Pickup Problem

[classic rock]

My burstbucker pros that I installed awhile ago the neck pickup wire was extremely short. The guy I bought them from just soldered the same kind of wire on the existing wire from the pickup wire. The problem I have with the pickup is that when I first plug the guitar into the amp and start playing it takes like 10 seconds to get sound out of this pickup. Then sometimes when I am in the middle of playing on this pickup the sound will break up or weaken. If a pickup wire is not long enough to make it to the pot to be soldered and you just solder another wire to it to lengthen it is this bad? Can this be causing the problem I have. How hard would it be to just redo the whole entire lead? How much would a pro repair guy charge? One last question am I supposed to use special solder? Ive been using radioshack solder.

[DeanM]

was the extension wire shielded properly? sounds like the connection isnt very solid if the sound is breaking up. it shouldnt matter what solder you use so long as each solder joint is done properly.

to me though that sounds like a bad solution. if i was gonna do it that way id make sure to do it good. that the signal wire is connected solidly and that its properly insulated from the shielding. etc! i installed my pick ups aswel. was fairly easy to do. but at the time i just wanted the standard 3way switch option. was thinkin recently about doin it again with a 5way for more configuration options.

[MKB]

You don't need any special solder or wire to effectively do such a repair or pickup replacement, as long as you don't use acid core or acid flux solder. Also your extension wires could be far longer and not cause any problems. This should be about the simplest pickup repair you can do.

It's possible that you may have problems elsewhere in the guitar. As an example, sometimes volume pots can develop a loose connection between the terminal and resistance element, causing the problem you describe. Here's a few questions:

1) When the guitar pickup isn't working, do you get an increase in hum or just silence? If it hums loudly and you get a very slight amount of signal, it could be a bad ground connection on the added wire. If you don't get any hum, the signal wire may be bad.

2) Can you tap the guitar, move the pickup, or adjust the pot and the signal comes back? That could also point to a specific problem.

If you took this to a repairman, it should be a very inexpensive fix. Might cost you a new set of strings though as they will have to be removed to get to the pickup in most cases.

What type of guitar do you have with the problem?

[classic rock]

I have a Gibson Les Paul.

To answer #1 when I am playing sometimes the signal will weaken and it will get quiet and sound like static break up for an example when a radio station gets static but its only for about 2 seconds. You know when you turn on your amp and if you start playing right away you dont get sound until about 5 seconds. Well thats what happens with the pickup. I can have the amp running for a while playing on my strat switch right to my les on the neck\rhythm pickup and thats what will happen but if I switch to the bridge pickup I get perfect sound immediately.

I know guitar center charges $100 to just install pickups so this might be even more if I take it there. Maybe I should try this local repair shop by me.

[slowpokerhino]

I know guitar center charges $100 to just install pickups so this might be even more if I take it there. Maybe I should try this local repair shop by me.

By all means, support the local shop. GC charges a premium &, from my experiences with them, does half ass work. I had them install new pickups in my Strat a while back & had to go buy a soldering iron and completely start over to fix their mess. I would have made them fix it but they had already had it two weeks past the estimated finish date (3 weeks to install pickups?!). The good news is I now have the knowledge and ability (and confidence) to do it myself and do all my repairs , modifications, maintanance myself & save a ton of money.

[classic rock]

I just want to let you guys know I figured out the problem. The neck pickup wire was not grounded very well to the volume pot. For some reason I had a very hard time getting solder to stick to the Gibson pots. As soon as the solder cools it doesnt adhere very well to the volume pot. Anyays I am happy I did it myself, like you said poker its great when you can fix it yourself.

[DeanM]

was the extension wire shielded properly? sounds like the connection isnt very solid if the sound is breaking up. it shouldnt matter what solder you use so long as each solder joint is done properly.

thats pretty much what i suspected. a bad connection.


did you heat the wire and pot properly? if the solder wasnt catchin very well it was probably not hot enough. when soldering, the joint has to be heated first. and dont actually touch the solder off the iron, let the heat through the joint melt it. the pots are a big chunk of metal compared to say a solder tab or one of the lugs on the pot so it wud absorb alot more heat before getting hot enough.

but anyway thats good ya sorted it out man!! fair play![/quote]

[classic rock]

was the extension wire shielded properly? sounds like the connection isnt very solid if the sound is breaking up. it shouldnt matter what solder you use so long as each solder joint is done properly.

thats pretty much what i suspected. a bad connection.

did you heat the wire and pot properly? if the solder wasnt catchin very well it was probably not hot enough. when soldering, the joint has to be heated first. and dont actually touch the solder off the iron, let the heat through the joint melt it. the pots are a big chunk of metal compared to say a solder tab or one of the lugs on the pot so it wud absorb alot more heat before getting hot enough.

but anyway thats good ya sorted it out man!! fair play!

