How to Install Seymour Duncan SH-6n Distortion Blk Pickups

If you love your guitar but you just cannot seem to get the proper distortion out of it, it may be time to change the pickups. And if you are changing the pickups, you may as well use some of the best in Seymour Duncan. The SH-6n humbucker can come with or without a metal cover plate, and by following this guide you should have your new pickups in place and ready to shred in no time.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Guitar
• New pickup(s)
• Screwdriver
• Soldering iron
• Soldering wire
• New strings

Out with the Old Humbucker and In with the New

1. 
    

   Remove your old strings. Unscrew the back plate on the guitar and remove the cover. Warm up your soldering iron while you get to know the wiring.

2. Carefully observe the wiring that is in place. The SH-6n is meant to replace the humbucker closest to the neck. There should be one hot cable connected to the volume knob and one connected to the ground on the volume knob. This second ground should also have a wire in the same spot. When your iron is ready, touch the soldering iron to melt the existing solder to remove these two cables.

3. Unscrew your humbucker and remove it from the body. Look over the SH-6n pickup. It should have three wires connected: a green, a red/white and a black. Strip a small amount of shielding from the green and black wires. The red/white wire is not used.

4. Place the humbucker in the cavity left from the old one. Solder the green wire to the top of the volume knob where the old hot wire was. Connect the black ground wire to the bottom of the volume knob. Be sure you did not unsolder the series wire that connects it to the tone knob. If you did, simply solder both wires in place together.

5. Screw the humbucker in place. Before you restring your guitar, test to make sure the humbucker is working. Plug your guitar into your amp and tap on the humbucker. If sound is coming through the amp, you hooked it up right. If not, unsolder the wires, strip them a little more and resolder them.

6. Screw the back plate back on the guitar and restring it once you have verified your connections. After you have restrung, set the height of the new humbucker. Test the distance by pressing the highest fret on the guitar and observe the distance between the strings and the pickups. There should be no more than 1/8-inch distance and no less than around 1/16 inch. After this is adjusted, you are ready to rock.

Tips & Warnings

• You can install the SH-6 in pairs, but try using a different sound for your other humbucker. If you don't already have one, install a five-way switch to get a range of sounds from your guitar.
• If you have never soldered before, practice with some spare wire. Make sure you have electronic-grade solder, which is lead free.

Resources

• Discount Seymour Duncan Pickups