questions about installing Invaders

[slowboy]

Hi everyone!

I'm 66 yrs old and have just started working on electric guitars. I've had some success soldering and wiring
pickups and switches, but i'm nowhere even near a professional.
I feel positive that I can do this though with some instruction and advice.

My son got this guitar DIY kit -


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0969T5NS4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


It is wired to 1 volume control knob, 1 tone control knob, 3-way switch, and input jack.

Now my son asked me to put [neck and bridge] Seymore Duncan Invaders in the guitar.

Do I need to remove all pickup wiring that guitar came with and start from the beginning of the wiring, or can I someway tie into the existing wiring?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

slowboy
[Keith]

I have the red and white wires taped off and out of the way but didn't solder. I'll do that first when I start back working on the guitar. How do I connect the connectors to the Invader pickups? I still have the pickups that came out of the guitar, with the connectors on them. Would I just cut the connectors off of the original pickups and splice them onto Invaders?...that's what I did. If so, the connectors have a white wire and a bare wire. I believe the white wire should maybe go to the hot, black, wire on invaders and the bare wire should go to the green and bare wire on invaders. Is this correct? And should these connections be soldered and taped, or should I try some kind of connectors to where they are spliced and soldered together? I tried taping the wires on invader's, green and bare to the bare on connectors and invader's black to the white on connectors. When I plugged the guitar in everything seemed to work right except there was a lot of buzzing coming from the amp.

 

[Clint 55]

Welcome to the forum. You can just swap the pickup connections and don't need to redo all the wiring.

 

[Mincer]

Looks like the kit has some connectors for the pickups. You can either find connectors and attach them to the Invaders, or re-use the ones that are on the pickups in the kit. For the Invaders, green and bare are ground, and black is hot. Connect the red and white and tape them off.

 

[Artie]

Connect the red and white and tape them off.

He means, solder them together. Only takes a touch.

Invaders will be cool (hot) in that guitar.

 

[JOLLY]

I think the Invaders are definitely the pickups for that guitar.

 

[slowboy]

Looks like the kit has some connectors for the pickups. You can either find connectors and attach them to the Invaders, or re-use the ones that are on the pickups in the kit. For the Invaders, green and bare are ground, and black is hot. Connect the red and white and tape them off.

I have the red and white wires taped off and out of the way but didn't solder. I'll do that first when I start back working on the guitar. How do I connect the connectors to the Invader pickups? I still have the pickups that came out of the guitar, with the connectors on them. Would I just cut the connectors off of the original pickups and splice them onto Invaders?...that's what I did. If so, the connectors have a white wire and a bare wire. I believe the white wire should maybe go to the hot, black, wire on invaders and the bare wire should go to the green and bare wire on invaders. Is this correct? And should these connections be soldered and taped, or should I try some kind of connectors to where they are spliced and soldered together? I tried taping the wires on invader's, green and bare to the bare on connectors and invader's black to the white on connectors. When I plugged the guitar in everything seemed to work right except there was a lot of buzzing coming from the amp.

 

[Mincer]

You could cut the connectors off and splice the Invader wires on, or if you have a crimping tool and new connectors, you can add new connectors too. Make sure there is a bridge ground connected in the guitar, and make sure the output jack is connected properly...those 2 things will get rid of the hum.

 

[slowboy]

You could cut the connectors off and splice the Invader wires on, or if you have a crimping tool and new connectors, you can add new connectors too. Make sure there is a bridge ground connected in the guitar, and make sure the output jack is connected properly...those 2 things will get rid of the hum.

I've got wires and all soldered and taped. Guitar is sounding amazing.
As far as the hum, it isn't as bad as it was and when you touch the output jack's plate, it stops humming. Also, if you touch the cord there at the jack it stops humming. I took jack out and made sure the 2 wires to it were still connected good and they are. Also where they connect inside at the pots, they are connected good. I don't recall any bridge ground wire.

Well I just checked for a ground wire for the bridge, and sure enough, there is a wire grounded to the volume pot. I gently pulled on it and it came out of the guitar body. So that must be the bridge ground wire. With this bridge being made of zinc alloy, how would I run the ground to this bridge?

Thanks again!
Keith

 

[Mincer]

You might have to take the bridge off and fish the wire through. Usually, they would scrape some of the plating off the bridge and solder directly to that.

 

[slowboy]

You might have to take the bridge off and fish the wire through. Usually, they would scrape some of the plating off the bridge and solder directly to that.

I got the bridge ground taken care of. I'm getting continuity all of the way from the input jack [outside of jack] to the tuners/strings at headstock. And still have a hum/buzz. But also seem to be getting feedback which I hadn't had earlier.

