Removing humbucker covers...

[Zhangliqun]

...there's got to be a better way. I usually end up putting bends in the side from using force, meaning I dread getting a rewind gig on a covered humbucker because I sometimes have to give up a free replacement cover.

Anybody got some smooth, non-frustrating ways to do it?

[Possum]

Stew Mac tips had a pretty good one, you need to somehow clamp the pickup to hold it down when doing this to make it easier. Get a single edged razor blade and then heat up the solder joint, keep the solder hot and slip the razor blade into the solder joint, make sure you've completely slipped it into the joint and slipped the blade down into the seam. ITs tricky but you'll get it, may take a couple tries. If you can, wiggle the blade as the solder cools to keep it from binding up. The slip the blade out and the solder joint is open.

This method doesn't work so well if you repeatedly open and solder the cover closed because solder slips down deep into the cover and solders it closed too well, then you have to use a utility knife and cut through the joint. Harbor Freight sells these bolt down clamps for welders, Gundry spotted Duncan using these in his shop, they work pretty well to clamp buckers closed and they work well for holding when using this method....

[Steve A.]

The Donald Brosnac book from the late 70's recommended using a Dremel tool. I finally tried that after burning my fingers trying to get the damned covers off a pair of 2006 Epiphone humbuckers. I was convinced that they are using some new leadfree solder with a higher melting point... (then again I think that the temperature calibration on my Hakko solder station might have been low).

In any case the friction from the cut-off blade actually help to melt the solder a bit but you probably would not want to do that with a customer's pickup.

I like the idea about using a razor blade- just a reminder to wear googles since hot shards of razor blade flying around could be hazardous to your health.

So don't the commercial rewinders charge extra if they have to remove humbucker covers? It'd probably be a good idea if all of pickup makers got together to agree on prices for something like that- just like the oil companies did with Dick Cheney...

Steve Ahola

[jack briggs]

Originally Posted by Possum

Stew Mac tips had a pretty good one, you need to somehow clamp the pickup to hold it down when doing this to make it easier. Get a single edged razor blade and then heat up the solder joint, keep the solder hot and slip the razor blade into the solder joint, make sure you've completely slipped it into the joint and slipped the blade down into the seam. ITs tricky but you'll get it, may take a couple tries. If you can, wiggle the blade as the solder cools to keep it from binding up. The slip the blade out and the solder joint is open.

This method doesn't work so well if you repeatedly open and solder the cover closed because solder slips down deep into the cover and solders it closed too well, then you have to use a utility knife and cut through the joint. Harbor Freight sells these bolt down clamps for welders, Gundry spotted Duncan using these in his shop, they work pretty well to clamp buckers closed and they work well for holding when using this method....

I learned this technique from Jason Lollar a few years back. I use an 80 watt Weller iron with a chisel tip. It takes no more than 5 seconds to either remove or install a cover. You're in and you're out as quickly as that with the iron. The tip is the key. I've used 100 watt and 140 watt soldering guns before. Even with the higher wattage you never get the heat where you need it and can end up overheating the base, which in turn could melt the bobbins.


Cheers,

[PoorMan]

Boxcutter...

Just flip the pickup, put the blade on the solder joint and put some muscle into it (I lean on it a litle). No heat, no dremel dust, no bent covers...Fast, easy, clean.

[kevinT]

I also tried the Dremel method. I do not recommend it. It takes too much time, its dangerous, and you usually damage either the baseplate or cover no matter how careful you are. It's dangerous in that the hot solder goes flying everywhere and you MUST wear eye protection and believe it or not it takes forever for the blade to cut through the solder. ...i have used a variety of blades with the same result.

I now use the razor blade method in that you just heat up the solder joint and slide the blade between the cover and baseplate and leave the blade there so the solder doesn't bond again. The solder does not stick to the razor blade. Do the same thing with the other side. And you should be able to pull it off by hand.

A lot of folks use chaulk between the cover and bobbins to control mircrophonics. I use high grade silicon. To break the seal, just heat the top of the cover and it should come right off. Pry it off while still warm though. I know some folks also place wax between the bobbins and cover. Heating the top of the cover will also break this seal.

Also be careful when you heat the cover because you can discolor it and damage the plating if the flame is on the cover for too long.

