Changing Your Pickups/ Post # 4

In my last post I had talked about pickups, what they were and how they function. For this post, we will be looking at the internal wiring specs of a guitar. Don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds! Usually, when you buy a new guitar it  is more than likely going to come with stock or generic pickups. To the untrained ear they might sound the same as any other pickup would but to the trained ear, it might sound off-putting. When this does occur, one might want to switch out the stock pickups for something that will give them the preferred sound it is that they are looking for. In order to do so, you must have a few things available to you, tools if you will.

 
 

Pictured above are a simple screwdriver, a pickup wiring schematic(Seymour Duncan), Seymour Duncan humbuckers, and a soldering iron with extra solder. Use the screw driver to remove the back plate of the guitar which protects and houses the guitar's electrical wires. Once removed, start by removing the old pickups from the guitar. You must have the strings off in order to do so. Use solder to weld off the already existing wires from the conductor. Once the old pickups are removed, it's time to insert the new set. Do this by looking at a wiring schematic of the brand and type of pickups it is you are going to swap in. It is essential that you are careful in knowing how to read the schematic while also being careful not to use too much solder than what is needed. A small flaw in either of these things can result to the pickups not working or a bad electric shock. There are more tedious details in which I have left out but those are personal preference. This Friday I will be talking about guitar pedals, a fun tool that can be used to further distort the sound of the guitar. Tune in then, have a good one.