I just found lately an old tele rythm pickup and the winding, the diameter of a hair is hanging loose. any advice would be appreciated.
hhhmmm, either the winding flat out broke in half (check by touch to see it theres another end) or, did it break from a solder joint?
Might be time for a rewind, then just research the year you believe it's from and find what type of, and lenght and diameter wind they used...if you want it back to near original state.
Over and or under winding will change it's performance drastically vs. going by the specs.