[Joe Gwinn]

Originally Posted by jack briggs

I learned this technique from Jason Lollar a few years back. I use an 80 watt Weller iron with a chisel tip. It takes no more than 5 seconds to either remove or install a cover. You're in and you're out as quickly as that with the iron. The tip is the key. I've used 100 watt and 140 watt soldering guns before. Even with the higher wattage you never get the heat where you need it and can end up overheating the base, which in turn could melt the bobbins.

The key with the 80-watt Weller iron is that it is both big and temperature controlled, and so will get things up to temperature fast, without danger of overheating.

The 100 and 140 watt guns have no temperature control, store little heat, and start from room temperature, so it takes far too long to get the solder up to temperature, allowing everything else to get hot too.

[NightWinder]

Originally Posted by kevinT

I also tried the Dremel method. I do not recommend it. It takes too much time, its dangerous, and you usually damage either the baseplate or cover no matter how careful you are. It's dangerous in that the hot solder goes flying everywhere and you MUST wear eye protection and believe it or not it takes forever for the blade to cut through the solder. ...i have used a variety of blades with the same result.

I now use the razor blade method in that you just heat up the solder joint and slide the blade between the cover and baseplate and leave the blade there so the solder doesn't bond again. The solder does not stick to the razor blade. Do the same thing with the other side. And you should be able to pull it off by hand.

A lot of folks use chaulk between the cover and bobbins to control mircrophonics. I use high grade silicon. To break the seal, just heat the top of the cover and it should come right off. Pry it off while still warm though. I know some folks also place wax between the bobbins and cover. Heating the top of the cover will also break this seal.

Also be careful when you heat the cover because you can discolor it and damage the plating if the flame is on the cover for too long.

On that dremel tip...Not to mention you are shaving tiny particals in the air. Imagine breathing that...That can't be good for noone...

[David Schwab]

Originally Posted by Joe Gwinn

The 100 and 140 watt guns have no temperature control, store little heat, and start from room temperature, so it takes far too long to get the solder up to temperature, allowing everything else to get hot too.

Plus you want to keep the soldering guns away from the magnets. I would never use a soldering gun on a pickup.

And speaking of the wrong tool for the job (any job)... my wife bought me one of those ColdHeat soldering irons a couple of years ago as a gift. What a disapointment. Even with a fresh set of batteries and thin gauge solder, it's barely useful, and just a PITA in general due to the split point design.

Every now and then I take it out and try to use it... just hoping it might be of use on some task or other, just to get annoyed with the thing and out it back in my tool box.

The trick I do with covers is to heat up the solder joint, and then stick a thin pallet knife in the crack and slightly pry it away from the solder joint and hold it until it cools.

[Spence]

Originally Posted by PoorMan

Boxcutter...

Just flip the pickup, put the blade on the solder joint and put some muscle into it (I lean on it a litle). No heat, no dremel dust, no bent covers...Fast, easy, clean.

The only correct method posted here. This method allows you to retouch the solder when the cover goes back on and make it look like it's never been off.

[Steve A.]

Originally Posted by PoorMan

Boxcutter...

Just flip the pickup, put the blade on the solder joint and put some muscle into it (I lean on it a litle). No heat, no dremel dust, no bent covers...Fast, easy, clean.

Poor Man:

That sounds like a winner to me! I assume that you are referring to the utility knife with the trapezoid shaped blade and not the boxcutter that uses a single edge razor blade. The blades on those utility knives are pretty strong and the cutting edge is like a wedge.

I usually jam jeweler's screwdrivers into the melted solder, but that would *always* bend the covers a bit- the utility knife would work so much better.

As for soldering guns I was told not to use them around guitars and pickups because they could screw up the magnets. Some amp techs like those big soldering irons intended for stained glass (75 to 100 watts) for soldering ground wires to thick metal chassises- you might be able to find them dirt cheap at a flea market. The Weller W-60 is a really nice temperature-controlled iron with a wide selection of tips available, and has more oomph! than most solder stations.

Steve Ahola

P.S. I mentioned that Dremel trick only as a last resort- it might be useful if you found that some idiot had epoxied on the humbucker covers- or used his arc welder...

[Possum]

My first attempt with the utility knife I cut the end of my thumb off! Nice. The razor blade thing works well but sometimes if the cover fits real tight its a bitch to get it into the joint. I use wax in the cover if I'm worried about someone playing loud, I just dip the cover in the wax until it equalizes temperature with the wax and then leave a little in then put the cover on real quick, it works real well and is non-destructive. Silicon will oxidize nickel if you get it on the slugs and it will permanently stain plastic, not a good thing if down the road someone wants to play without the cover, plus it can be a bitch to get the cover off sometimes.

