How to Change the Humbucker in a Guitar

Swapping pickups is common with guitarists.

Just about every serious guitarist wants to customize her instrument to better fit her personality. Since the humbucker pickups on your guitar provide the power needed to make your guitar scream, changing them is often one of the first steps in guitar modification. Some people take their instruments to a repairperson to make the change. However, if you feel you can become comfortable with a soldering iron, you can replace a humbucker quickly without spending the extra cash to have a professional complete the installation.

Things You'll Need

• Screwdriver
• Soldering iron
• Electrical tape

Instructions

1. Remove the strings from the guitar, and discard them. Always use new set of strings instead of trying to salvage an old set.

2. Remove the control cavity cover located on the back of the guitar.

3. Locate the wires extending from the guitar pickup. They go through the body of the guitar and solder to the controls inside the guitar’s control cavity.

4. Make a diagram of where each wire solders so you know how to solder the replacement pickup.

5. Heat the solder joint for each wire, then pull the wire off the solder lug on the control component.

6. Remove the four screws that secure the humbucker mounting ring to the face of the guitar. Keep the screws.

7. Turn the two screws that humbucker to the mounting ring counterclockwise with a screwdriver until the pickup comes off each screw. Place the springs and screws off to the side.

8. Place the pickup mounting ring onto the new pickup. Slide the screws though the top of the mounting ring, slide the springs onto the screws and then secure the pickup to the screws.

9. Slide the wire coming from the pickup into the hole in the pickup cavity on the face of the guitar, then feed the wire through the hole and into the control cavity.

10. Secure the pickup mounting ring to the face of the guitar with the original four screws.

11. Solder the white and red wires together with a soldering iron, then place electrical tape on them.

12. Solder the bare and green wires to the casing of the volume control.

13. Solder the black wire to the left lug on the volume control.

Tips & Warnings

• The colors might differ depending on the pickup brand you use. You will receive a paper with your pickup that tells you which wires to tape together, which wires to solder to ground and which wires to solder to the lug on the volume control.

References

• "Guitar Player Repair Guide"; Dan Erlewine; 1994
• Seymour Duncan: Guitar Wiring Circuit