Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 28, 2021 at 9:05am

These come apart easy, but you always want to go slow and easy when taking a pickup apart because the wires are delicate and easy to break. Also voids any warranty or replacement from the seller.
Flip the pickup over to see the bottom. It has wires coming out on one side and 2 nuts holding the mounting plate to the pickup. one of the wires is bare and short with a small connector on it that goes under the nut closest to the wires.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 28, 2021 at 9:16am

Unscrew the 2 nuts(6mm/7/32") and set aside. The short bare wire's eyelet won't pass through the hole in the plate, you have to carefully fold the ring of the eyelet to pass through. Pull the insulated wires through the hole first and then the bare wire with eyelet.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 28, 2021 at 9:25am

Then you gently slide the cover tube off the non-wire side first and  gently pull the coil assembly out of the other side. It will not come all the way out because of the eyelet, but far enough to do what you need to do. This coil is basically half of a dual rail humbucker for a Strat or Tele. It has a bobbin coil with the bar magnet in the middle of the bobbin like a Firebird pickup is made. The side where the magnet is flat with the bobbin is the bottom screw mount side and the side with magnet protruding out is the top.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 28, 2021 at 9:31am

Next, you place the coil face down on a hard surface with the protruding magnet side down. Gently push the coil bobbin downwards with as much equal force on all sides forcing the magnet to be flush with the bobbin on the bottom side and protrude out of the top.

One side of the magnet has a bit of white paint and was on the bottom, now it will be on top.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 28, 2021 at 9:48am

Next step is to gently turn the coil 180 degrees and push back into the tube(new bottom flat side towards the screws) while guiding the wire through the hole in that tube. Push the other side tube on. Feed the bare eyelet and insulated wire through the baseplate. Note that the baseplate has 2 ridges that face the tube and flat on bottom side. open the bent eyelet without damaging it and put on screw. Attach nuts without over torquing them.

Then recheck with Compass. It should read opposite of what it did before and recheck the coil wires to insure the coil wasn't damaged. Success, With wiring it up White hot & Red ground, this pickup will be RWRP and hum-cancelling/humbucking when played with another pickup.

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Permalink Reply by Southern Ray on May 2, 2021 at 6:06am

 Very cool, Paul!

Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on May 3, 2021 at 11:43am

Not everyone needs to do this, but if they do need it they'll have a visual and read out to make it happen.
I plan to show how to convert a dual rail minibucker into a real Firebird soon and how to wax pot pickups too.

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Permalink Reply by Southern Ray on May 3, 2021 at 2:49pm

 I enjoyed this thread and am looking forward to both of those others. Rather timely with the wax potting especially.. Going to be winding some hotter pickups soon and will probably have to start using the wax.

 Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on May 5, 2021 at 5:12am

I have a small Crock Pot for Potpourri I plan on using to dip the pickups. Also thought about dipping the pickups in varnish like Gibson and Fender did back in the day.

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Permalink Reply by ILL GREEN on May 5, 2021 at 9:29am

Thank you for the reference Paul!!

Very nice.  I make and experiment with all kinds of pickups myself, I know this will be remembered when I come to such situations.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on May 6, 2021 at 7:44am

Your welcome and I hope it helps, just remember to go easy and slow with it as not to damage the coil wires.

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Permalink Reply by Carl Floyd on May 7, 2021 at 11:26am

A forum discussion on the pros & cons of wax vs varnish.

Wax Potting vs Lacquer Potting.... (dimarzioforum.com)

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