Embarrassing Wax Bulge

Ronnie Balz

Ronnie Balz

New member
I have an old SD humbuck and it looks like maybe the wax got hot (years in Arizona) and started sagging on one side—I'm totally guessing, you guys will know what's actually going on. The bulge is preventing it from moving smoothly through the pickup frame. I was thinking of hitting it with the heat gun (or hair dryer if that's too aggressive) and seeing if I could smush it back a bit but don't want to risk damaging this cool old pickup. Any ideas?
wax-sag.jpg
 
Re: Embarrassing Wax Bulge

Hair dryer should work. Heatgun might be a bit much.

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Embarrassing Wax Bulge

Try to make a jig that will stand the pickup on its end. Then when you heat it, it should naturally melt back into the bobbins with having to smoosh it in there. (Hopefully)
Just set the dryer at a not too hot temp and be patient.
 
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Re: Embarrassing Wax Bulge

Definitely use a hair dryer. Takes a couple minutes longer, but won't mess things up
 
Re: Embarrassing Wax Bulge

Its possible if the wax has shifted that much that you could have some issues with microphonics. Try it and see, if it squeals or has some odd mechanical noises you can always just have it repotted.

That being said my original invader i have has odd mechanical noise too, you can even use it as a microphone to an extent. I love it and just use a noise gate.
 
Re: Embarrassing Wax Bulge

Are you sure it is the wax?
That doesn't seem likely to me. Even in the heat of Arizona if the wax melts/softens, the tape will keep it in place (if anything, the tension of the tape would force the soft wax into the pup).

It could be the wire connections which is typical in that location. You could try heating it and see if it helps, it probably won't but it won't hurt anything to try. If it doesn't help, you'll need to take off the tape and see if you can reposition the wires (you may have to remove any excess wax in that area). Sometimes there is an excess of tape and removing one or two layers is all you need to make the pup fit better.
 
Embarrassing Wax Bulge

Wait...
Maybe a dumb question to the op....have you removed the pickup tape to confirm that it is indeed the wax, as Doc mentioned?
In your pic the tape is still in place. You really can’t see what’s happening there.
 
Re: Embarrassing Wax Bulge

Yeah, I've seen that type of thing with wire connections, but I've never seen it with wax before. I suppose the wax idea is possible, but I am thinking it is the wires.
 
Re: Embarrassing Wax Bulge

Its definitly the wire side. I have seen this before on pickups that have been tampered with. If you do not fold the wires neatly back into the spaces, you get a bulge like this.
 
Re: Embarrassing Wax Bulge

If it's rubbing the pickup frame, you could still try warming it up and pressing in at that spot. It's definitely bulging from the wires, but there could be excess wax around them. You may be able to push them in a tiny bit by warming up that area gently.
 
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