Guitar Pickups Question

Whiskeyjack

I have a ssh pickup configuration on my guitar with a 5- way selector switch and I'm looking at replacing the pickups. My question is do I need to get a particular type of humbucker for this configuration or will any gibson style one do?

Banjo

ideally you need to look at the output of the other 2 pups - you don't want your bridge pickup to completely drown them out when you switch to it, though there's no harm in it being able to assert itself.

Are you changing all the pups or just the bridge? If all, what are you getting in the neck and middle? If just the bridge, what's currently in there and what were you looking at?

In terms of form factor, any humbucker should fit. Or a P90 in a humbucker form-factor, for that matter. But what do you want this pickup to do?

Whiskeyjack

Banjo wrote: »

ideally you need to look at the output of the other 2 pups - you don't want your bridge pickup to completely drown them out when you switch to it, though there's no harm in it being able to assert itself.

Are you changing all the pups or just the bridge? If all, what are you getting in the neck and middle? If just the bridge, what's currently in there and what were you looking at?

In terms of form factor, any humbucker should fit. Or a P90 in a humbucker form-factor, for that matter. But what do you want this pickup to do?

I'm changing all of them, I just wanted to know if I needed a humbucker with a particular wiring to fit my guitar. I'd like to go for a humbucker sized p-90 but I find there isn't much choice out there.

Banjo

A humbucker will have 2 or 4 wires coming out of it (or 3... but let's not get ahead of ourselves!). In terms of hooking it up, it's not much different to a single coil (except that the extra 2 wires on a 4 wire config can be used to play with phase, coil tapping etc. etc. but you can tape 'em off) and if you copy what you already have on your existing setup you can't really go wrong... just check the manufacturers site, make sure you know which wire is which on the old and new pups, as different manufacturers have different colour schemes.

Have you taken off the pick-guard and looked at the wiring underneath? If not, maybe do that or have a look at this before you buy anything. http://www.axeblaster.com/Wiring/MexicanHSS/MexiHSS2.jpg
See all the solder? You will be expected to remove it, then redo it for the new pups. If your pants are no longer as clean as they were at the start of this paragraph, get a professional to do the install, it's worth it.

Demeyes

You should be able to put any humbucker in there. The main difference in humbucker sizes that I see are F spaced and normal but that's not even really that important.

Whiskeyjack

Demeyes wrote: »

You should be able to put any humbucker in there. The main difference in humbucker sizes that I see are F spaced and normal but that's not even really that important.

Really? Because I have my eye on a humbucker-sized single coil but the spacing is 2 inches, whereas on my guitar the spacing is F-spaced. Would it still be a good ide to put this pickup in?

Banjo

If you can get the spec of your desired pickup, specifically the relative positions of the pole pieces, compare that to the current position of the strings relative to the bridge rout, see where the strings are going to sit over the pole pieces in the HB you're looking at.

Manufacturers recommend that the outer strings should not fall completely outside the positions of the upper and lower pole pieces in the pup, but in practice the magnetic field from the pole piece does not extend in a uniform tight cylinder directly up from the top - the string should still pass through the field when plucked.

Personally I've never noticed a difference in sound/volume using a Gibson-spaced HB with Fender-spaced strings but on paper if the strings are sufficiently far from the outermost pole pieces it could result in a drop off in the signal from the E strings. Measure twice, cut once and all that.

nialldabass

Have a look at these, I have one of their Dogear p90's and its a great little pickup. same manufacturer as the GFS pickups all the american guitar builders rave about, they have them in a few differnt spacings as well

http://www.axesrus.com/axeP90s.htm

Great company to deal with aswell

1273seant

hi-i have a humbucker that was in a tele bridge -thier is one wire comintg out ot it ,which is then split into two one insulated and the other not-if connecting to pots i think the insulated is the hot and connected to the volume pot and the other the ground how do this work with the selector switch if thier is no wire connected to it---any help please

nialldabass

1273seant wrote: »

hi-i have a humbucker that was in a tele bridge -thier is one wire comintg out ot it ,which is then split into two one insulated and the other not-if connecting to pots i think the insulated is the hot and connected to the volume pot and the other the ground how do this work with the selector switch if thier is no wire connected to it---any help please

That all depends on what your setup is , check out this site and try and find the nearest ie 2 pickup 1vol, 1 tone or three pickup 1 vol 2 tone. etc

www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/