How To Change Pickups In A Hollow Body Electric?

[ronka]

Does anyone have any sure-fire hints on pulling the electronics through a hollow body electric (mine is Epi ES-295), then changing the pickups, and pulling all the pots and the output jack back through to their holes?

Also,- am I supposed to try to bring all the wiring through ONE of the pickup holes, or bring the bridge pickup pots through just its hole, and the neck pickup pots through the neck pickup hole?

[sirkentesquire]

It sounds like you get the idea. Take the pickups off, take off the knobs and undo the nuts on the controls, pull everything out the pickup holes, and where they are connected just pull the wire out the hole enough to unsolder what needs to be unsoldered. To install new ones, do this in reverse. Oh, and I would use a marker and mark the tops of the pots when you put them back in so that you know the right one is poking through the right hole. Is that a sure-fire hint?

[Mickguard]

Does anyone have any sure-fire hints on pulling the electronics through a hollow body electric (mine is Epi ES-295), then changing the pickups, and pulling all the pots and the output jack back through to their holes?

Also,- am I supposed to try to bring all the wiring through ONE of the pickup holes, or bring the bridge pickup pots through just its hole, and the neck pickup pots through the neck pickup hole?

←

Wait, are you changing just the pickups or the entire assembly?

If it's just the pickups, why not go easy on yourself? (Caution, what follows may make some purists crings)--

Just cut the wires and solder the new pickups to the old wires. (ducks while people throw cans at his head)

That way you don't have to fuss with the pots. On my Samick I cut the wires round about the middle of the f-hole --that way I could do the soldering near the end, pulling enough wire out of the body so that I didn't risk marring the finish (make sure you cover the guitar anyway). Once the wires are soldered together, I wrap them with electrical tape, just in case. One of these days I'll get some of that shrinkable tubing, that'd be neater.

This method also leaves enough wire on the existing pickups so I could sell them on and the buyer wouldn't have to worry about adding wire.

On my Samick Royale I didn't really have a choice--I don't know how they got the assembly in there in the first place, the wires are wrapped together somehow. No way to pull them out again.

There's another way that I've seen done: cut a panel out of the back of the guitar. But yeah that's a bit more work....

[ronka]

I see, but any recomendations on how to get the output jack back to its hole?

Also, any particular type of string or wire to wrap around the pots?

Anything anyone's tried and didn't work; so I would know what to avoid?

In this case I won't be able to cut the pickup wires, as I'm returning/exchanging the pickups that I'm taking out.

Edited March 13, 2005 by ronka

[unclej]

this might seem like a bit of a pain but i keep a spool of monofilament fishing line on my work bench. before i push a control pot into the guitar to remove it i'll tie a 2' lenght to the stem. when i pull it out of the pup hole the line comes with it. untie it, replace the pot, tie the string to the new one and pull the string until the pot comes back to the original hole.

for output jacks i took all of the insulation off of a cord tip and tied line to it. plug it into the jack and push it into the guitar. fish it out, replace it, plug the tip in and pull it back through.

[ronka]

Thanks uncleJ!

This might seem picky, but what kind of a knot or how do you tighten the line around the shaft so it basically doesn't slip off the loop of fishing line when youre pulling the pots through?

[unclej]

i actually use a double half hitch with and extra granny. seriously. if you know knots it won't slip and gets tighter when you pull on it. if you don't know knots just google "double half hitch" it and there'll be a site somewhere showing pictures of it. you're really not putting a lot of pressure on the knot so having it slip off isn't usually a problem.