 

[slowboy]

I got the bridge ground taken care of. I'm getting continuity all of the way from the input jack [outside of jack] to the tuners/strings at headstock. And still have a hum/buzz. But also seem to be getting feedback which I hadn't had earlier.

ok, I checked the pickup height and when I pressed down on the end fret of the neck by neck pickup, the string was hitting the pickup. So I lowered the pickup a little and the hum/buzz/feedback went away. I'm going to adjust the pickup height better tomorrow and work on the action and intonation some.

 

[slowboy]

I'm having a bad time trying to intonate this thing! I'll tune it then 12th fret will be sharp. I've tried adjusting the saddle back toward the tailpiece but I can't get it to make any difference. One guy said to cut the saddle spring if I ran out of adjustment so I did. It still didn't go back far enough. So then I just removed the saddle spring to see what would happen. I was able to adjust the intonation on that string [3rd] but then I lost the intonation to it. It was sharp on the 12th fret again. What the heck :-(
Please give me some info/advice...

Thanks,
Keith

 

[dave74]

Your pickup might just be way too close for good clear notes and proper intonation.

Lower it down to the point where you can fret the highest fret up by the neck pickup (22nd fret in this case), and still get a perfectly clear note on each string individually with no wavering or odd harmonic overtones.

Then try to get the pickup as high as possible without getting any weirdness at that highest fret.

Make sure to lower the neck pickup way down first so it isn't acting on the strings at all.
After you get the bridge pickup set then you can bring the neck back up a bit.

 

[Mincer]

If a guitar doesn't intonate right away (even without a spring), I let it settle for a day or so. Sometimes that works. Are you saying that with the saddle right up against the back of the bridge it is still sharp at the 12th fret? Worst case is that the bridge is in the wrong place. Are the other strings intonating?

 

[slowboy]

If a guitar doesn't intonate right away (even without a spring), I let it settle for a day or so. Sometimes that works. Are you saying that with the saddle right up against the back of the bridge it is still sharp at the 12th fret? Worst case is that the bridge is in the wrong place. Are the other strings intonating?

Thanks for your reply Mincer-

When I had the spring out and saddle right up against the back of the bridge I got it to intonate, but when I retuned the guitar that string [3rd/G] went out of intonation again. This string seems to be the only one although the others don't intonate dead on, just slightly sharp, but with the springs in...
This guitar is being tuned in Drop C...C-G-C-F-A-D. Would that make a difference? Also, we have Elixir-10/52 gauge strings on it.

 

[slowboy]

Your pickup might just be way too close for good clear notes and proper intonation.

Lower it down to the point where you can fret the highest fret up by the neck pickup (22nd fret in this case), and still get a perfectly clear note on each string individually with no wavering or odd harmonic overtones.

Then try to get the pickup as high as possible without getting any weirdness at that highest fret.

Make sure to lower the neck pickup way down first so it isn't acting on the strings at all.
After you get the bridge pickup set then you can bring the neck back up a bit.

Thanks for your reply dave74...

I will try doing as you say with the pickups. I'm assuming that you are saying to lower neck pickup all of the way down, then adjust/lower the bridge pickup where highest fret has clear note on each string. Then raise bridge pickup to where it can go without sound problems.

Thanks,
Keith

 

[Mincer]

Thanks for your reply Mincer-

When I had the spring out and saddle right up against the back of the bridge I got it to intonate, but when I retuned the guitar that string [3rd/G] went out of intonation again. This string seems to be the only one although the others don't intonate dead on, just slightly sharp, but with the springs in...
This guitar is being tuned in Drop C...C-G-C-F-A-D. Would that make a difference? Also, we have Elixir-10/52 gauge strings on it.

For a tuning that low, I'd probably go up 1 or 2 string sizes.

 

[slowboy]

For a tuning that low, I'd probably go up 1 or 2 string sizes.

you saying up, does that mean lighter gauge, or heavier gauge

and would this drop c tuning affect intonation?

 

[Clint 55]

No, you don't have to go to a thicker gauge if you don't want to. A whole step down isn't a lot. Just use whatever gauge set you like. Only the 6th string will be loose. If it's a dedicated drop C guitar, you can just get a thicker 6th string. dave's advice is accurate. Invaders have 3 giant ceramic magnets and the set exerts a lot of string pull. You'll have to drop the pickups to get rid of the excessive string pull and be able to intonate it. Another thing you could do is take out the spacer magnets to alleviate some string pull.

 

[dave74]

Thanks for your reply dave74...

I will try doing as you say with the pickups. I'm assuming that you are saying to lower neck pickup all of the way down, then adjust/lower the bridge pickup where highest fret has clear note on each string. Then raise bridge pickup to where it can go without sound problems.

Thanks,
Keith

Exactly right. That is my method anyways. With these really strong magnet pickups like the Invader and X2N you can easily hear the difference when you get too close and it starts "grabbing" the string with the pull.