How to Wire a Lace Hemi Humbucker

Lace Hemi humbucking pickups are a good choice for guitarists seeking a "vintage" tone for blues, jazz or classic rock. The wiring is straightforward and should be moderately easy for anyone who has experience with electric guitar wiring. The instructions in this how-to cover the wiring for a single humbucking pickup in either a double pickup Les-Paul style guitar or a triple pickup Stratocaster style arrangement, and assumes that you have already disconnected and removed the old pickup.

Things You'll Need

• Lace Hemi humbucking pickup
• Soldering iron
• Rosin core solder
• Electrical tape

Instructions

1. Feed the wires through the hole in the pickup cavity into the control cavity. For guitars with top routing (e.g., Stratocasters) this step is unnecessary.

2. Strip 1/4 inch insulation from the ends of the both the orange and black striped wire and the white wire.

3. 

   Twist the exposed ends together and solder to secure the connection. To solder a connection, heat the soldering iron to the point where it will easily melt the solder. Hold a length of solder six to 10 inches long directly over the connection. Touch the iron to the solder and apply a thin coating of the solder over the connection. Remove the iron and allow the connection to cool slightly before attempting to move it.

4. Apply electrical tape to the connection to insulate.

5. Strip 1/4 inch insulation from the ends of the both the white and black striped wire and the green wire.

6. Solder the ends of both the black and white striped and green wires -- and the ground wire which required disconnection during removal of the old pickup -- to the bottom casing of the volume pot.

7. Strip 1/4 inch insulation from the orange wire.

8. Connect the end of the orange wire to the leftmost tab, as seen from the bottom with the tabs facing toward you, on the volume pot. If in doubt, it will be the one connected to the capacitor running to the tone pot.

9. When you are done, gently tug on all wires, applying just enough tension to ensure that all connections are secure.

10. Install the pickup and replace all plastic cavity covers.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are replacing both the neck and bridge pickup and have already disconnected both, be sure you are connecting the new pickups to the correct set of controls.

• Make sure that the instrument is disconnected from any power source before performing service on any electrical components.

References

• Soldering Tutorial