Humbucker Installation?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TelePaul
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TelePaul

TelePaul

J to the R O C
Hey all.

A 'Stormy Monday' Humbucker set just arrived from Bare Knuckle Pickups. I was gonna drop my LP Studio into a tech to have them installed but after a bit of poking around, I stumbled upon a revelation of sorts! It looks like the braid just needs to be earthed to a volume pot and then soldered through the capacitor lug of the pot...is this correct?

The pickups were pricey enough, and if there's a chance of me fucking up I'll gladly pay a hundred bills for a tech to do it (though I'll be waiting some weeks). However, if it's as easy as it seems, I think I'd like to give it a shot - I've soldered a little before but will practice with rough wire first. Anybody have any thoughts/suggestions?
 
Lots of guys swap pups like underwear. Not me. I'd fuck it up for sure. You'll probably be fine.


lou
 
TelePaul said:
Hey all.

A 'Stormy Monday' Humbucker set just arrived from Bare Knuckle Pickups. I was gonna drop my LP Studio into a tech to have them installed but after a bit of poking around, I stumbled upon a revelation of sorts! It looks like the braid just needs to be earthed to a volume pot and then soldered through the capacitor lug of the pot...is this correct?

The pickups were pricey enough, and if there's a chance of me fucking up I'll gladly pay a hundred bills for a tech to do it (though I'll be waiting some weeks). However, if it's as easy as it seems, I think I'd like to give it a shot - I've soldered a little before but will practice with rough wire first. Anybody have any thoughts/suggestions?
Click to expand...

The hardest part of a HB/HB swap is retuning the guitar.
 
TelePaul said:
Haha! Awesome, so it's that easy? Sweet
Click to expand...

Yeah I just did one on my SG yesterday. If you can work a screwdriver and have rudimentary soldering abilities, you can do it during the commercial breaks while watching TV.
 
Yeah, it's easy, I'm sure you can do it. New pups usually come with leads much longer than needed, so the worst you can probably do is just muck up a little bit of the wire- if you do that, just cut it off and try again (but not too many times.) Observe polarity, too- the ground or negative wire usually has black insulation or no insulation.

Two things you should know:

Replacement 'buckers often have FOUR leads, two for each coil, so you can wire it for tapped or split (single coil) use, and/or phase reversal. If yours has two leads per pup, ignore this paragraph. If they have four, get the wiring diagram from the maker before you proceed- the easiest thing to do is to pig-tail the two negative leads together and the two positive leads together and just install the things as if they don't offer those options. Much more involved is installing mini-switches or push-pull pots that allow you to access those options- but that may be beyond your current abilities and comfort level. Further, all the options you would then have can be kind of confusing- I have a Westone Thunder 1A that has, in additional to the volume and passive tone control and 3-way pickup switch, active circuitry, and mini 2-way switches for coil tapping, phase reversal, and actives on/off, PLUS an active tone control for tone boost or tone cut. Whew! Really, too many choices- I get overwhelmed sometimes and can't remember what results in what sound change.

The other thing to watch out for is solder technique. Too much solder, and/or if the surface or wire the solder is going onto is not hot enough, can easily cause noise, dropouts or worse. I find it particularly hard to solder to the back of pots- all the metal acts as a heat sink and the solder barely melts. Too much heat will trash the pot or capacitors if they are very close by. You might be better off leaving an inch of the existing pickup wire on the pot, and soldering to the end of it, thus not disturbing the solder point on the pot. Of course, be sure to insulate the resulting joint with a little vinyl electrical tape. If you have no electrical tape, get some- duct tape does as good a job, but will be more messy.

But don't let this discourage you- you can handle this job. Do it and be pleased you expanded your knowledge and ability.

Oh, and hi, there, Lou. Good to see you.
 
stevieb said:
Replacement 'buckers often have FOUR leads, two for each coil, so you can wire it for tapped or split (single coil) use, and/or phase reversal. If yours has two leads per pup, ignore this paragraph.
Click to expand...

I may have a poor understanding of things but I'm almost sure there's only one wire coming out of each pup - a braided wire with only one core as far as I know...in fact my stock buckers seem to be the same? :eek:
 
Sky Blue Lou said:
What came out, what went in? What were you after and how you like?


lou
Click to expand...

