Pickup swap guitar

[Paulkstadden]

I have long been irritated by having to switch out pickups in my guitars. I want to have a new pickup, but I have take the strings off (or slacken them a lot), unscrew the pickguard or pickup surrounds, desolder then resolder the connections, and put it all back together. Now that I want to get into pickup building, I really don't feel like doing this on a regular basis. So, I'm taking an old guitar I have sitting around, routing out channels in the back, and attaching some power cables (used for the internal power source of a computer) to the pickups (female end) and pots (male end). The connectors have four leads, so I can do humbuckers if I desire. The only thing I'll have to unscrew is the pickups from their surrounds and I can pull them right out the back. Then I connect the new pickups and I'm good to go. I know EMG has quick connectors and Mercurio and Ramtrak guitars use modules (like Tony Iommi's old John Birch), but this seems to be a quick solution for anyone wanting to test a lot of different pickups without a lot of headaches. Any thoughts? Has anyone done this?

[David Schwab]

Yeah, that's the way to do it. It's a real pain. One of my next projects is to assemble a bass that I can swap pickups out of for testing purposes.

[Paulkstadden]

The Cables

Here's the kind of cable I'm using. There are smaller and more secure connectors out there, but these kind are very cheap and plentiful. The next time I do this I'm going to find a kind that's easier to connect and fit in the control cavity.

http://www.computercablestore.com/detail.aspx?ID=1634

[Spence]

I use one of those cheap lap steels you can buy on Ebay for peanuts.

[Satamax]

Hey Paul and others, have you tried theses I use them for plate leads on a lot of amps, so i can easily bias

http://www.boltproducts.com/images/heyco/M6-4.h30.gif

Actualy i'm wondering how common they are in the states, cos often when i talk about screw connectors, people seem to be a bit confused. Over here in france, you say domino (that's the nickname for theses) everybody knows what you're talking about! And they're pretty much anywhere. Every electrical box in a house has it's supply of "dominoes"

[Paulkstadden]

Those look great

They look like I could mount them on the inside of the pickup cavity and then just fasten the wires to the connectors. That's probably better than my idea because with the computer power cables I'd have to put one of the ends on all my pickups. The screw connectors look much easier.

[Plectrum]

I allways thought a side-route would be good; So the pickup route is continued or ramped on one side to the "upper" bout of the guitar. This way, you wouldn't have to undo the *spring* screws on an HB, Just the ring-mounts from the body. For testing you only really need 2 loose-ish screws.
One could make a "slide-in" scratchplate for singles too.

[Mystic]

I use one of these. I just push down on the bar and the strings are loose enough to swap pickups. Then when I let go it goes right back in tune for testing. http://www.musicyo.com/product_specs.asp?pf_id=044

[Joe Gwinn]

Hey Paul and others, have you tried theses I use them for plate leads on a lot of amps, so i can easily bias

http://www.boltproducts.com/images/heyco/M6-4.h30.gif

Actualy i'm wondering how common they are in the states, cos often when i talk about screw connectors, people seem to be a bit confused. Over here in france, you say domino (that's the nickname for theses) everybody knows what you're talking about! And they're pretty much anywhere. Every electrical box in a house has it's supply of "dominoes"

They are easily bought in the US anyway. The usual electronics distributors (Mpuser, Digi-Key, ...) carry them, as does Radio Shack and the local electronics parts store (packaged by Philmore).

[Steve Conner]

Here they are called terminal strips, terminal blocks or choc blocks. (One popular brand many years ago was made of brown bakelite and looked like a chocolate bar, and you snapped off as many "chunks" as needed.)

[Satamax]

Cool Steve!

Well, i didn't know what they were caled in UK. Over here the main brand is legrand, they've always been plastic, and you can cut them as you described. Just a twist of the two hands and you're done. But nowadays, they're using the snap in type which i hate, if ever you have to rework an electrical instalation Tell me, are the two girls who had set up a guitar repair workshop after the car park of St Enoch center still there? (That is if you're a Widgy! )

Bye.

Max.

[ake]

http://www.lundgren.se/upload/dscn4046.mov

[Steve Conner]

Hi Max,

I certainly am a "widgy" I haven't been down that end of town for a while, but I will go down there next week and have a look for a guitar repair workshop now you mention it. BTW, there are quite a lot of Legrand electrical parts in the shops here too. I think they sell all over Europe.

[Satamax]

Hi Steve, you know where i mean? The kind od arcade on the other side of teh car park, there's a goth's clothing shop, few weirdos religious and new age shops etc! Don't do the trip on purpose, i could also check the yellow pages! (or BT or whatever this is now!)

[David Schwab]

Hey Paul and others, have you tried theses...

I use small two connector versions on my buffer amp board, where the pickup connects.

I use alligator clips on my test guitar.