[PoorMan]

Originally Posted by Steve A.

Poor Man:

That sounds like a winner to me! I assume that you are referring to the utility knife with the trapezoid shaped blade and not the boxcutter that uses a single edge razor blade.

Correct!

I've tried other methods and they are overkill to me...just don't cut your thumb off like old man Stephens did!!!

[ken]

I almost cut the end of my right index finger off 'just like Possum', so I don't use razorblades. I was trying to remove a cover once in front of a customer with a razorknife. The tip of the blade slipped off of the solder blob, slid down into the crack between the cover and baseplate, and broke. There was just enough blade sticking up to make a real mess of my finger!

I use a 100 watt soldering iron and a soldersucker to suck up all the excess solder. If you're neat you can make joints that look like the cover has never been off.

Don't use a Weller type gun, the magnetic fields from the transformer will demag you in a big hurry.

Ken

[HTH]

does nobody use solder wick?

[devnull]

Originally Posted by HTH

does nobody use solder wick?

Or a Solder Sucker? Used it many times to remove PCB components.

Although I also prefer any method that keeps heat and magnetic fields away from the pickup, while leaving most of my body parts still attached.

[HTH]

Originally Posted by devnull

Or a Solder Sucker? Used it many times to remove PCB components.

Although I also prefer any method that keeps heat and magnetic fields away from the pickup, while leaving most of my body parts still attached.

my solder sucker doesn't work very good when removing pickup covers - solder wick works much better. actually, I prefer solder wick all round - it's just cleaner and more effective, imo.

that stanley blade trick sounds dicey - I've already sliced a 1/2" cut in my thumb with a fresh stanley blade so I tend to stay clear of those things.

[Billy Bones]

Struggled with this any time I had to go inside a humbucker. That trick where you just cut through the solder is a lifesaver. Didn't occur to me that it would be soft enough to cut. Thanks!

Billy

[Spence]

Always a pleasure. Glad it worked out.

[J S Moore]

I've always dreaded taking off covers until I read this thread. Cutting the solder really works great.

[belwar]

Originally Posted by HTH

does nobody use solder wick?

I bought a spool of the stuff and couldnt make it work for sheet. Right in the trash it went. I think all the options are just poorman solder pumps :/ I wish I could afford one of those...

[Possum]

I never had any luck with solder wicks or solder suckers either. I'll see if I can post the attachment for the razor blade method. Also if you are constantly putting covers on and off I put some tape over the unexposed part of the baseplate where you solder the cover too, it keeps solder from dripping down inside the cover and holding, which can make it a bitch to get through sometimes.....

[Joe Gwinn]

Originally Posted by belwar

I bought a spool of the stuff (solder wick) and couldn't make it work for sheet. Right in the trash it went.

Solder wick does work, but it has to be clean and bright, and fluxing it often helps a lot. Old and/or poor quality wick will fail. There is no magic in this. One is soldering the wires in the wick, and if those wires are not clean enough to solder, nothing will happen.

The trick is to smear the wick with a little bit of plumbers flux, the stuff that's used for soldering copper pipe.

[kevinT]

I tried both the wick and the sucker and found both to be pretty much useless for this particular application.

I've even only tried the blade method but that doesn't work for me either. I'm putting a lot of force in it and nothing gives. ...i'm just afraid when it does, it will be my finger that takes the brunt of it.

Forget using the Dremmel to cut joints. ...it's messy and a PITA.

What works for me is heating the joint and inserting a razor blade between the baseplate and cover and leaving it there. You do the same thing to the other side and then lift off the cover.

Which brings me to another point, what do you guys do when you get one of those runaway hidious-looking monster solder joints? I've gottin' really good at doing them, but once in a while back in the day, I would do one that would get unruly because it wouldn't bond (probably because I didn't clean the site well enough...my bad).

All I could do was add more solder to the blob to make it prettier. Anybody else have any tricks to make an ugly solder joint look pretty?