I don't know what it is that came out. The guitar is an Epi SG. It's some open coil HB. I guess a 490T type? I've always felt it was a little too fat in the bottom, especially for an SG. I put a real Gibson Classic 57 in it's place and like it much better for my buzzsawing powerchord punk/hard rock. Tighter bottom, cleaner mids and highs. I'm not a super high-gain metal chugger kind of guy. I like my general tone to sit somewhere between clean and metal. I always suspected the 57's low-to-medium output was for me, but I never had a chance to try one. One of my buddies yanked one out of his LP, so he gave it to me. I like it.
 
stevieb said:
Replacement 'buckers often have FOUR leads, two for each coil, so you can wire it for tapped or split (single coil) use, and/or phase reversal. If yours has two leads per pup, ignore this paragraph. If they have four, get the wiring diagram from the maker before you proceed- the easiest thing to do is to pig-tail the two negative leads together and the two positive leads together and just install the things as if they don't offer those options. Much more involved is installing mini-switches or push-pull pots that allow you to access those options- but that may be beyond your current abilities and comfort level. Further, all the options you would then have can be kind of confusing- I have a Westone Thunder 1A that has, in additional to the volume and passive tone control and 3-way pickup switch, active circuitry, and mini 2-way switches for coil tapping, phase reversal, and actives on/off, PLUS an active tone control for tone boost or tone cut. Whew! Really, too many choices- I get overwhelmed sometimes and can't remember what results in what sound change.
Click to expand...

The Bare Knuckle Stormy Monday Humbuckers have a two conductor braided connection.
 
Shit, I suck at electrical and electronic stuff, but I managed to swap out an SC for an HB when I was 15 and it still works 15 years later. If I can do that without melting something, you'll be fine.
 
stevieb said:
- the easiest thing to do is to pig-tail the two negative leads together and the two positive leads together and just install the things as if they don't offer those options.
Click to expand...
That would put the coils in parallel, which is not the way a standard humbucker is wired. A single output humbucker is wired with the coils in series.
 
TelePaul said:
But if it's two-conductor, why is the wire soldered to just one lug??? And earthed of course.
Click to expand...
The center wire of the coax cable is one conductor and the shield/ground/earth is the other.
 
Definitely do-able, I think, Telepaul - just read up on general soldering technique and maybe practice on some scraps - make sure to heat up the components so that they do much/all of the job of melting the solder instead of just dripping molten solder on cold components.

Remember that metal conducts heat well, and because of that, I think you want to do the ground connection *first* - even though I know I have a tendency to want to solder the other thing(s) first. Because you have to heat up that whole back-plate of the pot in order to get a good bond with the braid, you want to make sure nothing's attached to the pot (like the other wire) to bleed off the heat you're dumping into it with the soldering iron. Yes, the same thing is also true of the terminals, but because their mass is less, they tend to heat up quicker in comparison with the dispersal of heat into the body of the pot, so that makes it a lot easier than the other way around, in my experience.

And if you screw it up, then just take it to the tech :)
 
TelePaul said:
The pickups were pricey enough, and if there's a chance of me fucking up I'll gladly pay a hundred bills for a tech to do it (though I'll be waiting some weeks). However, if it's as easy as it seems, I think I'd like to give it a shot - I've soldered a little before but will practice with rough wire first. Anybody have any thoughts/suggestions?
Click to expand...

From your description you have it exactly right. You won't fuck anything up.
Don't worry ........ save the money ..... it'll be the easiest electronics thingamabobby you've ever done.
Braid to earth .... doesn't matter where .... and center conductor to where ever the old pickups' center conductor went.

Have a beer and sit back and admire your handiwork.

Lt. Bob assumes no responsibility for fires, injuries related or not related to the installation, use or mis-use of this pickup or any device it is installed in.
Further ..... drinking, while permitted, is strongly discouraged while soldering .... do not put a hot soldering iron on your eyeball directly as injury may result .... using a soldering iron to make tea is a bad idea .... don't run with a stick, you could put you eye out don't make that face, it'll freeze that way and for heavens sake ... put on a hat
 
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