Took the cover off of a humbucker...how do I fix this?

[pentatonicwanker]

Despite how easy it looked on YouTube, I was surprised when I took the cover off of this JB I recently picked up to find the coils not taped and the shielding showing. Fairly certain it's my fault. How do I go about salvaging this humbucker?

 

[jeremy]

what are you trying to do? looks like a trembucker to me

 

[pentatonicwanker]

what are you trying to do? looks like a trembucker to me

It is--I bought it dirt cheap for an HSS Strat and needed to get the cover off in order for it to fit in the pickguard.

Unfortunately the coils are all exposed and appear damaged (I've never taken the cover off of a pickup before so correct me if I'm wrong). I'm curious what I need to do in order to repair this so I can use this now-uncovered pickup in my Strat.

 

[GuitarStv]

Check if there's a problem before freaking out. Tie red and white together, then measure the resistance across black and green. Are you getting 0? If it's reading about 16k, then you're good.

 

[jeremy]

i dont see any coil showing, the copper color is a shielding wrap around the coil (do not try and remove it or you may damage the actual coil)

 

[Securb]

I would put the cover back on and open/widen the hole in the pickguard with a file so the pickup fits with the pickup cover on. The other option would be messing with the wax and taping up the coils and it does not sound like you are ready for that.

 

[SweetClyde99]

Is there an actual problem or are you just wanting to cover the ugly exposed coils? If the latter, you can buy some cloth pickup tape from Amazon that will do the trick. You may have to scrape off a bit of wax for the best results, but you should be able to do that without much trouble or any special tools.

 

[pentatonicwanker]

Check if there's a problem before freaking out. Tie red and white together, then measure the resistance across black and green. Are you getting 0? If it's reading about 16k, then you're good.

Hey this was helpful, thank you. Shows about 16k ohm (15.88 to be exact).

 

[pentatonicwanker]

i dont see any coil showing, the copper color is a shielding wrap around the coil (do not try and remove it or you may damage the actual coil)

Having never removed a pickup cover before I think I naively expected it to look like a normal uncovered humbucker covered in wax. TIL!

 

[pentatonicwanker]

Is there an actual problem or are you just wanting to cover the ugly exposed coils? If the latter, you can buy some cloth pickup tape from Amazon that will do the trick. You may have to scrape off a bit of wax for the best results, but you should be able to do that without much trouble or any special tools.

I'm very publicly learning. Thanks for the tip on the cloth pickup tape; I'm going to gently scrape off the wax and then wrap it. Should hopefully be good to go then.

 

[jeremy]

just be careful scraping the wax off near the coil, the wire is as fine as hair

 

[GuitarStv]

Hey this was helpful, thank you. Shows about 16k ohm (15.88 to be exact).

Yeah, you're cool then. Pickup should still be fine. Just wrap some tape around it if you want to hide the coils and call it a day.

 

[ehdwuld]

instead of scraping it
take a hair dryer and warm it up and it will wipe off

 

[marcello252]

wiping is dangerous, don't do it

 

[ehdwuld]

wiping is dangerous, don't do it

Wiping is dangerous
but scraping is ok?

Serious

Are you just in mood today?

 

[ErikH]

The easiest way to remove a cover, for future reference, is to first break the solder joints on the bottom either by desoldering or cutting through it, then heat it up to soften the wax and it'll slip off a lot easier. Then use the hairdryer to soften the wax and wipe it off. Do not scrape with anything.

 

[marcello252]

Wiping is dangerous
but scraping is ok?

Serious

Are you just in mood today?

did I say scraping is good? where exactly?

 

[ehdwuld]

so is typing
sit back on your hands
and dont do anything
safest thing to do

anything you do has some element of risk

heating it and it will run off onto a papertowel
with the wiping just like cleaning a babies nose

you are just being contradictory

 

[marcello252]

I got the point, but I wiped a HB (the one coming from a G&L asat deluxe) with wax soften with my wife hairdryer (since this device is useless for my egg head) and I broke it , maybe tgere was a loosen wire, don't know what, so, if you're not skilled my advice is not doing it , so simple

 

[AdrianSD]

The easiest way to remove a cover, for future reference, is to first break the solder joints on the bottom either by desoldering or cutting through it, then heat it up to soften the wax and it'll slip off a lot easier. Then use the hairdryer to soften the wax and wipe it off. Do not scrape with anything.

I got a 40w soldering iron, is it good enough for the cover solder joints? 70-80w would probably be better to heat up the area quicker, what do you think? Mine works fine for pot and switch lugs, but I struggle with the solder joints on the back of the pots, takes too long to melt the solder and I ruined few pots because of that.