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You will be dealing with boiling water and extremely hot wax so use caution Water spilled into hot wax can react violently - ensure the two cannot mix Molten wax is highly flammable - remove all sources of ignition Molten wax causes severe burns - wear hand and eye protection, cover all exposed skin Start out bringing a half to two thirds of a pot of water to just barely boiling. Whilst waiting on the water to start boiling, grab a empty soda can and take the lid off (if you use a standard can opener it takes a few turns but will eventually come off). Cube 1/2lb (~227g) of paraffin wax and fill as much of it as possible into the can. Once your water has come to a boil, turn off the heat. Grab your can and hold it in an upright position in the middle so it doesn't tip over and watch the wax melt (keep adding the left over pieces as space permits). Try to add beeswax once your original 1/2 lb. of wax has melted. I used a candle made from pure beeswax which allows the wax to stay pliable much longer. Paraffin wax starts to melt around 100°F (37°C) and beeswax higher at 150°F (65°C). A digital meat thermometer works great to monitor the wax temperature. Aim for a little over 150°F (65°C) to allow the beeswax to melt properly and blend with the paraffin wax, however stick below 176°F (80°C) simply out of safety. Anything higher, carefully lift the can up out of the water. It will take a long time for the wax to drop down fifty degrees and harden back up so no need to rush anything. Wrap your pickup with a rubber band to keep the bobbin tape and its adhesive from coming undone. I am doing this to a pair of new pickups so the bobbin tape adhesive holds up really well. Start dipping in the wax and tap it on the bottom a couple of times to release any bubbles. The pickup can sit there for a couple of minutes to let the wax penetrate the windings and displace any air pockets. Raise your pickup out of the wax and dip it again to build up a nice heavy outside coat of wax. While the pickup is cooling, check the wax temperature. If it has dropped significantly below 150°F, carefully remove the can and place it well out of the way. Heat the water for a minute. Turn off the heat, replace the can carefully and monitor the wax temperature until it stabilises. Grab any other pickups you may need to be potting and repeat the process. After a pickup has cooled off a bit (about 3-5 minutes) it is safe to take off the rubber band and go for a couple of more quick dips! You can do this in the same session, or let the wax fully harden off and do it some other time. A second dip is always good. Here's a tip for later that only costs a buck or less, grab a cheap plastic ice cube tray and place it on top of some cool water in a bake pan. Using tongs or pliers pour your extra wax in the tray and let it cool so you can reuse later on when you need to pot more pickups. Be super careful not to accidentally spill hot wax into the water! Now that your pickups have cooled off (about 4-8 minutes) You can start cleaning off the top, I just use my fingernail because I really don't want to scratch the surface. Cleaning the tops with tough paper towels will take care of the rest of the wax buildup and buff the surface - you're good to go! All nice and freshly potted with a thin coat of protection. Don't forget to wrap your wax after it cools since you do not want any contaminants getting in there during storage!

Special thanks go out to Sondra (my betrothed/candlemaking guru), Gabe Nickelson, pri0531 and Sebastian from the forum over at jemsite.com, for pointing me in the right direction. WARNING – WAX IS EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS NEAR AN OPEN FLAME - MOLTEN WAX IS HIGHLY FLAMMABLE DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK - BE INFORMED, SAFE AND WORK RESPONSIBLY Tools required to pot pickups: A double boiler (I used a large metal measuring cup place inside the boiler)Electric stove top or hot plate (open flame is a no-no)Candle making or candy thermometerRubber bandsPliers or tongsBeeswaxCanning waxPaper towels Remove your pickup(s) from your guitar. Wrap a few rubber bands around your pickup to hold the bobbin tape together while its being dipped. The glue or whatever holding the tape can melt and make a HUGE mess (or so I’m told).Fill the double boiler about halfway with water. Place the inside part of your double boiler into the water.If needed, break up the wax into small cubes. Use your judgment on the amount of wax to use I needed a pound and a half to provide enough liquid to completely submerge my pickup. And when it was all over I had quite a bit of wax left over. StewMac recommends a wax mixture of 20% beeswax and 80% canning wax. Mine was more 50/50.SLOWLY turn the heat on the stove and attach the thermometer to the inside of the smaller pot.Stir the mixture around until it’s a consistent liquid. DO NOT LET THE MIXTURE GET MUCH PAST 150°F/65°C – The wax melts at 148°F degrees so that’s as hot as you need it to be.Use the tongs to hold your pickup – BE careful WAX IS HOT – (duh). And dip it into the mixture. Wiggle it around until there are no more visible air bubbles. Repeat this every 5 minutes or so to make completely sure you're getting full saturation (sounds like an ad for Peavey).After about 20 minutes you should be good to go. Remove the pickup from the wax and place it on a paper towel to cool. Wipe off the excess wax.After a few minutes when the wax looks like its almost completely cooled remove the rubber bands.Let cool for another couple of hours. Put the pickup back in your guitar and Whola!!

The Problem More often than not, I work with a mix of old pickups on a single guitar and no two color codes ever seem to be alike from one pickup to the next. Given a pickup with an unknown color code for the wires, there are many ways to solder it in the guitar wrong and only one way to get it right. This is a technique that I use to figure out the color code for any pickup, and to make sure that I get all the pickups installed in-phase. What you will need: A pickup to testA metal screwdriverA pencil and paper to take notesA voltmeterAlligator clips The Solution The first thing I do is draw a simple picture of the pickup as it would be in the guitar. I draw two coils and note where the bridge is and where the neck is. That may seem silly, but it helps me to visualize what I'm doing. This also is a big help later for when I actually install the pickup in the guitar. With the alligator clip leads, I connect the voltmeter to two wires on the pickup. For this pickup I have a bare ground wire, plus Blue, Red, White, and Black. Just as a guess I tried Red and Blue first. The voltmeter is set to read VDC (Volts DC). To test each coil, tap the long side of a metal screwdriver all along the magnets on the top of one coil. Give it one good tap and watch the voltmeter. The Red and Blue wires didn't show any reading on the meter when I tapped either of the coils. This means that those two wires do not go together. I tried the Red and Black wires next. Now, when I tap the coil closest to the bridge, I get a positive reading. When I pull the screwdriver off, I get a negative reading. This tells me that I have the Red and Black wires in-phase for that coil. I make a note on my drawing. I know that the White and Blue wires are for the other coil, but I do not know what the correct phase is. I alligator clip the probes to the White and Blue wires and tap the coil closest to the neck now. When I tap the coil with the screwdriver, I get a negative reading on the voltmeter. When I pull the screwdriver off the coil, I get a positive reading. This tells me that I have the coil is hooked up out-of-phase. I just flip the colors and put that on my notes. Now that I have this pickup drawn out on paper, I know how to connect it for series or parallel, or hook it up to a switch. But that is another whole topic....