How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

larry_emder

larry_emder

New member
Finally got my guitar wired up the way i want it.......involved gutting it, installing copper tape shielding, then wiring in pickups, 2 push pulls, and a switch.......oh and i upped a string guage so i had to re-do the intonation on a couple of strings.

Took me basically a whole day and a bit :drive:

Wiring guitars is an absolute pain!

The headaches from the solder fumes, the frustration of finding out your pickups are outta phase or dont hum cancel, the odd iron burn here and there, the fiddlyness of wiring the lugs on a push pull.....the constant checking and re-checking of those wiring diagrams.....because you know how much it sucks when you plug in and it doesnt work :omg:.....

Arrrgggghhhh!!! Seriously stressful stuff i reckon!!!

Havent even started cleaning up the mess i've made......me room looks like a bombs hit it :firing:

Sure dont feel like playing guitar after all that ! :grumble::grumble: Physically and emotionally draining.

:thumbsdow

At least its done now.....


Anyone actually good at this stuff?

:feedback:
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

My first complete strat wire took several hours, and sounds a lot like the experience you went through with the solder fumes, burns, and plugging it in only to not have it work.

Efficiency comes with repetition. Last time I rewired my 50s tele for the new push/pulls it took me about 30 minutes, which includes set up and waiting for the iron to heat up.
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

You should also solder in a well ventilated area, those fumes are pretty bad for you. I've been soldering on a regular basis for more than 6 years now and I've never gotten a headache from the soldering. I'm guessing that was more of an exaggeration but I just wanted to make sure.

The part that I don't like about installing pickups in an SG (with the large guard) is the fact that when you take the pickguard off you have to first remove the bridge, making you set the height all over again afterwards.
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

Depends on the guitar.

I swapped the single pickup in my Edwards V in about 10 minutes, from strung up to strung up again.

I recently reinstalled the original Gibson T-tops in my friend's Norlin-era SG and re-wired it to stock - it had some old DiMarzios in it and some kind of crazy active preamp thingy prior to the retrofit. That whole ordeal took about 1-1.5 hours to complete.
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

ibanezrocks said:
You should also solder in a well ventilated area, those fumes are pretty bad for you. I've been soldering on a regular basis for more than 6 years now and I've never gotten a headache from the soldering. I'm guessing that was more of an exaggeration but I just wanted to make sure.
Click to expand...

This is a good warning to all, and is often forgotten in threads about soldering. I solved the problem by getting an old computer fan (large..possibly 6" x6", metal frame not plastic, 115 volts, $7.00 at a surplus store) and wired up a foot switch to it. It is placed to DRAW the fumes away from the soldering. Works for me.

Dave
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

Depends on the complexity of the wiring...

I did a 2 pup swap on a Les Paul in 20 minutes including removing and reinstalling the strings and tweaking the intonation.

I've had other ones take an hour or so.

I don't understand the stress part... I drift into my own little world when I'm doing it. It's like therapy... of course I've been soldering for 20 years, so maybe it's all the lead fume getting to me... :P
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

I'm pretty accident prone, especially with a soldering iron...so thats why its stressful for me. every little move has to be rehearsed and double checked in my head!

And i doubt it was the solder fumes that gave me a headache...just adding drama :)

Cool idea with the fan greco. the fumes are nasty!

Hey while where on the topic of solder.......how come you yanks pronounce it 'sodder'.............just a little peeve
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

larry_emder said:
......how come you yanks pronounce it 'sodder'.........
Click to expand...

Blame it on Webster. :D

Larry; It usually takes me 30 to 40 minutes to do a pup change. And thats taking it slow, with a brew close at hand. The big difference, however, is not so much experience, as it is "set up". I have a dedicated work bench with my soldering iron, guitar pad, and all my parts bins all set up and ready to go.

It helps tremendously.
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

It's really not about time, it's about clean work.

I'd rather take all day and not have any cold solder joints than take a few minutes and not pay attention to detail.
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

BigDaddy said:
It's really not about time, it's about clean work.

I'd rather take all day and not have any cold solder joints than take a few minutes and not pay attention to detail.
Click to expand...

Amen. Couldn't have said it better. ;)
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

Me and my Dad swapped all three pickups in a Strat in about an hour and a half. We weren't really doing anything hard, just unsolder, screw on, then solder. We are yet to add any nasty push/pull pots or anything.
 
Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

I had to gut my '82 Les Paul Standard, and rewire it from scratch rather recently. Pretty much had to because the wiring was really messed up from years of pickup swaps and wiring mods. All I really wanted to do was reinstall it's original pickups!

Much harder than wiring up a Telecaster!

And then I redid parts of the wiring a few times too after that.

Eventually I'd like to wire it up like they did in the '50s where they had three single conductor braided cables running to the switch. Probably not worth the effort though, but it looks pretty cool.

This pic's one I saved from an ebay auction:
 
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Re: How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

How longs it take ya to wire up a geetar?

About twice as long as I always think it will.:)
 
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