[Possum]

Just add more solder :-) Actually you can clean all the solder off and start over, sort of. Heat the solder joint and hold a wadded paper towel right next to the blob then quicly wipe it off when its molten. You can get all of it off after a couple times but it does leave a bright stain, maybe you could sand it a bit or something. I have to replace covers constantly in testing so I will clean the solder out of the cover using this method, I clamp the cover to do it and wipe it out otherwise you get big blobs inside that can cut the coils eventually, I also wipe off the edge of the baseplate and put tape over that area when closing the cover to make it easier to open. I use the StewMac razor blade method I posted. Its the best method but occasionally in repeatedly swapping covers out, solder will get in way down deep in the joint If I don't tape it off and it becomes impossible to heat the whole thing up, so gotta get the utility knife out which I hate using and have sliced a piece of finger off before. So far I have not yet cut a coil in any of the methods, knock on wood....

[soundmasterg]

Solder suckers don't work too well when trying to get solder off a flat surface, but they work great when getting solder out of eyelets or things like that. You need a good one though...Radio Shack actually sells a pretty good one that I use all the time on amp work.

Cutting the joint after heating works best for me on humbucker covers too. You can get it to heat a little faster by putting fresh solder on the soldering iron tip before you touch it to the baseplate btw. Better heat transfer that way.

Greg

[salvarsan]

Originally Posted by soundmasterg

Solder suckers don't work too well when trying to get solder off a flat surface, ...

Consumer grade desolderers from Radio Shack are tolerable, barely.

Industrial desolderer/rework stations do a much better job,
if you can justify the price.


-drh

[voodoochild]

I've tried just about everything from using a dremel tool to a soldering iron. It wasn't until I bought an 80 watt iron that I discovered how easy it could really be. Literally 2 seconds with the 80 watt iron and slip a razor blade between the baseplate and cover. Done. It focuses the heat so fast in that one spot that it doesn't have time to overheat anything else around it like a lower wattage iron will do. That is of course unless you hold the 80 watt iron on there for too long.

[soundmasterg]

Originally Posted by salvarsan

Consumer grade desolderers from Radio Shack are tolerable, barely.

Industrial desolderer/rework stations do a much better job,
if you can justify the price.


-drh

I was talking about the solder sucker they sell...as far as those go, they sell a decent one. A desoldering station is of course a much better solution, though the expense of those puts them out of the reach of many people.

Greg

[salvarsan]

Originally Posted by soundmasterg

A desoldering station is of course a much better solution, though the expense of those puts them out of the reach of many people.

I bought a half dozen parts-grade PACE MBT's and made a working frankenstein for $120 back when the broken ones were cheap. Alas, no longer.

In 10 years, the hand tool 'extractor' part has gone from $80 to $300, which puts them out of reasonable consideration.

The guys with 80 watt irons and razor blades have pickup cover removal pretty well taken care of, in my opinion.

-drh

[David Schwab]

Originally Posted by salvarsan

Consumer grade desolderers from Radio Shack are tolerable, barely.

Industrial desolderer/rework stations do a much better job,
if you can justify the price.


-drh

I use one of those spring loaded solder suckers all the time. I find it works well once you get around the recoil issue. I also have one of those red rubber bulbs that I swear I've had since the 70's! I mostly use that to annoy my wife and daughter by puffing air in their ears (from a safe distance of course).

I still have a nice extractor/inserter tool set for IC's that I got when I worked at ITT back when they made electronic stuff.

Talking about the crazy price of some tools, I use DIP headers on my bass pickups the same way EMG does. The crimping tool they sell at Mouser was $800! I got a simpler crimping tool from Jameco to use with slightly different pins for $15!

[Zemaitis]

Here is how I do it:
With the pickup face up, 100 watt gun, heat the solder real quick, then jerk the pickup down and then up real quick over a cardboard box... solder slides off into the box, cover is clean, and solders up very nicely with the recovered solder. You can't even tell the cover was off. Never burnt a finger, the solder heat ups real quick.

[jason lollar]

No man the only correct way is use a 40 watt chisel tip- slip the tip of a single edge razor blade between the cover and the baseplate right next to the solder joint- heat up the joint- slip the razor blade through the solder, remove the iron and then pull out the razor. you can use the same razor for szeveal joints before the solder starts to stick to it- its really quick and clean. If you are slick you can re solder the joint so no one will ever see it.

[David Schwab]

Originally Posted by Zemaitis

Here is how I do it:
With the pickup face up, 100 watt gun...

You should not use soldering guns around pickups. They produce a strong magnetic field at the tip which can weaken the magnet.