How to Install a Gibson Guitar Pickup
Guitar pickups are magnetic devices designed to pick up the signal from strings on an electric guitar and send them to an amplifier, which then increases the single, allowing it to be amplified. Gibson, an innovator in pickup design, as well as guitar manufacturing, introduced the humbucking pickup in 1957, in many cases, replacing the previous P90 single-coil pickup design. Humbuckers are designed to eliminate the noise common to single-coil pickups. Installing Gibson pickups, whether humbuckers, or P90s, is a straightforward process; one that, when finished, can improve the sound of your electric guitar.
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Things You'll Need
- Gibson pickups
- Small Phillips screwdriver
- Soldering iron
- Solder
- Wire stripper
- Clean towel
- Electrical tape (optional)
Instructions
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1
Remove the guitar strings. Loosen the strings by turning the tuning pegs, located on the headstock, until they can be removed from the pegs. When loosened completely, pull the strings off the guitar at the bridge.
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2
Lay a clean towel on your work surface and place the guitar face down on the towel.Remove the guitar's back plate by unscrewing the screws holding the plate to the guitar.
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3
Heat the soldering iron to remove the old pickup wires from the potentiometer. Place the soldering iron onto the potentiometer soldered connections, heating the solder holding the old wires in place, allowing you to cleanly remove the pickup wires. Make a note as to which wire goes where.
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4
Flip the guitar over and unscrew the bezel surrounding the pickup, holding it in place. Once removed, lift the pickup, turn it over and remove the two screws holding the pickup to the bezel. When the pickup is free from the bezel, gently pull the wires until the pickup is removed from the guitar.
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5
Thread the new pickup wire into the guitar. The guitar cavity has channels cut into the wood for the pickup wire, slide the wire through until they are exposed inside the back cavity. When the wires are inside the cavity, peel back the mesh, revealing the wires inside. When the wires are exposed, strip the ends of the red and black wires by 1/8-inch, using a wire stripper. The red wire is the hot lead, while the ground is black.
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6
Heat the soldering iron. When the iron is hot, tin both wires by heating the exposed wires, placing solder on them while hot. This melts a little solder to them, increasing the conductivity of the wire. Do this on all pickup wires being installed.
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7
Solder the hot-lead wire to the potentiometer. For each pickup being installed, insert the hot lead (red) wire into the hole found on the lower right-hand potentiometer connector. This is the terminal from which the old wire was removed. Once inside, apply the soldering iron and solder to the wire, melting a drop of solder to the terminal.
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8
Solder the ground to the potentiometer's back plate. Heat the soldering iron and melt a drop of solder on the back of the potentiometer. Immediately take the ground (black) wire and hold the end to the solder until it cools. When both pickup wires are completely cool, give them a slight tug to make sure they are well-connected.
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Screw the back cover in place, flip the guitar over and fasten the new pickup in place by screwing it to the bezel, then screwing the bezel to the guitar body. Restring the guitar, plug it in and put your new pickup to the test.
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Tips & Warnings
Some Gibson pickups have four wires, instead of two. The extra wires, normally green and white, are for a coil-splitting function, which, with the flick of a switch, converts a humbucking pickup into a single-coil pickup and is a feature found on some Gibsons. These extra wires do not have to be hooked up and can be soldered together, wrapped with electrical tape and stowed in the guitar cavity.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Polka Dot RF/Polka Dot/Getty Images
