Correcting a previous mistake

[SamusChief]

When I installed my pickups way back, I cut the wire on my neck pickup too short so I skipped wiring into the coil tap. But now I want that coil tap back. Problem is, the wire on the neck is too short and If I just tap the bridge it wouldn't accomplish what I want. I'm going to rewire my guitar anyway, so is there anything I can do to extend the wires that I have cut short?

 

[Guston7]

Re: Correcting a previous mistake

Sure. Just solder another wire length to it and use heat-shrink tubing to insulate the joint. It seems too obvious, am I missing something?

 

[Koreth]

Re: Correcting a previous mistake

There's a thread on the forums detailing how to splice a 4-conductor cable. I had to do this myself not too long ago in order to restore lead length on a Screamin' Demon who's leads had been trimmed short by the previous owner.

 

[SamusChief]

Re: Correcting a previous mistake

I didn't realize it was that simple. Thanks guys. I'll probably get to this tomorrow, assuming I can clear my room for an hour or so.

 

[Mars Hall]

Re: Correcting a previous mistake

The real trick is lengthening a shielded cable, like on HB's.

 

[SamusChief]

Re: Correcting a previous mistake

Like a single conductor humbucker? Mine are both 4 conductors.

 

[Guston7]

Re: Correcting a previous mistake

Samus, w/4 conductor p'ups, it can be a bit of a pain because you have a total of 5 wires to splice. With the solder & insulation, it can end up too bulky to feed through the holes in the body. However, you can reduce the 5 wires down to 3 and still have access to the most commonly used HB configurations. To do this for Duncans, combine red+wht to 1 wire, grn+bare to 1 wire, and send black out alone. You probably know this, but black will be your hot(+), the one from grn+bare to ground, the red+wht will be your coil-split. If you are not going to coil split at this time, just insulate the end of that wire(no connection). The drawback of dropping to 3 wires is that you can't easily change phase (shouldn't be an issue/need w/2 Duncans), and you cannot get parallel on individual HB's.

 

[Mars Hall]

Re: Correcting a previous mistake

Like a single conductor humbucker?

Yes, it was a good experience and a challenge.

 

[SamusChief]

Re: Correcting a previous mistake

I only need to extend the red & white on the neck pickup because it can no longer reach the coil tap control on my tone pot. Other than that, I'll probably pick up some low gauge wire so I can re-do the control scheme to two volumes.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Correcting a previous mistake

Just be careful where you put the splices when you get a couple of wires that have shrink tubing around them they can get a bit thick and be a pain in the butt to pull through the holes in the body especially if they both need to go through at the same time. Just plan out whats going on inside the guitar before you start splicing.