making pup changes easier...

Al Heeley

Al Heeley

New member
While ripping out the stock pups from my Epi 335 dot, I thought what a simple but effective idea that they bothered to connect the pups to the rest of the electrics via a little push-fit connector, so I didn't have to remove all the pots and fish them out of the body cavity if I wanted to change/upgrade the pickups.
In fact I had to do this anyway as the replacement pups I got were 4-conductor for some coil splitting malarky.
Putting the new pups back in, I searched for ages to try and find some similar small plastic electrical push-fit blocks so that i could attach these to the pups for later removal and replacement if the mood takes me.
I found it really surprisingly hard work trying to find any suitable connectors to buy, but eventually went for a pair of male + female 4-pin cd/disk drive power connectors you get inside your PC. I got these off Maplins on line for about 85p.
But wouldn't you think that fitting push-fit connectors to pickups when supplied whould make everyone's job so much easier? It would require the main manufacturers to have a chat together and decide a common plug to use, not rocket science, but don't you think it would be in everyone's interests to be able to really simply pull out an old pickup and just slot in the new one without having to do any resoldering? It may encourage people to invest in more replacement pickups or try out a wider range of them when swapping them out is only a 5 minute job. Especially for us guys pulling pups out of hollow body guitars, which is a daunting prospect.
Is that not a simple but great idea? How about it, SD gurus?
 
Re: making pup changes easier...

EMG has a similar system for their pickups and yeah it would be a heck of a lot easier for everyone to use the same connectors...
 
Re: making pup changes easier...

I, too, had this idea, and think it's a great one.

I saw an ad recently where a manufacturer was marketing complete pickguards with pickups and electronics already installed, and they featured a plug-in type connection.
 
Re: making pup changes easier...

Al Heeley said:
It would require the main manufacturers to have a chat together and decide a common plug to use, not rocket science...
Click to expand...

Ay, there's the rub.

In any industry, getting industry leaders together to establish and agree upon new standards is not easy. And that's even if they're amenable to it.

There are other things to consider - Cost to guitar manufacturers to wire guitars in this way. Will that impede adoption? Cost to pup manufacturers to use these connectors - will that affect prices? Need to carry entire duplicate lines of pups - some with 4 wires for guitars that do not have the new system, and some with the clip for those that do? Will this cause inventory/manufacturing/distribution issues?

And perhaps the biggest stumbling block of all - what if one company holds the patent to this clip system? I'm guessing that since you found it installed on an emg pickup, that emg holds the patent. And emg might not be so keen on sharing this with other pup makers to encourage guitar players to swap out pups from emg to something else. With this connector, the guitar player is possibly more likely to stick with emgs because they have this simple connector. In that way, it's a competitive advantage. You'd have to convince emg as to why they should give it up.

I personally think it's a cool idea. I just received a new set of Duncans to replace my Duncan Designed pups. There they are sitting next to my guitar. I'm afraid to try doing this myself, and so I have to go drop off my axe with a tech and lose it for a week to get them installed. It'd be great if I could just swap them out with a clip. So I hear you, and I'm with you, and I second the motion...it's just that someting like that is harder than you think, so I'm not optimistic.
 
Re: making pup changes easier...

I just went to the emg website and found this in their description of one of their passive pups:

...All HZ Pickups have EMG's exclusive 5-wire quik-connect output allowing any number of wiring combinations, and are fully shielded for a minimum of noise...

So, EMG is marketing this as a competitive advantage. And you know what, if I were replacing my pups, and my guitar had that system installed, I'd be MUCH more likely to stick with EMG pups. Plus if you use a guitar tech, he's probably going to charge more to change the pups if he has to rip out the installed clip system.

This is a competitive advantage for EMG. I can't imagine them giving that up unless they decided to start licensing out the technology for royalties. And even then, they might not because they might see this as a market penetration advantage which could take precedence over an alternate licensing revenue stream. The more guitar manufacturers they get to adopt this wiring system, the better position EMG is going to be in.
 
Re: making pup changes easier...

RCA's work fine for anything with Lenzite...good idea if you plan on trying a few different pu's in a 335 or archtop...
 
Re: making pup changes easier...

I can see possibly Di Marzio and SD adopting their own system and selling it as a benefit, but having their own proprietory connections so customers are more likely to stick with the same brand pickup when swapping or upgrading. Maybe thats at least a step in the more user-friendly direction.
 
Re: making pup changes easier...

It's a definitely NOT COOL option for me, guys! The beginning of your signal chain is the worst place to put superfluous connectors. Even gold plated contacts won't help. It can lead to noise, loss in level, drop-outs, and loss of tone!!

Hard-wire it, people!

Noth
 
Re: making pup changes easier...

I've thought about trying this, but I've never really gotten around to doing it. I could see a definite advantage as far as installation goes in (semi)hollow-body guitars. Soldering's not that big a deal on a solid body, so I've never been too compelled to do it.

I might sometime, just to see what happens.
 
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