Pickup Replacement Question

Discussion in 'Guitar Gear Talk Forum' started by guitarplayer729, Sep 28, 2012.

  1. guitarplayer729

    guitarplayer729 New Member

    Hey guys!
    I just wanted to ask a question about replacing pickups.
    Now what I want to know is that is replacing pickups easy, now I am not asking to tell me how to replace them(that is given in the schematic or the manual), I want to know how much a person should know about doing it. Now he needs to experienced with soldering sure, but are there pickups which don't need soldering.
    I read that the EMGs or Seymour Duncans have a solderless replacement technique. Is it true?

    Simply put:-
    Can a person like me(never soldered anything)replace pickups properly with the right knowledge and without ruining the chance of reversing the damage.

    Also, is there a margin of error while replacing them?
     
  2. guitarplayer729

    guitarplayer729 New Member

    No one replied!
    Still hope remains.
     
  3. mymusicmyguitar

    mymusicmyguitar Active Member

    I have been playing a lot with the combinations of pickups on my guitars and i have been doin those by myself. You just need to practice soldering on some junk wire. Its easy. And dont worry wrong out of phase wiring will only make ur pickup sound weak. It wont be damaged. Soldering it properly will open up the tone.

    try it urself its fun. But first geta soldering kit..ie. Soldering Wire, Rod, Flux.
     
  4. guitarplayer729

    guitarplayer729 New Member

    Thank You
    The problem is my parents will not let me do anything myself.
    I even fix my guitar while hiding it from them or have to face their 1000s of questions.
    I want to practice soldering but they won't let me.
     
  5. aryasridhar

    aryasridhar New Member

    You can replace the pickups fine, however diff guitars have diff wiring schemes for pickups, like coil tap etc etc, so you need to have some handy schematics before you begin, and ofcourse knowledge of soldering and a little bit of an idea about pots, capacitors, resistors would help in your journey......
     
  6. mymusicmyguitar

    mymusicmyguitar Active Member

    My suggestion send the schematics to arya and get tips from him if you dont understand.. He is one hell of guy who is really good at what he does!!!!
     
  7. aryasridhar

    aryasridhar New Member

    Hahahaha man, I am still learning.......But yes i can help with the schematics if needed....
     
  8. guitarplayer729

    guitarplayer729 New Member

    What if there is a coil-tap but I don't want one and I don't use it.
    Can I just avoid that part?

    Edit:- Change your signature, couldn't find the blackheart.
     
  9. mymusicmyguitar

    mymusicmyguitar Active Member

    Yes you can very well avoid it...Schematics will show u which wire when soldered will result to what...
     
  10. aryasridhar

    aryasridhar New Member

    Yes you can avoid the coil tap part, however it give more versatility though......and yes i need to change the signature, will do soon
     
  11. guitarplayer729

    guitarplayer729 New Member

    Can any pickup be used in coil-tap mode or there are specific ones only?
    Are some pickups easier to install than other ones like the EMG HZ quik-connect.
    And also are active pickups easier to install than passives?
     
  12. aryasridhar

    aryasridhar New Member

    No, Not all pickups are made to be used for coil tap, coil tapping basically is splitting the humbucker into a noiseless singlecoil, not all pickups are wired for coil tapping.
    Most pickups are easy to install
    It depends, installing passives in a guitar which had active pickups is simple, however installing active pickups in a passive pickups guitar is difficult, reason being the active circuit and the battery housing. those slots needs to be carved out, many guitars do not have enough space to house the battery and the circuit in the slot where the pots sit.....So it can be tricky.....
     
  13. guitarplayer729

    guitarplayer729 New Member

    Which pickups come in the most category?
    So replacing actives with actives or passives is easy
    but replacing passives with actives is difficult.
     
  14. aryasridhar

    aryasridhar New Member

    You know there are many combinations, if your guitar has a tone control that can be used as a split coil, You could use either a split or a normal humbucker in it, if your guitar does not have a split coil tap, you can still use a split coil pickup by replacing the tone know with one that allows for splitting the coil and so on......so there are many different combinations that can be worked out.....

    And naming most pickups would be super difficult man, as there are thousands of pickups out there.....
     

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