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Post by zontar on Dec 10, 2021 5:28:25 GMT
Changing Guitar Pickups: Free Yourself From the MythsWell they do sell pickups so they do have an interest that way--but also an article to check out if you haven't done it. I've changed pickups in 2 guitars--or rather had others do it for me. But if I ever decoded to do that again--this may help me out. Can't hurt I guess (Most that would happen if I win a guitar or get a greta deal on one, but want that one to be my P-90 guitar for regular playing (or slide)--my LP I like to have for slide--but I also put it into standard tuning because I love that P-90 in the neck sound.)
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Post by highdeaf on Dec 24, 2021 16:28:41 GMT
Changing pickups, IME, is guitar dependent.
Solid bodies are usually dead easy. Some can be more time consuming than others but ultimately, they are pretty straightforward. Most semi-hollows and hollowbodies I find a complete PITA. Pulling controls through F-holes, that kind of crap, I just hate that rube goldbergian stuff. I'd rather pay someone else to do it or just leave them alone.
I'm much more likely to experiment with my solidbodies. Strats are particularly fun/easy to mess with - I have one that I've used quick connects to be able to swap different loaded pickguards in about 10 minutes, from humbuckers to SC to whatever (two connections to unplug/plug in).
It's the mechanical stuff that tempers my enthusiasm. The soldering and electronic stuff isn't difficult for me as I did it for a living for a few decades. I find the right sized solder tips make a big diff, especially when soldering grounds to the backs of pots (hint: it isn't the temp of the tip, but rather the size / thermal mass of it).
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Post by markr on Dec 28, 2021 14:21:34 GMT
I have changed a gaggle of pups over time, I struggle with soldering small parts. My hands are messed up with arthritis and I can't see well anymore. Doesn't mean I don't keep doing it. I am in the process of changing the pups in my MIJ LP to SD P-Rails. I have a GC member making me up a wire harness with two mini switches so I have to drill holes and countersink for the short mini shaft toggles.
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Post by infant on Dec 28, 2021 16:02:13 GMT
I have changed a gaggle of pups over time, I struggle with soldering small parts. My hands are messed up with arthritis and I can't see well anymore. Doesn't mean I don't keep doing it. I am in the process of changing the pups in my MIJ LP to SD P-Rails. I have a GC member making me up a wire harness with two mini switches so I have to drill holes and countersink for the short mini shaft toggles. Couldn’t you use a push- pull pot for that rather than drilling the body? I realize it’s a MIJ guitar but, if you ever change the pups again, you’ll have 2 holes or 2 dead switches. |
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Post by zontar on Dec 28, 2021 20:12:18 GMT
I have changed a gaggle of pups over time, I struggle with soldering small parts. My hands are messed up with arthritis and I can't see well anymore. Doesn't mean I don't keep doing it. I am in the process of changing the pups in my MIJ LP to SD P-Rails. I have a GC member making me up a wire harness with two mini switches so I have to drill holes and countersink for the short mini shaft toggles. Couldn’t you use a push- pull pot for that rather than drilling the body? I realize it’s a MIJ guitar but, if you ever change the pups again, you’ll have 2 holes or 2 dead switches. Well, we do have a thread on push-pull pots. But sometimes a mini tong;e makes more sense--typically that means 3 options for the mini toggle & 2 for the push-pull Although there are variations & you can have a push pull on the volume & one on the tone control as well. And there are mini switches with more than 3 positions (And ones with only 2) It depends on the guitar. For my Les Paul I have push-pull pots for series/parallel wiring. Since that si what I wanted and push-pull pots work for that--I use that (& the tech who did the work did not want to drill holes in a Les Paul--even though it had already been modded by the previous owner (And that was part for he reason I was modding it) But on my LP copy I have no problem adding two mini toggles (3 position)for the neck pickup (P-Rail) to be Humbucker (Series)/P-90 coil/Rail coil and the bridge to be series/parallel/coil split. Push pull would have been tricky to do for that--at least in my brain. As it was I took wiring diagrams from the Seymour Duncan website & adapted them as they didn't have a P-Rail/regular style humbucker diagram to do that. I actually made a mistake on it, but the tech I used caught it & made it work correctly. Push-Pulls pots would have cost more (Especially as I already had the mini toggles for a different project that never happened)--and the work could have taken longer, which would have cost me more as well. But I love the controls on both--they do what they are supposed to. |
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Post by markr on Dec 30, 2021 14:56:39 GMT
But on my LP copy I have no problem adding two mini toggles (3 position)for the neck pickup (P-Rail) to be Humbucker (Series)/P-90 coil/Rail coil
and the bridge to be series/parallel/coil split.