[/quote]

DeanM, I think you just pointed out something to me that I may be doing wrong. When I was soldering the wire to my Gibson pot to ground it I would just melt the solder and not heat up the actual pot. I was kind of scared to heat up the actual pot (did not want to damage it). But what you are saying is heat up the whole entire pot until the pot is hot enough to melt the solder? I know you are suposed to heat the joint of say for example a pcb board but I am just worried to heat up the whole entire pot.

[Kongels]

You will ruin the pot if you heat it up too much, what wattage iron are you using? Around 40 seems to be best for pots for me. The rule of thumb alot of guys do is if you can count to 3 and it isn't working something else is going on, put down the gun. Too low a wattage and you are gonna slow cook it, too high and you will fry it. Some guys scrape it up as well, use flux or some other trick. If you can put a drop of solder on the pot and then flick it off seconds later it probably isn't going to hold after you put the guitar back together so check it out before you connect the wire. Rambling there, practice makes perfect and I sure ain't perfect but I like messing with stuff so learned a bit doing it. Buy some cheap pots or your old ones to practice with is a good idea as well.

[classic rock]

I think what it comes down to I need a better soldering iron. The one I have is a 20W which was great for modding xbox but I need to get a nice one that you can change the wattage to whatever you want. They are kind of expensive but I think it will be worth it.

[cupidstunts69]

Getting a really expensive soldering iron would probably be overkill considering you already have a 20W one. You should keep your 20W iron for PCBs and smaller joints and buy a higher wattage (40-50W as Kongels said) iron for larger ones. That way you it will cover all of your needs and set you back less dosh.. which you can spend on gear instead :D I have a 20W and a 50W and they cover all my needs.

[DeanM]

DeanM, I think you just pointed out something to me that I may be doing wrong. When I was soldering the wire to my Gibson pot to ground it I would just melt the solder and not heat up the actual pot. I was kind of scared to heat up the actual pot (did not want to damage it). But what you are saying is heat up the whole entire pot until the pot is hot enough to melt the solder? I know you are suposed to heat the joint of say for example a pcb board but I am just worried to heat up the whole entire pot.

glad ta help man!

when i installed my pick-ups i used a 25watt. was just what i had for college. as Kongels said dont heat it too much or you could damage the pot and the whole pot doesn need to be heated just the area you are soldering. the heat will travel thru the whole pot tho so dont overheat either. they can take a little heat tho. i wudn worry as much as say when solderin a PCB. its not like say an IC chip that can be damaged easily with heat. if you dont heat the joint first then you get whats called a 'cold' joint. to be honest if i wer you i wud tink about redoing it. it will prob be fine but just for piece of mind!

[DeanM]

just to be more clear on what i meant....

connect the wire to be soldered where you want it. thru the lug, or in this case to the body of the pot. place the solder iron tip on the wire. let heat for a few seconds. 4r5. this will heat the wire and also the area of the pot it is touching because the heat will travel thru the wire into the pot. then press the solder touching both the wire and the pot....but not the iron. keep the solder pressed firmly until it starts to melt. keep pressing the solder in until the whole joint is covered. then remove solder and soldering iron and let joint cool!!

its kinda hard to explain!! but hope this helps for future reference!! i do electronics in college so iv gotten pretty handy at soldering!!

[slowpokerhino]

just to be more clear on what i meant....

connect the wire to be soldered where you want it. thru the lug, or in this case to the body of the pot. place the solder iron tip on the wire. let heat for a few seconds. 4r5. this will heat the wire and also the area of the pot it is touching because the heat will travel thru the wire into the pot. then press the solder touching both the wire and the pot....but not the iron. keep the solder pressed firmly until it starts to melt. keep pressing the solder in until the whole joint is covered. then remove solder and soldering iron and let joint cool!!

its kinda hard to explain!! but hope this helps for future reference!! i do electronics in college so iv gotten pretty handy at soldering!!

I'm new to soldering and had a really hard time with the pots also. This should help a lot. Thank you. Still would be easier with a third hand though. :lol:

[TonyC]

Many good recommendations here.

I just wanted to add one thing. To avoid cold joints you should look for one specific thing when the solder melts. When you see it 'floats out', kinda looks like it's loosing its surface tension, that's the moment things join together and you should stop heating at that moment.