Wide Range Humbuckers on a Strat ?

[DangerDave93]

Hi guys,

so I have never built a guitar before but I decided to give it ago. I bought some parts off eBay. Amongst the stuff were two Fender Wide Range Humbuckers (reissue) and a fully loaded HH scratch plate from a brand new Squier Contemporary.  

Will these two be compatible? Apart from widening the pickup holes and drilling two new wholes for mounting as the Wide Range Humbucker is 4 post mounted. Will it be as easy as unsoldering the Humbuckers off the plate and soldering the Wide Rang Humbuckers back in the same places?

I have no knowledge of any of this but I am excited to learn. I know these WR Humbuckers are second hand so I have to test them. This will involve a multimeter. Any tips on testing and soldering procedures would be appreciated.
 

Thanks  
 

[curtisa]

The info that's floating around out there seems to indicate that the reissue Fender Wide Range Humbuckers are nothing more than a regular humbucker installed into an oversized case. This differs from the original wide range humbucker in that the construction necessitated the larger case.

To that end I'd suggest treat them electrically as the standard humbuckers that they appear to be. Bog standard Strat components will work, but you may find that the tone is a little on the dark side, in which case you can exchange the volume and tone pots from 250K to 500K as used in most other humbucker-equipped instruments.

Of course, that's over and above the requirement to modify the scratchplate to fit the physically larger pickups (and possibly the pickup cavities in the guitar body too) that you've already noted.

[DangerDave93]

37 minutes ago, DangerDave93 said:

Thanks that’s really helpful. I will hopefully get it up and running and if it’s muddy I will follow the advice for the 500k pots. Do you have any knowledge of which watt soldering iron to buy? 
Also, is it worth putting copper tape in the cavities of the guitar and will I have to solder on to that also?

Cheers

[curtisa]

39 minutes ago, DangerDave93 said:

Do you have any knowledge of which watt soldering iron to buy? 

Something in the region of 25-40W should be plenty.

 

41 minutes ago, DangerDave93 said:

Also, is it worth putting copper tape in the cavities of the guitar

If you're only going to be installing humbuckers I'd suggest it probably isn't really necessary, but it doesn't hurt to do so if you're feeling up to it or if you're also installing single coil pickups. Shielded wire is more effective than shielding tape, so if you have the option of using that instead it would make more difference, although the wiring complexity and effort starts to become more significant.

 

42 minutes ago, DangerDave93 said:

will I have to solder on to that also

Generally it's easier to use something else that is already grounded to make the connection to the shielding tape, and rely on the constant contact that item has with the shielding to be grounded. For example, most people will solder their grounds to the case of one or several pots. The pot(s) would then be bolted on to the scratchplate, so any shielding applied to the rear of the scratchplate would then be grounded via the pot's case, saving you having to run a dedicated wire to the shielding. The scratchplate would then be screwed to the body, which in turn would make contact with any shielding tape or coating you may have applied to the cavity, automatically grounding that shielding and saving another dedicated wire. All you need to do is plan your shielding to always overlap at least one point where it will be guaranteed to be in contact when secured.