Re: Pickup help
Awesome! Thanks a bunch man! The Custom is the Trembucker right? The magnet is not split on the single coils, but yeah they're not bad. Good for cleaner stuff. Would I be safe taking my guitar to guitar center to install it? (I could probably solder it myself, but I really don't want to risk damaging my guitar or something) I haven't heard much good about them doing it. The other thing was could you explain how to set the pickups back up? When I removed the pickguard, the springs moved and I can't keep the pickups and springs in place to put the pickguard back on.
Yes, you'll want the TB-5 Duncan Custom. (Not the SH-5.)
When you removed the pickguard, did you remove the screws holding the pickups in place? Those screws will be slightly longer. You'll need to put those back in before you mount the pickguard.
You'll also want to check the values of the pots. What you'll need to do is pull one of the volume or tone knobs off (if you don't care about a little bit of marking, you can use a pair of pliers, otherwise you'll want to see if you can get a piece of plastic that will fit under the knob and rock it back and forth as you turn the knob), then unscrew the nut and pop the pot through the pickguard and check the number on top. You're looking for 500, not 250.)
As for Guitar Center doing it.. I usually go the lazy route when I install pickups in my own guitars. Is your pickguard SSH or SSS? If it's SSS, you'll need to replace the pickguard anyway. I'd just move all the parts from the old pickguard to the new one, without cutting any wires.
Take the TB-5 and connect the red and white wires. (strip half an inch of the wire coating and twist them together and then electrical tape them together and then tape that to the rest of the wire.) Then strip the green wire and twist that along with the bare wire. Don't tape them, and strip about half an inch from the black wire.
Then, I'd trace the original bridge pickup wire (some have two wires, typically a white one going to the switch, the black one going to the pot) and cut that wire/those wires about halfway between the pickup and the switch and pots.
If it's a single wire coming from the pickup, you'll want to carefully strip that wire, giving you a bare wire which is wrapped around a white one. Strip half an inch from the white wire, and twist that with the Duncan black one, and electrical tape them. Then twist the Duncan green/bare combo with the bare and tape them.
If it's two wires coming from the pickup, twist the Duncan green/bare one with the wire going to the pot (usually the black one) and tape them, and the Duncan black wire with the one going to the switch (usually a white one) and tape them. Then put the pickguard back in the guitar.
