yeah - when we see reverse WOUND middles - lets actually have them wound in reverse eh? Just means less to go wrong, even if it is a bit more of a faff at winding.

The other reason i'm looking at how that start wire "heads off", is because i really dont want to see it being threaded between the poles (usual case is, someone thinks it looks nice and tidy, less chance of breakages, so they thread it between the 2nd and 3rd poles) - problem is two fold unfortunately.

First issue, is actually terminating the pickup to the hookup wire - by feeding the coil wire into the eyelet, and then looping it around the board (essential for making a good connection) that way, is that you end up with something that looks like the photo of the washer - wire runs from 12 o clock to 6 o clock - imagine that on a much smaller scale, and your trying to shove a hookup wire into the hole? theres a bit chance your going to snag it, snap it, and scrap it (more on that in a second!)

Have the wire going "round the outside"? And you hit the eyelet about 2 o clock, coming out at 6 o clock, and you've got a huge amount of room to get the hookup wire in there! Frankly, no reason not to as far as i'm concerned.

AND! By going round the outside - you've actually left enough room to make a repair - because i tell you for free, pickups do not break on the end of the coil its always the start wire! (thats sods law in action!) And i cant tell you how tricky it is to repair a start wire thats 4mm long! - head around the outside? You've got about 15mm... still not fun, but long enough to get an iron and a bit of solder into!

So yeah - if your winding, then these are good rules to follow - it'll probably not make a great deal of difference in your day to day building, but one day, it'll save you having to rewind something with a weird short to ground, or a snapped start that you cant quite splice back onto.