Changing pickups in a hollow body
- Thread starter vinnie1971
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vinnie1971
New member
Re: Changing pickups in a hollow body
Normally I would agree, but if I find good pots then I just change pickups and capacitors for PIO. Unless I am coil splitting or doing series parallel then whatever pots are in there are coming out.
But for minimum hassle and the fact it's got decent wiring, 500k Alpha pots which I like,I am leaving alone! Might change the caps though- they look like ceramic ones.
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Normally I would agree, but if I find good pots then I just change pickups and capacitors for PIO. Unless I am coil splitting or doing series parallel then whatever pots are in there are coming out.
But for minimum hassle and the fact it's got decent wiring, 500k Alpha pots which I like,I am leaving alone! Might change the caps though- they look like ceramic ones.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
vinnie1971
New member
Changing pickups in a hollow body
All done start to finish 30 minutes including slacking the strings and prepping the replacements. No problems or hiccups. Just used tweezers and wire to fish. Poked the volume pots upside-down in their holes to keep them steady while I desoldered the old pickups and attached the new ones. Just need an adhesive pad to stick the cable stay back for the bridge pickup wire.
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All done start to finish 30 minutes including slacking the strings and prepping the replacements. No problems or hiccups. Just used tweezers and wire to fish. Poked the volume pots upside-down in their holes to keep them steady while I desoldered the old pickups and attached the new ones. Just need an adhesive pad to stick the cable stay back for the bridge pickup wire.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited:
LtKojak
New member
Re: Changing pickups in a hollow body
I normally take two hours to strip the semi-hollow instrument, build the harness from scratch, install it with the new p'ups, clean the instrument, put new strings and doing a basic setup including intonation.
I do several every month just because the actual pro luthiers in my neck of woods frown upon doing'em by simply asking too much.
God bless lazyness!
I normally take two hours to strip the semi-hollow instrument, build the harness from scratch, install it with the new p'ups, clean the instrument, put new strings and doing a basic setup including intonation.
I do several every month just because the actual pro luthiers in my neck of woods frown upon doing'em by simply asking too much.
God bless lazyness!
vinnie1971
New member
Re: Changing pickups in a hollow body
I was going to build a harness but when I saw it had 500 K Alpha pots already, I chose the path of least resistance [emoji6]
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I normally take two hours to strip the semi-hollow instrument, build the harness from scratch, install it with the new p'ups, clean the instrument, put new strings and doing a basic setup including intonation.
I do several every month just because the actual pro luthiers in my neck of woods frown upon doing'em by simply asking too much.
God bless lazyness!
I was going to build a harness but when I saw it had 500 K Alpha pots already, I chose the path of least resistance [emoji6]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
vinnie1971
New member
Changing pickups in a hollow body
It was really easy - the cables inside were plenty long enough and using wire twisted round the neck of the pot shaft they dropped down easy. I fished them out with the tweezers by grabbing the lead from the pickup selector and just pulled straight out the widest part of the f hole. The volume pots were out in under a minute once the knob, nut and washer was off and the wire wrapped.
The hardest part was keeping the pots still while I desoldered the old pickups and soldered the new ones - the there was plenty of cable from the pickup selector and tone pots to get them out but not enough to get them in my helping hands, so I inverted the volume pots and pushed them back down their holes. I should have videoed it as it was really straightforward and it's probably the easiest way.
Getting the pots back was just in reverse- I pulled on the wire and once I could see the shaft I put my finger in the f home and pushed from underneath. Luckily the volume pots are near the widest part of the f hole.
My wife took our 2 year old boy to bed and before she came back from settling him down I had started and finished.
See how close they are to the widest part of the f hole. You can easily push the pots back up through their holes with your fingers once located by fishing them with the wire. If they were not so close I would have struggled.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It was really easy - the cables inside were plenty long enough and using wire twisted round the neck of the pot shaft they dropped down easy. I fished them out with the tweezers by grabbing the lead from the pickup selector and just pulled straight out the widest part of the f hole. The volume pots were out in under a minute once the knob, nut and washer was off and the wire wrapped.
The hardest part was keeping the pots still while I desoldered the old pickups and soldered the new ones - the there was plenty of cable from the pickup selector and tone pots to get them out but not enough to get them in my helping hands, so I inverted the volume pots and pushed them back down their holes. I should have videoed it as it was really straightforward and it's probably the easiest way.
Getting the pots back was just in reverse- I pulled on the wire and once I could see the shaft I put my finger in the f home and pushed from underneath. Luckily the volume pots are near the widest part of the f hole.
My wife took our 2 year old boy to bed and before she came back from settling him down I had started and finished.
See how close they are to the widest part of the f hole. You can easily push the pots back up through their holes with your fingers once located by fishing them with the wire. If they were not so close I would have struggled.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Last edited:
vinnie1971
New member
Changing pickups in a hollow body
TBH I was expecting a real headache but my photo through the f hole convinced me I could do it just by getting the volume pots out on their own. It would not have been fun getting the tone pots out as the output cable does not look long enough so that would have had to come out. And getting the tone pots back I, I didn't like the look of that either.
But if they were cheap generic pots I would have got it all out and put a new harness in.
Phew it was a lucky one!
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TBH I was expecting a real headache but my photo through the f hole convinced me I could do it just by getting the volume pots out on their own. It would not have been fun getting the tone pots out as the output cable does not look long enough so that would have had to come out. And getting the tone pots back I, I didn't like the look of that either.
But if they were cheap generic pots I would have got it all out and put a new harness in.
Phew it was a lucky one!
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vinnie1971
New member
Re: Changing pickups in a hollow body
Here it is with the 57s - I swapped the gold knobs for amber as I think they go better with the orange. It's now my favourite guitar. Strung with half round 10s its bright, creamy with woody bass tones.
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Here it is with the 57s - I swapped the gold knobs for amber as I think they go better with the orange. It's now my favourite guitar. Strung with half round 10s its bright, creamy with woody bass tones.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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