Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

When you're soldering, just remember - cover every component with solder before trying to connect them together. They'll stick easier this way. Some ppl just touch 2 components and try to flow the solder on top of them, but thats wrong. You should have both leads covered with solder before trying to connect them - then just melt and they'll come right together.

[ledzepp29]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

I'll practice some more, and if I can fully understand the schematics and I solder good then I will do it myself. thanks frantic rock for the tip about putting solder on each component that sounds like it will be much easier that way

[ledzepp29]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

one thing I got confused about was, when I looked at my les paul the whole braided wire was soldered onto the back of the pot??? what is the reason for doing this, it doesn't appear to be making any kind of electrical connection? it is just solder on with a buch of solder. and how do you remove the solder from the back of the pots or do you just melt it and put in the new wire, no new solder?

[SoCalSteve]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

That might just be a ground. I know very little about electronics, but using the schematics at this site, I installed the Dimebucker myself and it was pretty easy.

The first time I had pups replaced, I paid to have it done and with the DB I decided
I'd try it and if I mess up I'll just pay to have it redone.

It does look intimidating, but what I found is you're not working with all the wires in there, just a few. There are wires from pot to pot and such that you don't touch.

I say go to Home Depot and buy a cheap iron and electric solder and give it a try!

[Kent S.]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

I say go to Home Depot and buy a cheap iron and electric solder and give it a try!

I still say Radio Shack has one of the best beginner's kits around, iron, simple solder stand, *some* solder ... Buy an extra tube while your there, the sales guy should be able to pick that out for you, heatsink, some various tools that you'll use (screwdrivers, wire cutters, that sort of thing) I think it has some simple instructions as well, for about $21 bucks total is memory serves ... but i imagine the HD has a beginner's kit as well, but I would go with a small kit over just the iron and solder.

[southadc]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

It's really not that difficult, so give it a try.

Important tip: try to get the wires you're soldering together as far away from the guitar as you can, or at least cover the guitar with something. I've lost count of the number of times I've dropped blobs of solder onto the paintwork/scratchplate, and the number of times I've dropped screwdrivers and other tools on the guitars.

You're first effort may not be the tidiest it could be, but if it works, who cares? You can always go back later and do it again.

It's never too late to make mistakes! I've been soldering on my own and other people's guitars for about 6 years, and I phucked up the wiring on something I did a couple of weeks ago! It was a 2 minute job to correct it.

I find it easiest to solder if I place the tip of the soldering iron underneath whatever I want to solder together, then touch the solder wire to the top of where I am soldering. The solder just flows onto the joint, and I end up needing less. Naturally, this takes 2 hands to do, so having some kind of clamp to hold the wires in the right place is invaluable. The one I've got is like two small positionable 'arms' with crocodile clips at the end, and is actually a fly tying tool!

[Kent S.]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

Naturally, this takes 2 hands to do, so having some kind of clamp to hold the wires in the right place is invaluable. The one I've got is like two small positionable 'arms' with crocodile clips at the end, and is actually a fly tying tool!

For doing side by side soldering ,like two wires going into the same switch lug, I hold them (pretiining the ends of course) with hemostats, thread them up through the lug, solder them in place, let them cool (the hemostat's make great heatsinks also), and then clip the extra length of wire off, right where the wire comes through the solder ball, making it almost flush. Beautiful and a snap to unsolder as well ...

[ledzepp29]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

two questions, how do I unsolder? and what is a ground and what purpose does it serve?

[strat_master]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

i just send it to a tech i dont touch the insides of my guitar.

[rspst14]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

I still say Radio Shack has one of the best beginner's kits around, iron, simple solder stand, *some* solder ... Buy an extra tube while your there, the sales guy should be able to pick that out for you

Hahahaha, don't be so sure on that one Kent. I once went into the local Radio Shack and asked if they sold capacitors. The guy gave me a blank look, and then tried to sell me a cell phone plan.

Some Radio Shacks have salesmen that are older and more experienced with electronics. The guys that work at the one around here can't tell a resistor from a capacitor.

Ryan

[ledzepp29]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

The guys that work at the one around here can't tell a resistor from a capacitor.

Ryan

neither can I....

[Norman_T]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

neither can I....

One has got an "R" on it and the other has got a "C" on it - can't miss it



Sorry it was meant as a joke have a look at the picture below and it should hoipefully explain the differences.

[ledzepp29]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

ya i know it was a joke, it just shows how little i know about electronics. haha

[Kent S.]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

Hahahaha, don't be so sure on that one Kent. I once went into the local Radio Shack and asked if they sold capacitors. The guy gave me a blank look, and then tried to sell me a cell phone plan.

Some Radio Shacks have salesmen that are older and more experienced with electronics. The guys that work at the one around here can't tell a resistor from a capacitor.

Ryan

you know right after I typed that I started thinking about that,RS is a consumer electronics store these days ... cell phones and dvd players ... I wnet into a nice one (very nicely laid out in the electronic parts section), two lovely looking women working there too! Just me and them in there ... I felt so bad though, I ask her if she had a certin mini audio transformer in stock (she was standing right next to the computer), I started quoting the primary and secondary impedances, DCRs,lead types, power handling rating, center tpped pri/secs. ... :::::: the poor women's eyes just kinda glazed over ... I knew at that point I had just entered into a savager hunt ... the poor lady tore the store up looking for the thing ... I keep telling her it wasn't that important ... GOD bless her for trying though ... I still had to go outside and laugh though ... had I had the RS catalogue number with me she could have looked it up on the computer. You know now that I think about it eveytime I've been waited on by a woman in electronics I have gotten better service and help then if it's a man ... maybe it's the male ego type thing...

[Kent S.]

Re: Should I install my pickups myself or have someone do it.

two questions, how do I unsolder? and what is a ground and what purpose does it serve?

You heat the solder up until it melts and either use a solder sucker to suck up the molten solder, or you use a solder wick or deslodering braid as it's also called ... with that you lay it on the connection heat it up, and as the solder melts the wick kinda absorbs it. Either way while the solder is melted you gently pull the wire off or out of the solder lug, don't jerk it, a ball of melted solder flying towards your face or hand isn't funny. Don't ever twist wires together or wrap wire them thru soldering lugs and solder them,unless you never, ever want them to come apart again! It is a real pain to undue.
Ground on a guitar is more correctly termed audio common, it is a reference point of no voltage, is required for a circuit to be complete, and also for safety purposes as in earth ground, giving the current in an electrical fault somewhere to go beside thru you ... although it doesn't always work that way. In guitar it means the sleeve lug of the output jack, that line gets connected to the all shields(bare wires coming out of multi conductor cables on pups,braided wires on vintage style pups, shielding foil in instruments, and cold wires of pickups,bridge ground wires, and all control bodies (switches, and pot backs). Essentially it's for circuit completion, safety, and noise reduction.