How to install a mini series humbucker into bridge position of a strat.

LundiMardi

I thought i'd do this up for anyone who was thinking of doing this themselves but weren't sure if they could, so this really is a beginners guide, twas the first time did it anyway:p

You will need tools, but you can get by on the bare minimum.

I used,

• 25 watt soldering iron
• Lead free solder (I don’t know if lead free makes a difference, it’s just what I bought)
• Small blade (I certainly suggest proper wire strippersL)
• Screwdriver
• Patience

Well I did say bare minimum!

I suggest getting some goggles aswell just in case, I didn’t even think of them to be honest, until I was getting very up close and personal with some solder.

My soldering iron had a 5mm bit, and I was told this was too big, you really need a 2 or 3mm bit, so after I had already taken off the pickguard and saw the mess I was reluctant to start if I couldn’t finish, so I sat there for 30 minutes trying to decide.

Patience has never been a virtue of mine so I said fúck it!!

So, start with removing the pickguard, place the guitar on a flat surface, preferably on a towel to prevent scratches etc. Unscrew the pickguard and lift it out slowly, you don’t want to accidentally catch any wires and pull them out.

You should have something that looks like this.



Next, you want to remove the pick guard completely, it’s easier to do the work when it’s lying flat, for more accuracy and just an overall better view of things.

To remove it completely, unsolder the ground wires (black) connected to the guitar and also the hot wire connected to the jack (white). Remember where these were as you’re going to be connecting once again when you’re done.

The stock bridge pickup on a strat has only two wires, one going to the switch (white) and one going to the volume pot (yellow). You will need to unsolder these, the switch will not be a problem, however the yellow wire on the volume pot will most likely be soldered to two other wires from the other pickups,

Like so..



You need to unsolder all of them and then re-solder the other two wires back, they should be red and blue.

Once all this is done you can remove the stock pick up by unscrewing it from the pickguard.



Now you’re ready to get started on the new pickup, in this case it’s a JB Jnr.

Like so.



Now, within that small black wire, are 5 even smaller wires:eek:, which is why you should probably have the correct wire strippers, I didn’t, I just had a blade and stripped them as such.

First you want to strip the black wire to reveal the 5 smaller wires, if you have wire strippers, great, this won’t be a problem, just give yourself enough slack so as to allow the smaller wires to reach where they need to go, but be carefull, if you’re careless you may accidentally cut one of the small wires and leave yourself with not enough length to reach it’s destination, not good.

Ok, so now you have the 5 wires revealed, red, white, black, green and bare wire.

First off, you solder the red and white wires together, so strip a small amount of the wire, approx 3-6mm, if you’re using a blade then this takes a bit of patience and a steady hand, as these are very small wires!!

When done, either have a helper on hand to hold these wires together for soldering, or clamp them down somehow. When soldering, place the iron onto the end of the wires and push the solder into the iron to form a ‘blob’ around the wires, this only needs a second to dry enough to keep them in place so your helper stand there looking like a dumbass. Once this is done then that is this part complete, these wires don’t need to go anywhere else.

Now, onto the green and bare wires, strip the green wire like the wires previously (bare wire obviously doesn’t need to be stripped!). These wires are to be grounded.

Get your helper monkey to hold these wires onto the volume pot where you will solder them, and repeat the previous process of solderingJ

Nearly there!

Now onto the last part, the black wire. This is to be connected to the switch, there will only be one place to connect it, the place where you Unsoldered the white wire from the previous pickup!

So strip the black wire like the others, and place through the hole of the switch thingy, and bend the wire around to keep it in place (no helper monkey required). Solder like before to keep it permanently in place.

Once done you’re home free!!! Yaaay!!

I have circled all the wires and where they should be, as you can see my soldering ain't pretty but it works.



All that’s left to do is to screw your new pick up in place (this could have been done before any soldering took place, your decision) and reconnect the ground wires to volume pot and reconnect the hot wire from the jack.

Maybe have some tape or something on hand to neatly place all the wires together, as you may have some trouble getting the pick guard on with wires hanging out!!

Now screw on your pickguard, restring and enjoy.. The moment you play a note and hear it is the sweetest part.. It works!! Heh



Be carefull when putting the pickup through the pickguard, it’s a tight fit and I tore away some of the material around the pick up.

Johnny Storm

You the man. Personally I'd be too scared to do that.

PS if you made your last photo a little bit narrower your whole post would be easier to read.

LundiMardi

Johnny Storm wrote:

You the man. Personally I'd be too scared to do that.

PS if you made your last photo a little bit narrower your whole post would be easier to read.

done

Johnny Storm

I should have asked in the first place: how does it sound?

LundiMardi

well, i haven't been able to play it through my ENGL yet, but through amplitube it does sound class, especially the cleans, really adds balls to it!! , distortion isn't as noticeable but i reckon the engl will show me how it really sounds..

The output is incredibly high though!!

Rustar

Spiffy job, LM!

LundiMardi

ta

Kenny_D

I keep forgetting I have amplitube with my Pro Tools. Never plugged my electric into it. Does your output sound come through a set of studio monitors?

LundiMardi

indeed it does, a pair of Genelec 1029a's;)

Anything played through windows media comes through the monitors, anything else i need regular pc speakers:(

Beecher

Great job on your strat man! Maybe you can help me out here, im about to install my first set of pickups myself (well actually 3 sets of pickups, hence im doin it myself, would cost a fortune in the shops), when soldering the wires to the selector switch/vol tone knobs/output does the cable need to make physical contact with it or will the signal be carried through the solder (i.e do I need to remove all the old solder or can I just solder the cable into it?)

LundiMardi

the signal will be carried through the solder