Push pull would have been tricky to do for that--at least in my brain.
As it was I took wiring diagrams from the Seymour Duncan website & adapted them as they didn't have a P-Rail/regular style humbucker diagram to do that.
I actually made a mistake on it, but the tech I used caught it & made it work correctly.
I would like to see pictures of this and where you put your toggle switches. I am also a bit concerned the toggles may be to short and I may have to carve out some wood in the inside?
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Post by Sinster on Dec 31, 2021 21:40:23 GMT
It's all bullshit! If the pickup is wound on the bobbin the proper way it doesn't matter who makes the pickup.
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Post by infant on Jan 1, 2022 1:34:15 GMT
It's all bullshit! If the pickup is wound on the bobbin the proper way it doesn't matter who makes the pickup. I totally agree! If a company specs out all the dimensions and materials the pickups should not sound dissimilar. Think about it. The same number of windings of the same gage of enamel coated formvar wire, mechanically wound on identically sized bobbins using identically spec’d Alnico magnets. Made in China, America or Timbuktu, they’re gonna sound the same. |
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Post by markr on Jan 1, 2022 14:14:20 GMT
It's all bullshit! If the pickup is wound on the bobbin the proper way it doesn't matter who makes the pickup. This from a guy that lists a dozen different guitars in his signature? Lol. I like trying different pickups in guitars I own to get a different sound. i am not sure all single coils or humbuckers are wound the same way? |
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Post by spellcaster on Jan 1, 2022 19:25:30 GMT
There are a few considerations....What gauge of wire is being used, are the pickups machine-wound or scatter-wound by hand, what type of magnets are being used, what is the magnet shape, are the magnet elements flat to the top surface or offset to match the string radius, etc. I agree that to a certain extent, there are going to be similarities, but there are some distinctions to be made.
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Post by zontar on Jan 2, 2022 1:42:58 GMT
I would like to see pictures of this and where you put your toggle switches. I am also a bit concerned the toggles may be to short and I may have to carve out some wood in the inside? I have posted pictures before, but maybe I'll take ones closer to the switches. But I have them in between the controls. So the one for the neck pickup is between the volume & tone for the neck & sae for the bridge. So normal mini toggles. In the case of my LP copy they fit. |
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Post by zontar on Jan 2, 2022 2:41:59 GMT
You can see the switch locations here:  |
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Post by Sinster on Jan 4, 2022 18:28:56 GMT
It's all bullshit! If the pickup is wound on the bobbin the proper way it doesn't matter who makes the pickup. I like trying different pickups in guitars I own to get a different sound. This is why I started to wind my own pickups. "X" pickup might sound great in guitar "A", but might sound like ass in guitar "B".
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Post by markr on Jan 10, 2022 12:08:57 GMT
Well I did it and committed to drilling holes in my MIJ LP copy and installed mini toggle switches ! I wired in a new harness and installed the P-Rails. I levelled the frets, crowned the frets on the MIC replacement neck. I just have to put strings back on and do a nut job. Hopefully everything works, there is a lot of wires and soldering in that cavity!
