Project Guitar :: Replacing Stratocaster Pickups

My thoughts on this is to try and keep this as simple as possible and fun at the same time... I'm not perfect and possibly might miss something and you may have other ways of doing this. Let me assure you that I've done this several times for myself and professionally for money! LOL I've been playing Strat's since the early 70's..

Plan ahead and make sure you have everything you need before diving in!

Tools you'll need..... Some I may forget.. ;o)	100 watt soldering gun (Pot ground soldering)
	Phillips screwdriver 20 to 30 watt soldering iron (Solder,tip cleaner) Anything you can use to protect your guitar's finish Wire cutters/strippers Heat sink Solder sucker or wick solder remover Electrical tape Plastic wire ties *** Patience

OK here we go....... After the strings are removed.....

Disassembly

1 Remove all screws from the pickguard and remove the pickguard. Put a towel between the guard and the body of the guitar for protection.

2 Allowing for some wire slack, place the pickguard flat onto the towel with the bottom of the guard facing up...

Unsolder the following wires.... Ground lead from the output jack at the volume pot (black), Tremolo claw ground wire at the bridge ground... Hot lead from output jack (red) to center terminal of the volume pot.. You can remove the output jack and unsolder the hot and ground wires right at the jack if you want, but you'll end up having to unsolder the ground wires later anyway? Remove the pickguard and put your Strat somewhere else and away from flying solder etc.

3 Mark the location of where the unsoldered wires were removed from. Mark the positions of all 3 pickup hot leads to the 3 or 5 way switch (Left side of the switch in the Diagram A).

4 Unsolder all 3 pickup grounds from the volume pot.

5 Unsolder all 3 pickup hot leads from the switch and note their locations... If you are going to replace the switch do that now and just leave the 3 pickup hot leads off the new switch and stand them up..

6 Unscrew the neck pickup from the pickguard, followed by the middle and bridge pickups. Lift all 3 pickups up and out of the way of the guard and leave all wires taped and attached...

Reassemble

1 Install the new neck pickup into the pickguard.... If you are using the springs instead of the yellow tubing. Install the springs with the wide side to the pickup. The springs go between the pickup and the guard. Install the pickup screws in far enough to allow up and down height adjustments.... Do this for the 2 remaining pickups..

2 Look at Diagram B (below) and route the ground and hot wires for the 3 pickups to look like the drawing. Don't cut any wire lengths yet!

3 Refer to Diagram A (above) again. Route your pickup hot wire lengths over to the switch and cut them.
Solder the bridge pickup hot lead to bridge terminal "A"
Solder the middle pickup hot lead to terminal "B"
Solder the neck pickup hot lead to terminal "C"

Make it all look neat and professional !!!!!!!

NOTE.... If you are using a RWRP (Reverse Wound Reverse Polarity) middle pickup, refer to the pickup directions as you'll now be soldering opposite wire colors to ground and the switch compared to the bridge and neck wires.... Fender Fat 50's have a RWRP pickup as an example.... RWRP middle pickups allow you to be noise free in positions 2 and 4...

NOTE AGAIN.. If you want bridge and bridge/middle tone control.... Solder a jumper wire on your switch from terminal 3 to terminal 2 (The blank terminal)

4 Adjust and cut your wire lengths for the 3 pickup grounds to the volume pot.... All grounds terminate to the volume pot(See drawing B) I Like to solder the 3 pickup grounds to one place on the volume pot and then solder the other grounds (bridge,claw,output jack) to other points on the volume pot.. Just make sure to get a nice puddle of shiny solder and a good connection... First sand the back of the pot, heat the pot, lay a puddle of solder and lay the wires into the pool of solder...

Good connections from the start will save you much grief later on as most problems end up being related to wrong connections or crappie soldered connections... Double check all work as you go!

5 After both the pickup ground and hot wires are all soldered neatly,Electrical tape or use very small plastic wire ties and wrap the pickup wires together... Wrap in between the neck and middle pickups, middle and bridge and in between the bridge pickup and the switch.. Make it look like Diagram "B" Neat and Professional... ;o)

6 Grab your Strat and have that towel on the body again.... Solder the claw ground, the output jack ground, and any remaining ground leads to the volume pot.

7 Solder the hot lead from the output jack to the center terminal of the volume pot... Reinstall the pickguard being careful that all wires clear,especially around the bridge pick and the area under the switch and pots. You want the guard to sit nice and flat w/out forcing anything or you'll warp your pickguard.. Pickup Heights (from Mr. Gearhead site)

Set too high, pickups can cause a myriad of inexplicable phenomena. Depress all of the strings at the last fret. Using 6" ruler, measure the distance from the bottom of the 1st and 6th strings to top of the pole piece. Rule of thumb-the distance should be greatest at the 6th string - neck pickup position, and closest at the 1st string - bridge pickup position. Follow the measurement guidelines from the chart as starting points. The distance will vary according to the amount of magnetic pull of the pickup. Pickup Bass Side Treble Side
Texas Specials 8/64" 6/64"
Vintage style 6/64" 5/64"
Noiseless™ Series 8/64" 6/64"
Standard Single-Coil 5/64" 4/64"
Humbuckers 4/64" 4/64"
Lace Sensors As close as desired (allowing for string vibration)

.....Install is complete.... Let's talk about a couple of other things.....

Capacitors.... Fender started out using a .1 value tone cap which is very dark as you roll down your tone control... Later into the 60's Fender changed to a .05 which is still dark for my single coil tastes. The current standard tone cap value is .022 and I find this value to work best overall as it's not too bright and not too dark.... Vintage reissue Strat's and custom shop relics etc. still have the .1 values. Experiment?

Pots (Potentiometers)..... 250K is the standard single coil value used.. This value allows for the fullest tone and seems to roll more high end off of an otherwise harsh,bright,shrill tone.. The 500k works also but it makes the pickups too bright and like I mentioned above. It does give you more overall adjustment range though... Stick with the 250k though. A real good pot today is the Fender CTS 250K audio.. Dual Tone Caps...... Some guys like myself like to use 2 separate tone caps for each tone pot.... I like to use a .01 for the neck pot and a .022 for the bridge and bridge middle position.... Please refer to Diagram "C" for this option...

Hope this takes some of the fright out of replacing pickups in your Strat