Nuuska
Enlightened Member
So, in short, can I just desolder at the back of the pickup, and resolder in the new location?
Correct - that's it.
So, in short, can I just desolder at the back of the pickup, and resolder in the new location?
I think that a major part of that is the pickup casings/enclosure. The black pickup rings are made and styled differently. The bridge is much taller, so when I put it in the neck position I had to lower the pickup until it couldn't be lowered anymore to get the strings to ring. The neck pickup (now moved to the bridge position) was so low I had to raise it as tall as I could because of a substantial difference in volume.
You probably should have left the pick-up rings were they were and just swap the "body" of the pick-up.
So I finally got around to switching those pickup locations. It was a new experience for me and a ton of fun! Thankfully I got it right on my first try. So that was good.
Not sure if it did what I wanted it to do. But it definitely sounds different. The neck and middle positions sound somehow more bassy. But in a different way. Almost more like a jazzy style.
The bridge also seems to have more treble. This, oddly, is what I was trying to get away from.
I think that a major part of that is the pickup casings/enclosure. The black pickup rings are made and styled differently. The bridge is much taller, so when I put it in the neck position I had to lower the pickup until it couldn't be lowered anymore to get the strings to ring. The neck pickup (now moved to the bridge position) was so low I had to raise it as tall as I could because of a substantial difference in volume.
Once I got the pickup heights where it sounds more balanced, I started to play around. I'm going to leave it like this for a little while simply to give my ears time to adjust. But I think I dislike the clean sounds more, but the dirty sounds are nice. Almost sounds like a typical classic rock type sound. It's nice, but not sure if that's what I'm going for. Regardless, a fun learning experience.
SO! in short: successful because the pickups work (moral victory for me). But I'm not sure that I'll keep them there. I do, however, have a few found appreciation for the beauty of my SFV. I've never had the pick guard off for this long. And the continual white finish really is spectacular. Thanks for the help and advice on how to do this. I probably wouldn't have had the courage to dive in on my own. Definitely a good learning experience! And I think I have a new appreciation for the way that Guild originally designed the pickups.
P.S. I just saw GAD's post about a Les Paul that was struggling, and a change in Pots was the fix! If I switch the pickups back, I'll probably get different pots. I have had issues with some buzz and fuzz while using the volumes. I may just get different pots just to try. It's certainly a cheap fix.
The pickups are mounted to the rings, so when you unscrew the four corner screws and lift up the ring the pickup will come with it. Then unscrew the pickup height adjusters to release the p'up from the ring. Make sure the springs on the height adjuster screws don't go flying across the room and down the basement stairs in the process.
-Dave-
Also, store up some profanity for when you go to thread the screws back in through the springs when you're done.
I didn’t measure the height, so I just put it to where it looked right. And looking at it now, it isn’t has much of a difference as I remembered. Originally the heights were substantially different. I needed to do that to get the volume to match. They’re much closer now (with the pickup position switched), which leads me to believe that there is a big difference in the pickups. It came with the neck much lower than the bridge, and I lowered it more. Now that they’re switched they look closer in height.
I’m concerned it is a pot problem. The pots weren’t great to begin with. I needed to clean them right out of the box, but they functioned, which was all I knew to check for. Of course, that was also two years ago and I’ve grown as a player. So I’m possibly noticing problems now that I didn’t before but were possibly always present.
Someone mentioned earlier to be careful with changing pots as some may not fit quite right because it is a semi hollow? How would I know what size to buy?
In general yes, but don't underestimate the work involved! Here's a great picture of our member Jahn who changed the electronics. Top Fin Airline Tubing (as used in aquariums) is a good helper as is dental floss.So it’d be as simple as buying metric sized pots?