How to Replace a Pickup - Beginner Guitar Mods #1 

Right there with you 😂😂

Same 😭

That’d be perfect! She’s a great teacher and I’d love to send a video like that to my friends (a video longer than ten minutes can feel a bit suffocating when you’re new :p)

Came here to mention that last bit: Take pictures before you start! Or even take them along the way, too. Makes it easy to "rollback" any changes that don't work out. Also, in terms of fixing mistakes, beginners can keep in mind that working on guitar electronics is the easiest thing to fix. There are very few things you can do to your wiring that aren't reversible (mostly to do with not messing up the leads near where they're attached to the pickups themselves). There's a sense of security knowing that if your DIY attempt doesn't work out, taking it to a tech can make it all better! :)

Definitely better than some I have worked and/or trained with.

Love alligator clips for testing! I’ve definitely tried out some mods with clips and forgot they were in the guitar for months haha

That’s a really great point thanks for catching it! I haven’t run across phase issues yet with covered pickups nor braided leads, but I’ll definitely keep this in mind going forward!

Definitely keeping the pickups! If the owner didn’t already want different pickups in it, I absolutely would’ve left it stock!

@@nisebelle solid choice!

Thanks so much for the note! I'll slow down my delivery in the next tutorial. I haven't checked out A-Sharp Music yet, but I'll definitely stop by next time I'm in the area!

Hey! Depending on the manufacturer, often times they’ll mark which one is which either with a colored dot, a label, or by the wire color (refer to the wiring diagram to check this). If not, you can use a multimeter to check the DC resistance of the pickups. Generally speaking, the neck pickup is often wound to have a lower resistance value than the bridge pickup. Hope this helps!

@@nisebelle Thank you so much!!

I’ve found that some guitars do and some don’t depending on pickups, pickup type, control plates, etc. in general, if a guitar has a distractingly loud noise floor on a clean channel with no pedals, then I’ll typically shield it.

@@nisebelle thanks for the tip one more question, tape or paint which is better for the cavity and the control plate. Thanks again.

@@tonycastaneda3051 Unless the pickups are ridiculously noisy, it isn't really needed. You can also use aluminum tape over copper to save money. Copper blocks more frequencies than aluminum, but I am not convinced those extra frequencies are relevant with guitars. I still add it when asked, or in new builds since it doesn't take long and people will fight to the death to defend their placebos. While the idea is to treat it like a faraday cage, the circuit is never fully contained, which a faraday cage has to be in order to be effective. If/when you do go for the foil tape, check gardening sections of hardware stores. Order it for guitar and you'll pay twice as much as you will if you buy it from a garden center where copper foil tape is sold to help keep snails out of garden beds. Exact same stuff, only with a different label and lower price tag. I've also seen people use spray adhesive and heavy duty foil like you'd bake or grill with. Just be sure the adhesive is conductive. Paint is easy, but most of the conductive recommend three to five coats, each one needing 24 hours of drying time between them, and on top of that the paint can expire if not used. The tape doesn't have such issues.