Changing Pickups

[ryansean]

Can someone give me good instructions on how to take out a bridge humbucker, and replace it with another one.

[illumina]

Re: Changing Pickups

materials needed :
Soldering iron/gun. I have both a 10 watt iron, and a 100 watt gun. These would run about 7 and 15 bucks at your radio shack, respectively.
Solder. a buck or so at radio shack.

Take off all the strings. unscrew the cover that hides your control cavity. On most jacksons, its on the back. If you have a guitar with a pickguard(fender strats), take off the the entire thing.

There's a little hole in the wood that goes from the bridge pickup spot to the control cavity. There should be a wire that comes out from it. It should be soldered to your toggle switch, and your volume pot. The one to your toggle is your 'hot' wire. ie. it carries the actual signal.
The other one is the ground pickup. Unsolder both of those connections by heating up the Soldering gun/wand, then applying it to the contact point. Be warned that a soldering wand takes a VERY long time to heat up. A gun would take about 10 seconds.

As the solder heats up, it'll melt, allowing you to remove the wire. When both contacts are removed, you can remove the pickup from the guitar. You may need to unscrew a mounting ring if you have one.

With your new pickup, attach it to the mounting ring, and thread the wire through the hole in the guitar body that you originally took the 1st pickup from. Read the instruction manual, or check online, to find which wire on your pickup is what. You only need "hot/signal" and "ground"If you have a 4 wire Seymour Duncan pickup, the others aren't needed unless you want to (Tap? phase?) be able to have more options.

Now, you're ready to solder. Heat up the soldering wand/gun, and prepare to solder. "Tin" the wand/gun by applying a small amount of solder to the tip of the gun. This helps in accelerating the heat transfer process.

Now, hold the wire you want next to where you want to solder it. The "Signal/Hot" wire will go to your toggle switch, and the ground will goto the top of your volume pot. Apply heat to the wire, and let the wire melt the solder. DO NOT apply heat directly to the solder unless you want it to drop everywhere except where you want it. When the solder is melted onto the wire and the place you want it, remove the gun/wand, and hold the wire in place until the solder hardens. This should take about 3 seconds. This contact is now done. Repeat for the other contact.

Now, test the guitar. What I do is use 1 string from the old set, and tighten it until theres some tension. now, plugin, and strum. If sound comes out, you did it correctly. If there's static/crackle, you didn't ground it properly, or theres a loose contact somewhere. Redo the previous steps to correct the problem. After this is done, re-string your guitar, and rock on!


... if this makes NO sense, i apologize as Im currently on medication from a recent trip to the hospital. Im sure someone else can elaborate if you have any further questions.


~eric

[Gpops]

Re: Changing Pickups

I was also interested in doing this, but what do you solder to the tone knob?

[rodrigo_echeverri]

Re: Changing Pickups

Gpops, you throw the tone knob in the garbage and replace it with an EXG circuit.. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Adding on to Eric's answer...

If the pickup that you are goin to mount is active you also have to wire for the battery and replace your Jack for a stereo one...

I will help you anytime if you want:

[email protected]
(604) 822-4850

[ April 23, 2003, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: rodrigo_echeverri ]

[Sunbane]

Re: Changing Pickups

Let me just add: If you have no prior experience with soldering, I suggest you leave it to someone who knows what he's doing. It's very easy as a beginner to create bad solder joints, use too much solder, etc...

If you decide to go ahead anyway, make sure you're sitting in a well ventilated area when soldering. Solder contains rich amounts of lead, and as you're soldering, it will emit hazardous fumes. For the same reason, make sure you wash your hands carefully after you're done.

'bane

[slayer]

Re: Changing Pickups

Rodrigo, would you mind if I give you a call about your madison and Jackson? Thanks-Jack.

[rodrigo_echeverri]

Re: Changing Pickups

go right ahead dude, it will be my pleasure...

[Newc]

Re: Changing Pickups

How To Change Guitar Pickups:

1. Get a screwdriver (small Philips style)
2. Get a suitable work area - sitting in a chair with the guitar on your lap is considered suitable.
3. Get some solder and get your soldering iron hot (plug it in/turn it on, and let it heat up till it melts some solder very easily)
4. While the iron heats, remove the strings and bridge/tailpiece (for standard tunamatic/stopbar bridges) or loosen the strings and remove the trem for Floyd-style bridges. You don't have to remove the strings, just loosen them and take the springs out of the back, letting the trem dangle by the strings.
5. Remove the pickup ring mounting screws, then flip the guitar over and remove the control cavity cover.
6. With the pickup dangling by its own wires alone, tug on it to see which wires move in the control cavity. Apply the tip of the hot iron to the wires that move the most, melting the solder that's holding them on.
7. The sharp pain in the top of your foot indicates the pickup has been successfully desoldered.
8. Flip the guitar back over and insert the new pickup (wires first, BTW). Put the pickup mounting ring on the new pickup, and attach the ring to the guitar.
9. The Fun Part. Pull the new wires into the control cavity. Match the proper wire with the connectors that the old pickup was attached to. Hold each wire in place with one hand as you hold the solder to the wire at the connection point with your other hand. With your third hand, apply the iron to the solder so it melts onto the wire and the connection point.
10. That sickly odor means you touched another wire's rubber coating with the edge of the hot iron, and if you've got long hair, you didn't pin it up good enough.
11. Now that you've got toxic fumes in the air, burnt hair smell in your nose, and your eyes are tearing up from the smoke, you are redy to test your connections.
12. Plug in your guitar and strum a few notes. Turn the volume knob up and strum a few more notes.
13. Unplug your soldering iron if what you hear is more bearable than hovering over a hot iron again, otherwise, go back a few steps and do something again until you get it right.
14. Save up some money and pay someone else to do this crap next time.

[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Newc

[BigDaddyD]

Re: Changing Pickups

Let me just say that if you don't have a proper area to work, and proper replacement parts...good luck. I was swapping pickguards and pickups in my latest creation and realized that the hardware for one (the screws) did not fit the other setup.. I basically began rigging it any way I could and got very frustrated (all because I couldn't wait to get it running.) I was having a hard time wiring it up because I got the pickups and preamp used and the wires were too short. It also turns out that I had a different wiring schematic than what I needed and had an extra wire hanging out of the Dimarzio Shockwave preamp (the preamp alone comes with one less wire, then the preamp that came with the set...which is what this was.) At some point my soldering iron fell (always use a proper stand-unlike me) and landed on my hand (OUCH! @#$$%$%$) Needless to say, the guitar is now sitting in Carmine Street Guitars where Rick Kelly is working on it. I figured that since I was bringing it there to get the remaining frets scalloped I might as well let him do this too. I am way happier. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[BigDaddyD]

Re: Changing Pickups

I would like to add that I previously installed a Shockwave preamp in my Strat with no problems whatsoever. If you take your time and have a well lit, ventilated area to work (which I don't)give it a shot.

[thenine]

Re: Changing Pickups

shockwave preamp? what the? Please elaborate.


JOHN

[BigDaddyD]

Re: Changing Pickups

It was a pickup set and preamp (although the preamp was also sold separatley.) The system consisted of 3 single coils (that looked like EMGs) and a preamp. It was designed to be used in Strats and supposedly had a vintage type sound in passive mode. When the preamp kicks in there is a boost and a reshaping of the eq to give a bigger fatter sound. I have the preamp in my Strat with Texas Specials and it sounds incredible. Since it was originally made for Strats, the preamp replaces the output jack of a strat. It has a Neutrick locking jack on it and an on/off switch. Satch used to endorse it. i think it was made only in 1988. I will post pics when it is done.