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Post by zontar on Jan 12, 2022 4:30:34 GMT
Well I did it and committed to drilling holes in my MIJ LP copy and installed mini toggle switches ! I wired in a new harness and installed the P-Rails. I levelled the frets, crowned the frets on the MIC replacement neck. I just have to put strings back on and do a nut job. Hopefully everything works, there is a lot of wires and soldering in that cavity! Looking forward to the update |
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Post by spellcaster on Jan 13, 2022 18:15:42 GMT
Well I did it and committed to drilling holes in my MIJ LP copy and installed mini toggle switches ! I wired in a new harness and installed the P-Rails. I leveled the frets, crowned the frets on the MIC replacement neck. I just have to put strings back on and do a nut job. Hopefully everything works, there is a lot of wires and soldering in that cavity! That's the issue I always had when I tried wiring jobs on the Les Paul I used to own. There's just so much stuff that it's hard to work in that cramped cavity. One of the first things I did was remove and scrap that piece of circuit board that was sandwiched in there. |
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Post by edwardbloom on Mar 5, 2022 1:56:25 GMT
It's all bullshit! If the pickup is wound on the bobbin the proper way it doesn't matter who makes the pickup. I totally agree! If a company specs out all the dimensions and materials the pickups should not sound dissimilar. Think about it. The same number of windings of the same gage of enamel coated formvar wire, mechanically wound on identically sized bobbins using identically spec’d Alnico magnets. Made in China, America or Timbuktu, they’re gonna sound the same. they'll all have a different accent. especially the chinese ones. it depends where in china they were made. some of them may be cantonese, some mandarin  |
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Post by edwardbloom on Mar 5, 2022 17:14:13 GMT
closer to the topic, i have a buddy who put a frankenstein pickup in a $300 dean. the evh franky is a $200 pickup. i questuined his sanity, till i heard it. all the laughing stopped right then. i went out and bought one for my strat. it sounds even better in the strat. when i took the strat to a guy to do some fretwork, he asked me what it was. he said it was the most articulate pick up he's ever heard. i told him what it was, he ordered one that day. i put another one in my LP. i don't know what that one sounds like yet, because i wired it wrong like a dumb ass, and haven't repaired it yet
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Post by zontar on Mar 5, 2022 21:37:09 GMT
I know I'll never make up the mods on my LP copy if I sold it (Unless I totally unexpectedly became famous)
But so what--I still kept the price affordable, and it was less than buying a new guitar--anything in that range I likely would have modded as well.
But most importantly the LP copy went from merely taking up space and maybe sometimes picking it up & playing for a few minutes to a guitar I actually play & enjoy playing.
The new pickups are an important part of that.
(Not the only part as I still play it unplugged sometimes)
SO changing a pickup on a cheap guitar may not work for everybody or in every context, but if it does work--it's cool.
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Post by edwardbloom on Mar 6, 2022 1:59:12 GMT
I know I'll never make up the mods on my LP copy if I sold it (Unless I totally unexpectedly became famous) But so what--I still kept the price affordable, and it was less than buying a new guitar--anything in that range I likely would have modded as well. But most importantly the LP copy went from merely taking up space and maybe sometimes picking it up & playing for a few minutes to a guitar I actually play & enjoy playing. The new pickups are an important part of that. (Not the only part as I still play it unplugged sometimes) SO changing a pickup on a cheap guitar may not work for everybody or in every context, but if it does work--it's cool. oh, i agree. but before i had heard it, the idea of installing one pick up that costs almost as much as the guitar did brand new, seemed pretty ludicrous. i would love to play his guitar for myself, but that will never happen, because he uses bridge cables for strings |
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Post by zontar on Mar 6, 2022 2:04:50 GMT
As long as a person realizes putting expensive pickups in their guitar doesn't increase their resale value--and they did it because they like them--then they should be okay.
If someone sells a guitar like that they are probably better proffer swapping the old pickups back in and selling the expensive ones separately.
But then maybe they're like me and they buy guitars to play, not resell.
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Post by markr on Mar 18, 2022 3:21:34 GMT
Well I am not selling guitars anymore, I am building some cheap, used Epi LP Specials and JR’s. tuners, PU’s, electronics. I buy used as best I can. They will get a fretboard leveling, fret job,intonation set.
These are for my grandsons in the future.
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