Swapping single coil enclosure easy?

I have a silver enclosed single coil pickup from CB Gitty. I'm wanting to switch to the gold one but would rather not rewire the whole pickup but merely swap the covers. Anyone do this? Easier than soldering the whole pickup?

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on October 15, 2018 at 7:11pm

Depends on how tight it is? Could be tricky, but not hard at all. if it's wax potted, it might take a little effort due to the stickiness of the wax.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on October 15, 2018 at 8:25pm

I have found that not all single coils are wax potted, the statocaster style ones I swap just fall out of their covers.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on October 15, 2018 at 8:33pm

Fender cleans up the excess wax, but most cheaper pickups don’t, so they get stuck on at some point. Sometimes you never know what you’re gonna get till you start taking things apart?

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on October 15, 2018 at 9:46pm

Hi, I'm talking cheap Chinese pickups, I have heaps of them for cheaper boxes, none are potted. The Fender sets I have are waxed, but not potted into their plastic covers. Maybe it's just certain models.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by Korrigan on October 16, 2018 at 12:44pm

I can't imagine that swapping covers between pickups would be easier than just swapping the pickups. You have to take the old pickup out to take the cover off anyway right? I'd rather just do a little soldering and not risk damaging the pickups.

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on October 16, 2018 at 4:06pm

I agree, I think his soldering skills aren’t as good as ours yet, Korrigan?

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Permalink Reply by Korrigan on October 17, 2018 at 12:09am

My soldering skills aren't great, but I am lazy. :D

I haven't seen the pickups in question but often metal covers are soldered to a base plate and grounded so you'd have to solder to remove them .

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on October 17, 2018 at 8:25am

Tele style pickups

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on October 20, 2018 at 6:33am

The Strat style pickups have mostly plastic covers that will be easily switched, but the Tele style metal covers are soldered and usually potted. Changing those covers can be difficult without damaging the coil. Not a job for people without good soldering skills and good mechanical skills.

Buy another pickup.