Replacing a Pickup

So you finally have that new pickup and you can't wait to get it in. You pull out the directions and your ready to go. However after you look at the inside wiring you say maybe I should take this to someone. Or after you install it it does not sound right. Here is a step by step procedure of intalling or replacing a pickup. How many pickups have I installed in my lifetime.? Way to many!

The first thing you want to do is plug in your guitar and get a nice clean tone. Check each pickup position and listin to it then in each position tap on the pole pices and make sure you know exactly what the guitar does before you even start . Its good to write this down for future reference. Next take the strings off the guitar and lay it down on a nice soft area.

What I do just to make sure every thing is ready to go is to take an old magnet I have laying around and check the actual magnetic pickup polarity, You will need this if you are using any kind of coil tap or phase wiring. A humbucking pickup usually has a bar magnet under the bobbins attached to the plate this make one of the coils north and one of the coils south. First I always check the polarity of the new pickup with one that I will be replacing.

If you are just wiring a standard three way switch on a lespaul style two humbucking model with no coil taps then don't worry about this but if you plan on having both pickups coil tap you will need to check the polarity of them in the middle position.

The terminolgy we use is inside coil (the bobbin toward the center) or outside coil (either closer to the neck or closer to the bridge bobbin) If you install both pickups and wire it as the directions say you will have bridge inside and neck outside during coil taps and this will humbuck but be out of phase with each other. You will need to switch the hot wire and the ground wire from one of the pickups. The guitar is now wired inside neck coil and inside bridge coil.

If the pickup has a cover or some writing on it and you can't just flip it around you can take the pickup a part and flip the magnet over 180 degrees. To do thisy ou will need to take the pickup apart. Not recomended for people with shakey hand.

The Magnet that I have has a white side that I call North and a non painted side that I call south. For proper humbucking the coils that humbuck need to repel or be oppisite of one another. This is really important if you plan on wiring a humbucker to a single coil in the center position. Just lay the magnet on the coil and see what the north and south coils are located.

 

Basic pickup change, what I do first is trace the wires from the old pickup if you want the new pickup to react the same than you can just follow the old pickup and wire the new pickup to the same location as the old one.

  

After you remove the old pickup put the new pickup in and cut the wire length to the correct size. Next to soldier the wire you will first need to strip the cable to expose the wire. I usually strip about 1/4" and then twist the wires tight.

 

 

You will need to tin the wire, I use Resin Core lead electronic soldier, Don't use plumbing soldier

(I know people that have done this) Tining is adding soldier to the wire so it will stick to the soldier joint, If you don't do this the bare wires will fray all over and make you nuts. First heat the wire and then rtouch the soldier to the heated wire. After you tin the wire cut the tip of the wire so that the wire will fit to the joint without hanging over. 

Next just hold the tin the lug that the wire will be soldered to and touch the wire to the lug and apply the heat. Your done. Do the same with all the other connections.

 

Before you go putting everything back together put one string on the guitar and check all the positions to make sure its wire correctly if someting is not right you only have to take off one string to get to the pickup.

Adjustable pole pieces can be raised or lowered to increase or decrease the output of each string.