Humbucker in place of a sigle coil

[ArtNoisenik]

How simple is the replacement of a single coil with a humbucker? Is it just a matter of switching up the two pick ups or is there some special wiring/soddering I have to do for the humbucker?

[monkey96692000]

i think all you have to do is take the two single coils and make the humbuker and where the wires meet is just the same as the single coil. You can get info from peoples posts about making pickups. I did you can see mine. Right now its on the second electronics page.

[rabidmoose171]

Its slightly more than just changing em out just like that. The humbuckers have 5 wires, including the ground... Whilst single coils only have 2... you only have to hook up 2 of the buckers wires, unless you want to be able to have cool combinations, its pretty easy though. There are tons of schematics, anyone here will be glad to help you, and if all else fails you can take it to a shop and theyll do it for a small fee.

[lovekraft]

If you've got a 3 or 4-wire humbucker, refer to the maker's instructions, or check this page for wiring help. If you've only got 2 wires, just wire it in, as monkey96692000 said. If the pickup has its own volume pot, you might want to consider changing it to a 500K to decrease the HF loss, but it's not absolutely necessary, so unless it sounds dull or muffled you can leave it alone.

[Devon Headen]

I hate to state the obvious, but you're also probably gonna have to rout humbucker sized holes unless you get the HBs the size of SCs.

[Black Mariah]

Pickup swaps are mega-easy. Unless you have to rout new cavities, then it's a pain in the ass. Standard humbucker wiring echoes single coil wiring. You have a lead, you have a ground (two, actually), and everything else can be soldered together, taped up, and ignored. Manufacturers provide very clear instructions on how to wire pickups, so it really is an easy thing to do. Actually, as far as guitar mods go, I'd have to say this is the easiest. There's very little soldering to be done, there's not any routing (unless you want to), and you can do it in under an hour.

[Southpa]

How simple is the replacement of a single coil with a humbucker? Is it just a matter of switching up the two pick ups or is there some special wiring/soddering I have to do for the humbucker?

It depends on what guitar you are wiring. Strats would require modifying or replacing the pickguard. The 80's and 90's American Standards have the "swimming pool" rout for pickup cavities, so no need to cut the body. There is also the option of using a "stacked" humbucker, thats the single coil size mentioned earlier.